Shoebury - An Ancient Essex Habitation

It's easy for the visitor to be confused between Shoebury and Shoeburyness.

Shoeburyness is an administrative district formed from the areas of South and North Shoebury.

The villages of South and North Shoebury, once known as Shoebury Magna and Shoebury Parva and then Great and Little Shoebury respectively, are very ancient habitations of man.
Neanderthals were in Europe from about 400,000 years ago and 'Modern Man from about 40,000 years ago. Gravels in the Essex shoreline have yielded worked flints which are the earliest evidence of humans in the county.
Stone age man hunted mammoth and dug clay pits - perhaps to cook their prey in.
Iron age man smelted metal and built causeways to the islands: one such route being the only way on or off the island of Foulness following the 1953 floods!
These Ancient Britons also fished for cod, herring and flatfish in the North Sea around Shoebury.

After the successful third Roman invasion in 46 A.D. the Romans came to Shoebury where they gathered their much loved oysters, took fish and salt and made bricks from the fine clay.
After the Romans' departure in 410 A.D. the Saxons supplanted the native population and farmed and fished.

All of this is attested to by remains now housed in Southend-on-Sea Museum, Colchester Castle Museum and elsewhere such as Mersea Island.

This county of (then) forests and fens became the Kingdom of the East Saxons - Essex - and was one of the seven great Anglo Saxon kingdoms of the "Heptarchy". The others were Wessex, Kent, East Anglia, Sussex, Mercia and Northumbria.

In 2003 the tomb of an East Saxon, probably a prince of the royal house of the Kings of Essex, was found not far from Prittlewell Priory, the Saxon administrative centre of the area.
The artefacts found were of a quality indicating that the Prittlewell tomb was probably made for one of the Kings of Essex and the discovery of golden foil crosses indicates that the inhabitant was an early Christian. Other objects, such as the Coptic bowl and flagon, appear to point the same way. This suggests that it was either Saebert (died 616 AD) or Sigeberht II the Good (murdered 653 AD), who are the two East Saxon Kings known to have converted to Christianity during this period. It is, however, also possible that the occupant is of some other wealthy and powerful individual whose identity has gone unrecorded.

The Vikings

The Norse word 'viking' means a raider or pirate so the Norsemen who came to Essex were not strictly 'vikings' since they came to conquer and settle, not just to raid.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicles refers to them as 'the force'.

Be that as it may a great 'Danish' army, led by two of the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok (Leather Breeches), Ivar 'The Boneless' and Hubba, terrorised all coastal Europe, travelled far up the rivers Seine and Rhine, are even said to have sacked the Imperial City of Rome and finally headed to Saxon Britain.(See also Vikings)
The 'force' surplanted or killed all the reigning Angle and Saxon kings. Edmund of the East Angles was treated particularly brutally. (See also St. Andrew's page)

The force's attacks on Alfred the Great's kingdom of Wessex, which by this time had effectively absorbed the kingdom of Essex, under various leaders, notably Haesten and Godrum, fill many chapters of history books but eventually, in 893, having been defeated at Chester and Exeter and driven from their base at Benfleet they built a fortification at Shoebury.
The name Shoebury itself may have Norse roots as "the camp on the strand". They are said to have built their ramparts at the base of Shoebury Point or Ness - a Scandinavian word meaning a 'nose' of land - rather like Orford Ness just up the East Coast.
No archaelogical evidence has yet proved this.

One of the local Primary Schools, Hinguar, is named after one of the Viking heroes - Hingvar.
It is said that when he heard of his father's death at the hands of the Saxons, Hingvar left the fortification where Rampart Street now is, sat down in the fens at a spot where Hinguar Street now is and gnored the fingers of one of his hands to the bone in grief.
Of course, since Hingvar can also be translated as Ivar then another possibility is that the name actually comes from one of Lothbrok's sons (see above) but that's such a 'romantic' story and is probably outside the timeline.

The Danes were all driven out - by Alfred the Great's sons and grandsons - first to Mersea Island, just up the coast, then to York.

East Mersea has great similarities to South Shoebury. The Danes pulled their longships up the same type of shallow beaches, built similar earthworks and later the monks of Prittlewell built a church and watchtower - St. Edmund, King and Martyr - on the high ground just North of the Viking encampment.

South Shoebury has an entry in the Little Domesday Book of 1086 under the ancient name of Essoberia.

Medieval to Modern

From the Danes' expulsion until the 1890s the people existed on brickmaking, subsistence farming and fishing (and added a little wrecking and smuggling in as well!).
There were excise houses in the area of Shoebury Bay, on the Ness and at North Shoebury at various times from the 17th century up to the modern day.

The standard bricks from Shoebury seem to have been yellow and grey which is well attested to by the many houses built from them in the locality. There were, of course, plenty of red bricks too.

During all this period the area was known for its fen land and the terrible toll that malaria took of the native inhabitants.
Strange to relate it was the womenfolk who suffered most from malaria. So much so that on several occasions the men of Shoebury had to venture forth into Northern Essex looking for wives to restore their depleted female population.

There are records of a notorious meeting place known as the 'Red Barn' and of an Inn called 'Men Found Out' which was probably situated opposite where the Shoeburyness Hotel stands today.
There are still people in the village who refer to the pub as "The Found Out"!

in 1829 a slipway was built on the Ness to accommodate the Paglesham Customs boat, moved because the there had been no seizures at Paglesham for more than three years. Gradually smuggling inthe area tailed off due to improved Coastguard efficiency. The Shoebury tender 'Onyx' was sold in 1837 (for £93) and then the Coastguard Station at Shoebury was closed in 1844, its men being moved to Leigh-on-Sea. Fortunately for the Revenure Board the buildings were taken over by the Board of Ordnance in 1847.

In 1849 South Shoebury was a remote place consisting of a number of scattered farmhouses, labourers' cottages and fishermen's cottages. There were one or two more substantial houses; South Shoebury Hall, Suttons Manor House and Chapmans etc, and these were mostly leased to local farmers. The Tithe records of 1840 show only half a dozen people owning more than six or seven pieces of land in the parish.

The then Lord of the Manor, Robert Bristow, possessed approximately a third of the Parish and lived in South Shoebury Hall - when he was present in the parish. Close to the Hall was St Andrew's Church, with its Rectory only a few hundred yards away.

The church was visible from both sides of the Ness and had probably been sited in this position in 1100 A.D. to serve as a local watch point on both the North Sea and the Thames Estuary.

Communications were difficult. The road to the village of Great Wakering passed there via Suttons and Cupid's Corner, while the route to Southend ran along what was later to become Elm Road and then through North Shoebury.

The future High Street, which connected the military Station to the 'Main' (Elm) road and which ran past Mr Alp's farm (Friars), was basically a private track, albeit a public right of way, and was gated in three places along its length.

A Garrison Town

In the 1845 British Army came to Shoebury, building permanent barracks in the 1850s

The continuing bad state of Elm Road was to lead a few years later to the building of a separate access road to the barracks, Campfield Road. The Railways followed quickly, bringing Imperial Victorian prosperity.

Some of the establishment had links to General Gordon; then 'Chinese' Gordon and later 'Gordon of Khartoum'. Napoleon III's son, the Prince Imperial, was stationed at Shoebury for a time. He was later killed by Zulus in Natal.

With the army came the (Imperial!) General Post Office, who quite arbitrarily and entirely for their own administrative convenience called the postal area Shoeburyness to coincide with the Army post which was addressed as Shoebury Ness. There was considerable local opposition to this some of which is detailed in Parish Council records and some continuing into the 1900s in letters and articles in the Parish Magazine and in the Southend Standard Recorder.

Since the establishment expanded to include parts of Wakering and Foulness Island the old 'road' from Wakering to Foulness was marked with upside down brooms to show where it was safe to cross at high tide, when it was generally a foot or so under water, and the route became known as the Broomway.

Nevertheless many a soul was swept away to his death trying to cross the mudflats on the flow of the tide and many an entry in the parish records shows the burial of an 'unknown drowned person' including those so badly "eaten by fishes" that they could not be recognised!

Shoeburyness was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it became part of the county borough of Southend-on-Sea.

Gradually the area became half dormitory town and half service industry. Then, in the 1970s the Army marched away and the railway traffic declined leaving Shoebury to return to its subsistence living but with a boom population to support.

The eastern terminus of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (C2C) is at Shoeburyness railway station. The station was served by London Underground trains from 1911 to 1939.
East Beach is the home of a defence boom, built in 1944, to prevent enemy shipping and submarines from accessing the River Thames. The boom replaced an earlier structure boom built slightly to the East. TApproximately one mile still remains stretching out into the Thames Estuary

Today

South Shoebury, with a total population of more than 15,000, retains much of its original 'flavour'. Divided into four main sections - The Village, Cambridge Town, The Painters and The Garrison. Shoebury has two beaches; East Beach and Shoebury Common Beach both of which are designated Blue Flag beaches.

East Beach is a sandy/pebbly beach around a quarter of a mile long between the Pig's Bay MOD site and the former Shoeburyness Artillery barracks. Access to the large pay-and-display car park is via Rampart Terrace.

. East Beach benefits from a large grassy area immediately adjacent to the sands that is suitable for informal sports and family fun.
Shoebury Common Beach is bounded to the Garrison housing estate and continues into Jubilee Beach. Shoebury Common Beach is home to many beach huts located in the promenade and on the sand. Uncle Tom's Cabin provides visitors with the usual seaside refreshments.

A Coast Guard watch tower at the eastern end of the beach keeps watch over the sands and mudflats while listening out for distress calls over the radio.

The use of the old garrison area for housing has regenerated some of the general area but since the estate is still 'walled off' from the centres of population its 'inmates' have not integrated into either The Village or Cambridge Town, the two adjacent sections of the town.

Many of the population 'commute' to Southend-on-Sea, Basildon, Chelmsford and London for work.

Shoeburyness has a delightful mixture of seaside, countryside and town coupled with access to the North of Essex and Suffolk. Constable Country (Flatford Mill) is only an hour and a half's drive away.

Looking across the strand of East Beach to the beach itself and the North Sea

Centres of local government, social services and charitable organisations are sparse in Shoebury itself due to centralisation in the Southend-on-Sea Borough, Unitary Authority.

North Shoebury

A similar area to South Shoebury bordered mostly by farmland rather than by the North Sea.

North Shoebury was originally a rural agricultural centre with a few houses, an excise house and a church.

The earliest mention of 'Revenue Men' in the excise house is from 1760 when a 'Waiter-and-Searcher' was employed at North Shoebury under the command of the Controller at Maldon.
The house later became the North Shoebury Post Office and is now a pleasand public house and restaurant called The Angel.

The demography of North Shoebury, housing schooling, etc. are mostly the same as South Shoebury except for the area of Bishopsteignton which is generally a higher income and expectation area.

North Shoebury's Parish Church is St. Mary the Virgin.

Thorpe Bay

Thorpe Bay is an area created between the wars on agricultural and brick/gravel pit land between Southchurch and Shoebury.
To avoid confusion with the actual coastal area of Shoebury Bay, the name Thorpe Bay was created based on Colonel Burgess' farm near what is now the station - Thorpe or Thorpe Hall Farm.
Most of the farm and gravel pit land was sold leesehold for building land by Colonel Burgess who, as a confirmed teetotaller, insisted that a term of the lease was that no public house could be built on any of the estate land.

Its Parish Church is St. Augustine's.

Great Wakering

Great Wakering is an expanding rural/urban district in the Hundred of Rochford.

Like South Shoebury it is and extremely old area of habitation, it's name coming from the almost exclusively East Saxon method of naming places using a chieftain's name and adding the word "ing" for his 'clan'; in this case meaning the place of Wake's People.

Wakering is the gateway to Foulness Island which historically has had very close links with the village.

The Parish Church is St. Nicholas.