Southend History |
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In 1892, the Corporation was granted Arms consisting of a crest depicting a three-masted ship above a shield showing the church of St. Mary the Virgin, a well at Prittlewell, the Pier, and the emblem of the county of Essex. The motto was Forti nihil difficile ("To the brave nothing is difficult"). |
The Crest, placed above the shield, is all in red, and represents a ship's mast coming out of a mural crown, and flying an early English flag, containing the Cross of St. George, England's Patron Saint. A "mural crown" is a coronet made of masonry to represent the walls of a City, and is an honourable distinction, associated with Crests of several Cities and Towns. |
The motto - Per Mare Per Ecclesiam - "By the Sea and by the Church" - recognises that the importance and growth of the County Borough are due to these two great influences. The Livery colours of Southend-on-Sea are Blue and Silver. The Arms and Crest were granted by Letters Patent dated 1st January, 5 George V, 1915. The supporters were granted by Letters Patent dated 2nd January, 5 George V, 1915. |
Early History Back to Top |
Although the town is of comparatively modern growth, its roots are deeply embedded in the past. The Doomsday Book, compiled by William I in 1086 contains references to the dry and sunny region of south-east England, and to the parishes of Prittlewell, Leigh, Shoeburyness and Eastwood, which now comprise the area upon which this town is built. This area has been peopled from remote times. Ten thousand years ago families of the Stone Age lived in mud and thatch huts beside the Prittle Brook, the fresh water stream which has had such a great influence on life in Prittlewell, and from which the name Prittlewell is derived. At first they were hunters, as their ancestors had been, but as centuries passed, through the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age, they lived a more settled existence. They knew how to weave cloth and make pottery. They made clearings in the extensive woodland; they kept cattle, sheep and pigs in enclosures and planted cereals. They became farmers. There were also successive occupations by Celts, Romans, Saxons and Danes. |
Claudius invaded Britain with his Roman legions in 43 AD. No Roman army was garrisoned here, but a Roman style villa or farmhouse was built - beside the Prittle brook near where it turns east towards the north in the area we now know as Priory park. It seems likely that the location was chosen because the Romans discovered that a fresh water spring rose to near the surface at that point of the brook. The arrival of the Roman way of life was probably a great culture shock to the people of Prittlewell. The villa needed workers from the local population to run the farmstead, and paid work at that. |
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The villa possessed high quality pottery and glass from the continent, perfumed oils and items of dress and jewellery the like of which the locals had never seen before. It was the policy of the Romans to work with the local population wherever possible and to introduce new skills, new products and new ideas. The remains of clay roof tiles found in the area suggest that the craft of brick and tile making may have been introduced here. There are certainly deposits of clay suitable for brick making even today. A change in the lives of Prittlewell people occurred in the early part of the 4th century when, under Emperor Constantine, Christianity was introduced into Britain as the state religion. |
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There was no sudden conversion to Christianity in Prittlewell, but perhaps an early indication of the new faith was marked by a simple cross, placed in a clearing at the top of Prittlewell hill; a meeting place to hear the word of the Lord. |
The top of the hill was also a good look-out point, for during the period of Roman occupation Saxon raiders mounted ever increasing attacks on the settlements along the Essex coastline. And after the Roman army was withdrawn from Britain, the way was open for Saxons to occupy the land. Farmsteads were taken over, cultivated land was seized, and new settlements were set up. |
The pagan Saxons settled in this area from A.D. 500 to A.D. 650, and the Saxon way of life was established in large parts of Britain, and in Prittlewell. It was the Saxons who first introduced the place names "Essex" - the land of the East Saxons, and "Prittlewell" (originally Pritteuuella) the Saxon name for a stream or spring, for the Saxons regarded certain springs as 'holy'. Whether the cross on Prittlewell Hill or a small chapel survived during the early occupation by the Saxons is doubtful since the Saxons were pagan. |
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There is evidence that the settlement along the Prittle brook gradually spread up the hill (to where St. Mary's church now stands) and the layout of the developing village established there for all time. Most of the trade in Saxon times seems to have been mainly on a local basis. Woven cloth and the surplus products of livestock and agriculture, leatherwork, pottery and iron tools sold or exchanged for other household essentials - the beginning of market trading in Prittlewell. |
Around about A.D. 607, Mellitus was sent from Rome to bring Christianity back to the land of the East Saxons. He converted King Sebert of Essex and slowly Christianity returned to Prittlewell. Perhaps the church on the hill was restored at this time and even enlarged and improved with stone walls and a sturdy construction typical of Saxon building. All this came to naught when King Sebert died and his sons, who never gave up the pagan way of life, ruled this part of the land. Some forty years later, in the 650s Cedd, who later became Bishop of the East Saxons, arrived and Christianity was restored - changing fortunes for the people of Prittlewell and the church on the hill. |
In A.D. 894, King Alfred's men defeated the Danes at the "Battle of Benfleet", driving them across the site of modern Southend to Shoeburyness, where they entrenched and formed a settlement. In this area many battles against the Danish sea marauders and pirates took place, Essex having been one of the chief centres of the fighting, and was constantly invaded by Danes, Vikings and Norsemen. Little seems to have disrupted the peaceful way of life through the centuries. |
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Anglo-Saxon Prittlewell thrived for several centuries, although the East coast of Britain suffered attacks by Danes and Vikings, which increased in frequency and intensity until, from about A.D. 990, large battle fleets from Denmark brought great destruction to villages and settlements in Essex. The people of Essex were driven ever further westward, their place taken by Danish raiders and farmer-settlers who followed closely behind. Almost nothing is known of the fate of Prittlewell during this time, except that great battles with the Danes raged all around - at Benfleet, at Ashingdon and Shoebury, all only a few miles away. Indeed it could be that the Danes were unaware of the existence of Prittlewell at that time. It was situated in woodland which concealed dwellings from the low lying land all around and Prittlewell hill was an excellent lookout point to see approaching raiders giving time to secrete livestock, and even the villagers, deep in the woodlands until danger had passed. |
Fortunes changed again following the invasion of William, Duke of Normandy in 1066. Late on during the Danish occupation, a very wealthy man called Fitzsweyne (also known as Robert d'Essex), acquired considerable land holdings in Essex, including Prittlewell. His name is important in the history of this place because it seems he changed his allegiance to the Norman King William and even managed to increase the number of rural estates he held. It was the beginning of a new order based on the ownership of land - the Feudal System. As a major land-holder, Fitzsweyne and his successors had a big influence on life in Prittlewell. This was the era of the manor house with farms and extensive lands, cottages for servants of the manor and a few small-holdings held by tenants. At the time of the completion of the Doomsday Survey in 1086 there were 27 servants of Prittlewell manor and presumably some of them had families. |
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So the village was quite small and mainly set around the church on the hill, which was also mentioned in the Survey. During the reign of Henry I, Fitzsweyne, the Lord of the Manor, gave the church at Prittlewell, plus some thirty acres of land it possessed, together with the chapels at Sutton and Eastwood, to the Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras of Lewes. The reason for this generous gift was for the maintenance of a priory soon to be established at Prittlewell. This was between the years 1110 and 1120, and at about the same time, extensive improvements and alterations were carried out to the church. As the centuries passed and the priory gained in importance so the village grew to service both the manor and the priory. |
From the 1300s to the end of the 1400s great changes occurred which affected not only Prittlewell but the whole of Britain. In the year 1361, the second outbreak of the Black Death (the first being in 1350 in Scotland) killed one in three persons in most English communities. This ultimately led to a great shortage of labour, and the lords of the manors had to increase wages two or three fold to keep sufficient labour to work the farms. In 1381, men of Prittlewell were involved in the Peasants' Revolt, and by the1400s the feudal system in England had come to an end. Life expectancy at this time had dropped to 38 years; ten years less than in 1300. |
On 25th January 1533, Henry VIII secretly married wife number two, Anne Boleyn. She was crowned as Queen on 1st June, and on 17th September gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth, to become Queen Elizabeth I. On 19th May 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed; Henry married his third wife, Jane Seymour, eleven days later, on 30th May. |
Reminders of the Tudor Age in the church are the carved stone font which commemorates Henry's accession to the throne and his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and a fine carved oak door, both still in use today. |
But the calm and relative prosperity of the Tudor age was not to last. For many years in parts of Europe, there had been calls for reform of the teachings of the Catholic church, and Henry's break with Rome in 1534 furthered the aims of the Reformation in England. The Priory at Prittlewell was closed down and its land and possessions taken by the Crown. This could have been very bad news for the poor and the sick of the parish because the priory had provided relief to those in need and had contributed in many other ways to the well-being of Prittlewell. However, in the few years before its dissolution in 1536, the Priory's influence in village affairs had declined and some of its former responsibilities had been taken over by members of the parish community. |
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Some of its former responsibilities had been taken over by members of the parish community. A Jesus Guild was formed in Prittlewell in 1468, some thirty years after similar guilds were established elsewhere. The Guild took care of relief of the poor, repair and improvement of the fabric of the church, maintenance of the highways and many other aspects of village life, all financed by a few well-to-do local residents. A Jesus Priest was appointed and a Jesus Chapel established in the church. Apart from saying the daily offices, the Jesus Priest was also responsible for the education of the children of the parish. The Jesus Guild was the beginning of local government in Prittlewell, where at that time the residents numbered about 300. The first permanent school, the Guildhouse School, Prittlewell, was founded in 1477 by the Jesus Guild to educate boys of poor parents, and survived until the 17th century. |
After nearly a hundred years of existence, the Jesus Guild was suppressed as a further effect of the Reformation and many of its assets and valuables seized. Later, in 1552, Commissioners of King Edward VI visited the church at Prittlewell to make an inventory of the church's possessions. Fortunately, probably remembering the fate of the jewels held by the Jesus Guild, the churchwardens had the foresight to sell much of the church plate 'to make essential repairs to the church' before they, too, were confiscated by the Crown. |
The Prittle Brook is a stream that begins between Hadleigh and Thundersley, and passes though Daws Heath. It flows through the West Wood, the Great Wood, and Belfairs, and for about 2 miles through a built up area of Leigh, Westcliff and Prittlewell, and into the ponds in Priory Park, before continuing to the River Roach. The Southend Corporation maintained a pleasant pathway alongside its approach to the town. In 1939, sluice gates were fitted at intervals between Leigh and Prittlewell to dam the Brook. This created an emergency water supply of over a million gallons during the Second World War. The actual Prittlewell appears to be the spring which fed the smaller and most easterly of the two fishponds in Priory Park. |
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Although by now most of the affairs of the village were run by the local 'council', life was not all that easy. In 1573 the village blacksmith was charged with setting himself up as a musician without having been apprenticed to the trade. A tailor was prosecuted for setting up as a grocer and two collar makers charged for setting up as saddlers. In 1641, Edward Evered, described as a yeoman of Prittlewell, was charged with obtaining a number of chickens, eggs and a quantity of butter with the intention of re-selling them. Enterprise was not to be encouraged. Also in the 1600s several men of Prittlewell were charged with not scouring the ditches outside their properties to prevent flooding. |
In 1620, Barnaby Barker was accused of laying offal in the road beside the tannery he owned to the annoyance of the public and also, presumably, to the detriment of the Prittle brook which passes under the road just here, and to the village well which also became a nuisance and was eventually covered in. |
Sometime around the year 1700, a fisherman named Outing, discovering by accident the value of the foreshore at Southchurch as a feeding-ground for oysters, took a lease of part of the foreshore and began the successful business of oyster cultivation. The business made a great deal of money and Outing could soon afford to build a house near the shore. Others soon followed his example, and by 1724 practically the whole of the foreshore from Shoebury to Hadleigh, so far as the ground was suitable, was devoted to oyster cultivation. It was this industry which brought into being the small village of South End (The name South End was first recorded in 1481 in the will of William Skott), an industry which flourished during the 18th century and continued until the second half of the 19th century. At its peak, 70% of the world's oyster consumption came from the rivers and flats of this part of the country. |
The village, somewhat isolated from the new town, retained its individuality and its customs. There is some evidence that weekly markets and an annual fair were held in Prittlewell from the middle of the thirteenth century. Certainly from the early 1600s to the middle of the 19th century the annual fair at Prittlewell was said to be one of the great events in the parish year. At the time of the fair some of the dwellings around the church became temporary boarding houses, or 'Pad and Cans' as they were known - patrons were given a pad to sleep on and a can in which to boil water, and very little else. There were also at some time nine alehouses in the village. Too many, it was thought, by the parish council. |
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In 1727, the village parishioners, headed by the Vicar, the Rev. T. Case, persuaded Daniel Scratton, then owner of the Priory and Prittlewell manor, to set up a Church of England school with John Coles and his wife as teachers. A school was erected on some acres of land he owned near the bridge in North Street, known as Glynds, a garden near the pathway leading from Prittlewell Priory towards Prittlewell Church, and a small parcel of garden known as Mill Croft, part of which was occupied by the headmaster. In addition to the paying pupils, Scratton paid for 10 - and after 1739, 16 children were to have free instruction in reading, writing and religion. |
This was the Church of England in East Street, which still exists, and although no longer used as a school, it is currently an adult education facility. |
Around 1747, "Bridge House" was built opposite Priory Park, and was an appendage to a tanyard (In the latter half of the 19th century, it belonged to a Drapers Company). |
In 1758, what was known as Southend comprised Thames Farm and Arthur's Land, so named after its owner. The latter property was rated in one assessment and is said to have included the site now occupied by the Ship Hotel, Old Brewery, Pleasant Row and Marine Parade. Old Southend was bounded by Southchurch on the east, Porter's Estate on the North, and the high ridge of land on the west subsequently to be crowned by Royal Terrace and Hotel. |
By the middle of the 18th century the custom of visiting the coast for sea-bathing was becoming fashionable, and South End had been attracting a few visitors for a number of years, and the building of Pleasant Row in 1767 suggests that events were encouraging some effort towards improvement or development. in 1768 the first proposals were put forward to make Southend a bathing resort. |
In 1780 the village had nineteen houses. By 1785 the popularity of South End had increased to such an extent that it was proposed to build "a most elegant hotel", the cost of it to be raised by subscription. In 1787 an Act was passed for paving, lighting and otherwise improving the town. In 1790, Prittlewell's lord of the manor and chief landowner, Daniel Scratton, let 35½ acres of land at the top of the Cliffs for the construction of a new 'watering place'. An eight-acre grove of ash trees (on the site of Grove Terrace) was felled. |
The rise of the town as a health resort dates from about 1794, when it became a fashionable place for sea-bathing (This was a development of the earlier spa-treatment; sea-water being used for drinking purposes as medicinal waters were taken at inland spas). The fact that sea bathing was only possible at certain times of the day, and was dependant on the state of the tide, and the fact that visitors to Margate and Brighton had covered baths, led to consideration of the same provision for South End. |
From Gentleman's Magazine, 1794: "...From the shore ariseth a bold declivity mantled with evergreens...various walks intersect with each other...thro' shades where seats are placed secure from the sun's heat...Should the impending cloud, apparently teeming with rain, deter those delighting in rural walks from taking their diurnal exercise even though defended by an umbrella, the day may not be lost; for the romantic library, the elegant card, assembly and coffee rooms all combine against the ennui of a summer afternoon's gloom." |
Southend had achieved a regular postal service, and by 1794 there was a delivery from London four times a week, and in 1812, a daily delivery. |
By 1800 Prittlewell village consisted of property adjacent to the church. In East Street, houses and shops stood for a distance of about half-way between the Blue Boar and Sutton Road. There were few houses at the eastern end of West Street (West Road), and in North Street (Victoria Avenue) property extended nearly as far as Earls Hall. To reach Old South End by road the route was by Sutton Road and the lane by Thames Farm; this lane followed the line of the present Old Southend Road and reached the shore in the vicinity of the Kursaal. The different interests of the new town of Southend and the old village of Prittlewell, due to their social and business life and aspirations, became more pronounced with the passing of the years. |
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In 1801, Princess Charlotte of Wales, when she was five years old (and then second in line to the throne), was sent to South End by her medical advisers for sea-bathing. She stayed at Southchurch Lawn, and Mrs. Glasscock, with her smart new bathing machines, was put in charge of the duckings of the Royal child. The Rev. Thomas Archer, curate of Southchurch and Shoebury, had the care of her spirit. It was this visit that gave South End the standing in court and society circles that it had been lacking. South End could now boast of Royal patronage. Two years after the visit of Princess Charlotte, her mother, Caroline, Princess of Wales, visited Southend. |
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Perhaps because she was impressed by what it had done for her little daughter's health, perhaps because it was the newest fad among resorts, or perhaps indeed because Captain Manby's frigate Africane, found it convenient to put in there. |
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Royal support had helped the development of Brighton and Weymouth, so the visit of the Princess set a vogue for the resort. During her stay she occupied two houses on the terrace - and to this visit Royal Terrace and the Royal Hotel were named. In many respects, Southend was a distinct and separate community (having fifty-one houses by 1802), and the contrast between the two places could hardly have been greater. 1829 saw action forced on the town if it was to survive the competition as a resort, and in 1830 the first section of the Pier was constructed. It is worth noting that the promising young author of Vivian Grey, Benjamin Disraeli, referred to Southend in 1833 as "a row of houses called a town". |
| St. John the Baptist Church was the first Parish Church of the town of Southend-on-Sea. In 1832 a meeting was called at the Royal Hotel to discuss the need for a Chapel to serve the growing town. Ten years later the Bishop of London consecrated the building. The Entrance to the Church, known as a narthex, was originally approached from Royal Terrance and the High Street along a gravelled drive between grass verges and great holly hedges. Much of this land was lost with the construction of the Palace Hotel (originally the Hotel Metropole) in 1904. The narthex is much later that the original building of 1842 - it was added as part of the major extension scheme which was completed in 1912. The Churchyard was used for burials between 1870 and 1898, after which burials were allowed only in reserved spaces. |
Southend had remained within the jurisdiction of the parish of Prittlewell for around fifty years, but in 1842, on the creation of the separate parish of St. John the Baptist, it attained a measure of independence. The coming of the railway opened up the real potential for Southend in 1854, and development began - schools were built, the water and Gas Works were constructed, and the Cliff Town estate had been started. Three new hotels were built: the Middleton, the Army and Navy, and the Minerva. Following the development of the Cliff Town estate, the building of residential property proceeded on the Porters Town and Park estates. |
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The fashion for seaside holidays increased, and the roads and road services were improved to meet the demands. Up until then, it appears that little had been done to increase the number of visitors or to improve the accommodation for them, but a scheme was launched for the town to render Southend a convenient place for bathing. City workers and others in increasing numbers took up residence in the town, which was by now more accessible also to summer visitors, and impetus was given to its expansion and commercial life. Estates were developed, and Old and New Southend became a single unit from which has grown modern Southend-on-Sea. |
The building of the Ship Hotel at that time may have been a part of this scheme, as it would have provided paying guests with better accomodation than the cottages could offer. |
However, with other seaside resorts like Margate and Brighton offering social entertainment, Southend had to develop to attract more visitors. The fact that it was only half the distance for Londoners to travel to Southend than to Margate, was not enough on its own to encourage them to come in any great numbers. So on the higher land above the Cliffs, which until then had been an area of woodland waste, arose New South End. The site had enormous virtues - not least the sea views. The principle business of the resort and the daily life of its inhabitants were centred in Old South End, as distinct from the brief summer activity of the fashionable quarter at the top of the hill. A guide-book was produced in 1824, emphasising its healthiness, and promoting the town as a quietly respectable watering place, and this attracted a new, lower-middle class visitor. |
In 1848 Punch made some jokes about the sleepiness of Southend, and said that it was "well worth seeing - with a microscope." |
The town was agitated by the 1850s by the activities of a sect founded by an ex-poacher called James Banyard of Rochford, who preached that there is no sin in Christians; preached too of the laying of hands and faith-healing. But when in a moment of doubt he brought a doctor to his dying daughter, his followers, who were extremely numerous, broke off from him and formed another sect. They called themselves Peculiar People, because they are God's peculiar choice. Their preaching caused considerable excitement in South Essex. |
St John's School, which was built on a site near the present Castle Hotel, opened in 1855. |
Although the Gas Light & Coke Company was formed in London in 1810, Southend did not get a supply of gas until 1855, the Southend Gas Light & Coke Company having been formed in the previous year. At first, apart from the railway station, only old Southend received a supply. Messrs. Peto, Betts & Co. tried to merge the gas company with their firm, threatening in 1861 to build their own gas works to supply New Southend. Finally they gave in, laying the company's mains and taking its supply in New Southend at an agreed price. The L.N.E.R. took a supply in 1889, and in the following year it was made available in Prittlewell. |
Luker's Brewery was built just off High Street in the late 1860s, having moved from their original site in Brewery Road (now Southchurch Avenue). |
During the reign of George IV Southend maintained its position among the smaller watering places, but still showed no real signs of competing with Brighton, Margate or even Tunbridge Wells. It still continued as the Old and New or Lower and Upper towns, although together they did not cover any great area. There were sailings to and from London and coaches in and out of Southend on a regular basis, and the attraction of visiting this 'retired watering place' steadily gained popularity. Alexandra Street became completely built up in 1860-72. In 1869 the Scratton estates were offered for sale. The first part consisted of the area between Mews Road (behind Royal Terrace) and the railway. At that time Alexandra Road was newly made, and York Street was the only road on the east side of High Street. The second part of the sale included the area north of the railway bounded by Scratton Road, High Street, London Road and Avenue Road, in which was the cricket field situated between Avenue Road and Park Road. The third part was of the Priory and Milton Hall estates; the priory buildings were not sold by auction, but were later disposed of by private treaty. The Hamlet Mill was in good working order and stood at the south end of Avenue Road, north-west of the railway bridge there. On the sale of the estates, Mr. Scratton placed the Shrubbery in the hands of trustees, who proposed to make such regulations as would be necessary for the security of good order and proper conduct, and ask every householder for ten shillings a year for upkeep (the Shrubbery passed into the ownership of the Corporation in 1918). |
The first of the town's waterworks were in Milton Road,
and was run by a private company founded in 1865. The water pumping station served a population of 1,700 residents in Cliff Town, and daily pumped out 1,600 gallons of water, about one gallon per person. A reservoir was later constructed in Cambridge Road. In 1871, the waterworks was taken over by the Southend Water Works Company Ltd. |
Cliff Town Congragational Church was erected in Nelson Street in 1866 at a cost of £3,000, with a tower containing an illuminated clock. The Reverend Alfred Spencer Richardson of 4, Runwell Terrace, was its first vicar in 1866. |
The Catholic Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and St. Helen Empress was erected in Milton Road in 1868 at a cost of more than £2,000. It consisted of a chancel, nave, and three side chapels with a bell turret containing a bell. Adjoining the church was an orphanage. |
The West Cliffs were until now (1873) mostly exposed soil and sand. As Southend expanded westwards, Westcliff was developed as a new residential seaside resort. The Cliff Town Estates Syndicate started planting trees and shrubs, many of which were donated by residents. Development of the area between the railway and the seafront quickly followed, mainly with new houses and visitor accommodation over the next twenty years. |
Also in 1893, Southend had its first issue of "The Southend Standard" on 16th May. During its earliest years the Standard published national and international as well as local news, and although it declared it had no political affiliations, it did subscribe editorially to the Conservative viewpoint. |
The Southend Fire Brigade was founded in 1875, but it didn't get a permanent headquarters until the Central Fire Station in Tyler's Avenue was built in 1901. The Brigade also opened a branch at Westcliff, near the Cricketers Inn, and in 1909 had two steam-powered tenders and pumps. Despite few demands on the Brigade, it was decided in 1912 to introduce an all-night watch of one man at the Central Fire Station owing to the growth of the town. |
Trinity Church, built in London Road, was the first Reformed Episcopal Church in the United Kingdom. The foundation stone was laid on 3rd December 1877. |
Around 1880-5, houses and shops began to spread along the foreshore at Southchurch Beach. Although there was a windmill in Park Road as late as 1880-90, the many old windmills of the district had disappeared. |
The "Southend Observer" newspaper produced its first issue on July 2nd, 1880, from its premises in Alexandra Street. It was published every Wednesday through 'Essex Weekly News Series Ltd' (They also published a newspaper on Fridays called "The Essex Weekly News"). In 1884, Essex was shaken by an earthquake which was felt in Southend, but caused little damage. |
The firm of H. Garon Ltd - owners of food shops, restaurants, a hotel, bakery, cinema, etc, came into existence with the opening of a shop at 64 High Street in 1885 (This was soon followed by other shops, and in 1890 the first of Garon's ten cafe's and restaurants was opened). H. Garon's Head Officer was at Ernsbrake House, Victoria Circus. |
The streets between the railway station and Alexandra Street, ie, Clarence Street, Weston Road, and Clarence Road, were completed in 1887. In that same year Prittlewell was described as "An ancient and agreeable village, consisting of two streets and right angles to one another". |
All Saints Church, on the corner of Sutton Road and Southchurch Road, was built in the early Gothic style in two main stages between 1886 and 1888 in the early Gothic style using local red brick with stone window surrounds and steeply pitched clay tiled roofs. The architect, James Brooks, was one of the most eminent Victorian church architects of the time, and had been in practice since 1851. The foundation stone was laid in 1886 and the building was completed in 1888. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Colchester on 18th June 1889. The vicarage, vestries and chapel adjoining the north east side were built in 1924-5 to designs by Sir Charles Nicholson, another nationally eminent church architect (who had also designed St. Alban's Church in Westcliff, and St. Michael's Church in Leigh). The font is reputed to be 13th Century. Over the west door, which is the main entrance, there is a gallery which houses the organ, built by Walker and Son and erected in 1947. |
1888 saw disaster as heavy rains caused the sea walls to collapse and the L.M.S. Railway was closed for several days, due to the track ballast being swept away. |
In 1882, the Local Board was superseded by a Municipal Corporation and Southend became a Borough, its area comprising the whole of the old parish of Prittlewell, with Thomas Dowsett elected as its first Mayor. |
The Church of St. Paul, Westcliff-on-Sea (or St. Paul, Southend-on-Sea) originated in 1892 as an iron building on the corner of Summercourt Road (later Salisbury Avenue) and Eastwick Road. The iron church was later replaced by a permanent brick structure in 1903/04. The church's leader from 1892, the Reverend Alfred Waller, died on 9th November 1917, aged 62, and his ashes were interred under a memorial outside the church. (In 1922 St Paul's, believed to have previously been linked to the Free Church of England joined the Church of England. The building was conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and on 23rd September 1922 it was consecrated by the Bishop of Chelmsford) |
In 1897, another tremendous flood occurred at Southend, Leigh, and other places on the Thames side. Practically the whole of Marine and Southchurch parades and intervening roadways, etc., were submerged to a depth of several feet. The school children from the National School having to be rowed home. The railway between Leigh and Benfleet was flooded, and the service temporarily suspended. The town, which then had a population of 12,333 at the previous year's census, was divided into three wards, with six councellors for each. In 1897 Southchurch was included in the Borough. The late R. A. Jones established his jewellery business - later R. A. Jones & Sons, Ltd. - in the High Street in 1890. |
In 1898, Westcliff became a separate ecclesiastical parish, with St. Alban’s being the parish church, and this was followed by a burst of church-building as the population swelled: St. Saviour and St. Paul’s in Westcliff, and St. Michael’s in Chalkwell. Indeed, in the early years of the 20th century, there were proposals to rename Westcliff ‘Kensington-on-Sea’. |
In 1889 a new road was opened between the church and the "Blue Boar" public house, giving easier access to London. The shopping centre was shifted from Nelson Street to the still tree-lined High Street. |
In 1892 the Local Board was superseded by a municipal corporation and Southend became a Borough, its area comprising the whole of the old parish of Prittlewell (A proposal in 1907 to change its name to Thamesmouth met with little favour; Southend was Southend to all and sundry, too deeply ingrained as a placename associated with pleasure to be changed). |
In 1894, Southend had the notoriety of a murder, trial and execution. James Reed, a London Clerk, had killed a pregnant girl and disappeared to Mitcham to live with another. He met his death with curious composure. “Button my coat,” he said to the executioner before accepting his ministration. |
The Old Pump which was erected by the parish in 1814 in North Street (now Victoria Avenue) just outside the grounds of St. Mary's Church was capped off after it was discovered that the water had become contaminated. During the 1897 Typhoid epidemic, many victims of the disease were laid to rest in the churchyard; buried in sacking rather than coffins. As the bodies decomposed, the effluent found its way into the water supply. The remains of a later pump can still be seen near the park gates. |
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The statue of Queen Victoria, a monumental work by Mr. Joseph William Swynnerton (1848-1910), of the great monarch which created quite a sensation in art circles, was presented by Mayor Bernard Wiltshire Tolhurst, to the town to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee in 1897. It was originally situated at the top of Pier Hill, in 1962 it was moved to its present position in Clifftown Parade. Residents joked that in her original position she pointed to the gent's toilets! |
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A Baptist Church was known to have been in East Street, Prittlewell in 1901, and had chapel cottages. The site was redeveloped in the 1960s and is now covered by Prittlewell Mews. |
In 1902, the Ruskin Estate, off Sutton Road, was the first Municipal Housing Estate to be established, and comprised 140 houses at a cost of just under £15,000. |
The Central Library was built in 1905-6, the cost being met by the American steel millionaire, Andrew Carnegie. |