Southend History
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Sanitation          Back to Top
The Cliff Town Estate was developed at about the same time as the railway line was constructed by the great contracting firm of Brassey, Peto, Betts and Co. The roads were wide, and the rows of houses were built upon a regular plan which is superior to many estate plans subsequently adopted in the Borough for extensive building operations. Some years later, the locality to the north of Southchurch Road, known as Porter’s Town, was built. This was followed rapidly by the Park Estate (from Princes Street to Milton Road) and Alexandra Street (1869-72).
Clifftown Road & Nelson Terrace
This was an effort on behalf of the Brasseys to make a high-class suburban retreat of the Hamlet (Milton Road to Hamlet Court Road); the building restrictions applying being severe.
In the early 1870s, Warrior Square was laid out, and in 1879 commencement was made of a direct road to Prittlewell; the first portion only extending, however, to the present approach of the G. E. Railway station (It was a further ten years before the road reached Prittlewell).
Early in the 1880s some building went on along Southchurch Beach, and in 1887, York Road and adjacent streets were laid out and rapidly built upon. The vacant portions of High Street were filled up, and Clarence Street and Weston Road came into being; the Local Board also completing the new road to Prittlewell, known as Victoria Avenue, under powers conferred by a special Act.
Land lying immediately to the west of the L.T. & S.R. station, called the Magdala Estate, was quickly utilised, and then the extensive acreage stretching eastward from All Saint’s Church came into the hands of the builder.
The district now known as Westcliff was a very profitable and popular speculation, and with the laying-out of the Chalkwell Hall Estate, early in the present Century, the town was linked with the Seaview Estate, which had been developed at the extreme western limit, and so the Borough of Southend stretches in one long line of buildings to the neighbouring parish of Leigh.
Houses were also rapidly erected along Southchurch Road and adjoining thoroughfares, and quite recently a scheme was formed to convert the spot known as Thorpe Hall Bay, at the eastern end of Southchurch, into a high-class residential resort.
The agitation which preceded the establishment of the Local Board of Health in 1866 was chiefly caused by the sanitary needs of the town. The Cliff Town Estate was drained, but the rest of Southend had no system of sewerage, save that the refuse was carried by pipes to the foreshore and there discharged by means of numerous outfalls.
The need for proper sewerage was a subject constantly bought to the notice of the Local Board. Complaints about the lack of drainage for High Street and Marine Parade were frequent, and Mr. C. Woosnam essayed in February 1867, to pass a resolution for the construction of “a sewer to convey the drainage from beyond the Middleton Hotel, including York Street and along High Street to the foot of the Hill (Royal), and thence along the beach, or in the high road, gathering up all the outfalls from the houses as far as Hay’s Corner, and conveying the outlet to such a distance on the foreshore as shall be found necessary for the abatement of the nuisance arising from a number of outfalls.” Owing to opposition the resolution was withdrawn. Outside agitation grew, and shortly included residents in Royal Terrace. Towards the close of 1868 Mr. Woosnam tried once more, but was beaten by the casting cote of the chairman, in favour of “full enquiry into the dry earth system.”
Early in 1870 Mr. Woosnam made a third attempt with a short motion, “That the providing of sewerage for the town be at once considered by the Board,” and this time succeeded. Interest cannot survive a history of the discussion, agitation, and opposition which went on or had to be surmounted, and it will be sufficient to state that in 1870 the Marine Parade (East) sewer was put down, with an outfall 125 yards from the shore, and a sewer in High Street (instead of going along the valley lying immediately to the east, as the engineer proposed) with an outlet into the Swatch, later known as the “Pier outfall system,” so called to distinguish it from other outfalls.
The main work of the Southend Local Board may be divided under three headings – Health, the Cliffs, and the Pier. In a health resort the question of sanitation is always uppermost. The early years of the Local Board cannot, however, be associated with much activity in this respect, and their attitude may, perhaps, be best expressed in a resolution which they passed in 1873: “Resolved that as the Board considers the duties of the office (medical officer) will be practically a sinecure, except as to the annual report and except in case of an epidemic (an event which the Board considers unprecedented and improbable).
In 1872 the prevalence of “Summer Diarrhoea” was noted, and two years later anxiety was caused by cases of fever. A further period of two years elapsed, and then the Local Government Board wrote to the urban authority respecting some deaths from diarrhoea which occurred during that summer.
The Hamlet Valley sewer outfall was constructed in 1879, also with an outlet into the Swatch, at a point about 2,000 feet from the shore.

It was reported in The Southend Standard of 9th May 1880 that Dr. Phillips called attention to the necessity of ventilating the Cliff Town sewer, which should be done at every 50 yards or less; the present ventilation was not sufficient.
The surveyor said the system of ventilating by openings in the road was following in most towns throughout the United Kingdom, and this was effectual.
Mr. Dowsett proposed that every owner be compelled to ventilate their own drains, and carry a shaft up to the roof of the house. He had done this with his own property, and adopted the same plan with others.
Mr. Heygate said the Board had little conception of the nuisance of these ventilators carried up to the roof. He was one of the first to try this experiment, and when the wind was a certain way the nuisance was intolerable, therefore the Board would be doing something very wrong to compel owners to put ventilating shafts up their houses.
Mr. Tabor gave notice that at the special meeting he should move that road ventilators be put in; but it was finally resolved to defer the subject until after the special meeting.

The High Street sewer was continued up Queen’s Road in order to drain the Park Estate, and in 1881 Porter’s Town and Prittlewell were connected with the “pier outfall system,” causing much subsequent flooding in High Street cellars at periods of heavy storm.
In 1897 typhoid fever appeared, and a year afterwards Dr. Thomas Thorne, a Local Government Board inspector, personally investigated the conditions, but little was achieved as a result of his report; increased ventilation of sewers being the specific. The experiences of 1886 alarmed the medical officer, and he made a special report upon the matter; again referring to it in his annual statement, which was ordered to be printed “after revision by the Medical Officer of Health and the Clerk.”
The town quickly became divided in opinion concerning the health administration of the Board, and one section, led by the Rev. Dr. T. H. Gregg, a Bishop of the Reformed Church of England, who had founded Trinity Church, Southend, demanded more energetic supervision of sanitary matters. Dr. Gregg had the advantage of holding a medical degree of a Scotch University, and being a man of immovable purpose and controversial skill, he quickly joined issue with the Local Board.
He first complained of the state of certain drains, and criticised the sanitary condition of the whole district. The Board decided it was unwise to read his letter in public, as it might be prejudicial to the town’s welfare.
In January 1888, the Bishop renewed the attack, and at a special meeting the Board decided to obtain a report from an expert and to take proceedings against Dr. Gregg. The Ratepayers’ Association also urged enquiry into the state of the town’s drainage. Dr. (now Sir) Shirley Murphy came down, at the request of the Board, and made a report, after consideration of which the health authority agreed that although Dr. Gregg had “rendered himself amenable to the law,” they would not take further proceedings against him, “which might by some be considered vindictive.” Should the Bishop, however, be so ill advised as to repeat the charges, it was recommended that prompt and decisive action be taken. But the Bishop’s work was done, and the effect of his agitation was to introduce into local government circles a real and abiding concern for the sanitary condition of the town.
In July 1889, the surveyor was instructed to examine the drainage, and in October the Medical Officer was ordered to make a full report thereupon.
In 1890 an Isolation Hospital was opened as a result of pressure by the Local Government Board, and Dr. Thresh (County Medical Officer for Health) was called in to report upon the recurrence of typhoid fever and the steps to be taken to deal therewith. Everybody’s attention was concentrated upon drainage and sewerage problems.
Gullies and sewers were copiously flushed and disinfected; house drains were smoke tested and water tested; attention was paid to the ventilation of drains and sewers. It is probable that during the next five years house owners were made to spend £30,000 upon improving the drainage of their properties. The necessity for a better system of sewerage was illustrated in 1891.
Princes Street had been one of the centres of the recent epidemic of typhoid fever. The Board ordered the sewer to be bared in two places, and it was then discovered that at each position the gradients ran at opposite levels.
The Princes Street and Park Street sewers were at once re-laid, with an immediate improvement in the health of the district. Notwithstanding the activity in health administration, a source of anxiety remained in the inability to detect the cause of the repeated outbreaks of typhoid fever.
It was not until 1895, when the Local Board had given place to the Town Council, that the then medical officer (DR. S. C. Waters) directed attention to shell-fish as an agent for the propagation of this fever. His successor (Dr. Nash) confirmed his theory, and as a result of increased attention to the sanitary condition of shell-fish layings, epidemic typhoid fever has ceased, and the sporadic cases are few. Dr. Bruce Lowe, a Local Government Board medical inspector, reporting in 1896, certified to the “abundant evidence of increased efficiency in the sanitary administration of Southend, and promise therefrom of discouragement of preventable disease in the future.”
As the town developed sewer troubles were constant, and after an abortive attempt by Mr. P. Dodd, the surveyor, the late Mr. J. Mansergh, C.E., was asked to suggest a sewerage scheme. His report was submitted to a meeting of the Local Board held in its last months, and ordered to stand adjourned for Town Council decision. His report was adopted by that body, and the Eastern and Western Valley sewerage systems came into work in 1896-7.
A development of the scheme was carried out for Prittlewell in 1902-3. Mr. Mansergh’s plan was to take sewerage to two tanks, either by pumping or gravitation, and store it, for discharge on the best of the ebb tide. It was shortly to be superseded by a system of treatment; all the sewage being collected at a site on the north-eastern boundary of the Borough, there treated, and the effluent discharged by gravitation into the sea. In 1897, its members took up their task with zeal.
Sewerage works were constructed; the local gas undertaking was bought; the water undertaking was inherited from the Rural Council, and several streets were made up.
A great task awaited the Health Committee of the new authority upon its advent in 1892. Much had already been done by the Local Board, but a good deal still remained to be accomplished. In addition to the provision of an outfall system, street sewers remained to be cleansed and ventilated, house drains to be examined and tested, an infectious diseases hospital to be provided, and an over-filled churchyard (St. John Baptist) to be closed after the acquisition of a new cemetery site. Stricter byelaws for the building of houses were passed, and closer supervision ordered of residences in course of erection under powers obtained by the Council in 1895. These made up a great and onerous task, in the carrying out of which little popularity could be secured, but much criticism endured, and the Borough owes to no other body of workers a greater debt of gratitude than to those who have assisted in health administration during the past seventeen years.
It was weary work obtaining assent to Mr. Mansergh’s sewerage system (Eastern Valley). Almost every burgess was a sewerage engineer, and by public meeting and private agitation the Council was sought to be pulled hither and thither.
It was not until 9th August 1894, that the Local Government Board held its enquiry respecting loan sanction, and then thirteen further months passed before consent was given. At once the Town Council ordered that preparation should be made for placing the Western Valley scheme (also Mr. Mansergh’s) before the Local Government Board, and tried to get forward with the sanctioned proposal. The question of sites for storage tank and pumping station brought about further delays, and it was not until December 1895, that the Council were informed and agreed to accept an offer by Messrs. Baxter, Dowsett and Ingram of sites on the Southchurch Hall estate. The temper of the moment may be judged by the fact that something akin to a fight took place at the close of the Council meeting on the evening of acceptance.
Early in 1897 sites were secured for pumping station and storage tank at Westcliff, and during the following year both schemes were got to work. The provision was for the collection of the sewage into two tanks, there to be held until half-an-hour after the tide commenced to ebb, and then to discharge for the space of four hours, by means of an outfall pipe, from an opening half-a-mile east of the pier head.
In 1897, a temporary structure, made of galvanized iron and wood and containing four beds, was removed from the Borough Sanatorium, and after a short time on land leased by the Borough Council in Stoker’s Lane off Sutton Road, had been erected in a seven acre field in Sutton Road which had been purchased by the Borough Council.
This was the Smallpox Hospital, and it now had a permanent site. This hospital was enlarged to eight beds in 1902, and in 1936, the bed compartment was ten. (It closed before the Second World War started and remained unoccupied throughout the war, until it was demolished in 1948. The site was later used for the Crematorium, which opened in 1953.)
'Oysters and Disease' - Click here to read the letter from Mr. A. Clough Waters, Medical Officer of Health for the Borough of Southend-on-Sea, which was published in The British Medical Journal on 29th September 1898.
In the middle of June 1899, it was further resolved, owing to further growth of population in the North Ward along the slopes of the Prittlewell Valley, to collect and pump the sewage of that area for discharge into the sea at the same outfall.
This work was carried out in 1902, and subsequently, by great sewer extensions along the western front, Leigh Road, West Road, etc., the Borough has been sufficiently sewered. Leigh, in 1901, at an expenditure of £18,072, constructed sewerage treatment works, thereby helping towards the improvement of the foreshore. Thus matters stood until the disastrous Hobart action in 1907; the judgment in effect fining Southend £1,500 damages with about £8,000 costs, and holding that the byelaw of the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee, prohibiting the deposit or discharge of any solid or liquid substance detrimental to sea-fish or sea-fishing, applied to Southend’s outfall works, although it had not been thought to apply by the Board of Trade and the Sea Fisheries Committee when it was sanctioned in the year 1895.

The Borough had once more to embark in the tedious, expensive business of sewage disposal. Mr. Strachan (who acted locally for Mr. Mansergh) was called in and devised a scheme for colleting and conveying all the sewage to a distant part of Southchurch, there separating the grosser elements for burning, the remainder to be discharged into the estuary by a new outfall situate well to the east of the Borough.

At once the Sea Fisheries Committee said that the balance of sewage would, unless treated, be detrimental to sea-fish and sea-fishing. Opposition was also urged by Metropolitan Authorities – in respect of the disposal of whose sewage, both in the neighbourhood of the estuary and higher up the river, much has still to be done – and the House of Lords refused to pass the Bill through Committee stage. In the 1909 Session of parliament the Town Council promoted another Sewerage Bill. Its feature was that by deep water sewers the sewage will be taken to land situated at the north-east of the parish of Prittlewell, there treated, and a purified effluent discharged into the estuary. This project by the Borough Engineer (Mr. Elford) was as generally supported as its immediate predecessor was opposed.
St. Mary's Church          Back to Top
This ancient parish church is built in a commanding position at the north end of Victoria Avenue. It is referred to in the Doomsday Book as the Church of the Manor and then it held, in its own right, 30 acres of another property given to it by two landowners.
The church is built of Kentish rag stone with a perpendicular embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock with two dials and a peal of ten bells from 1603 (the tenor weighing 18½ cwt).
In the early 7th Century, a Christian Church had been built on the site of the present chancel of St. Mary's, and that a portion of that early church remains in the Saxon doorway and the surrounding north wall. In the 11th century the present Norman Nave was erected; the walls of which are 3ft 6in thick.
Towards the end of the 12th century the south wall was perforated in order to allow the construction of a narrow pro­cessional aisle, down which the procession would pass on its way from the Chancel and return by way of the centre aisle. Thus along the south of the nave was built a series of arches with massive octagonal columns, of which only three arches remain, forming the fine Transition-Norman arcade which divides the centre from the south aisle of the present Church at the west end. The Norman windows of the Norman Nave were preserved in these arches and form an essential part of the evidence necessary for a true historical survey of the building. Re-construction work on the Tower was completed in about 1470 - serving for several centuries as a sea-mark.
In the fifteenth century the Chancel Tower was added along with the Jesus Chapel, South Aisle and Porch.
On 7th May 1478, the Jesus Guild was licensed by King Edward IV. The Jesus Chapel contains a beautiful stained glass window consisting of twelve panels, early sixteenth century, attributed to Albrecht Dürer (A.D. 1471-1528), which was formerly in the Church of St. Ouen, Rouen.
The first mention of bells at St. Mary's was in the inventory taken in 1552 when there were five bells and a Sanctus bell in the tower. A new frame was installed for these bells in 1550. In 1602 Richard Holdfield of Cambridge recast at least three of these bells. John Darbie of Ipswich recast the tenor bell in 1682. The fourth bell of the five fell down in 1772 and was recast at the Whitechapel bell foundry in 1773.
On the installation of the clock by Thwaites and Reed of Clerkenwell in 1800, a clock bell, cast by Thomas Mears was installed. This remains and is now the oldest bell in the tower. A sixth bell was added in 1806, also cast by Thomas Mears. With the exception of this sixth bell, all the old bells were recast by Mears and Stainbank in 1872; the tenor bell had been cracked since 1863 and was not in use.
In 1895 Mears and Stainbank cast two smaller bells to complete the octave and in 1902 John Warner added two further bells to make the present ring of ten bells and recast the 1872 tenor bell. At this time the bells were rehung with completely new fittings in a new composite framework of cast iron frame sides and wooden sills.
There is a memorial window to Sir Arundell Neave Bart, and one in the "Jesus" chapel to the first Bishop of Chelmsford. An oak tablet at the south-west corner of the church contains a list of vicars from the year 1323 to the present day. Two vestries for clergy and choir were built in 1910, at the north-west side of the nave, and the old tower screen re-erected between the chancel and the chapel.
The church has a 16th century octagonal font, a rood loft stairway, and the panels of an old dragon chest (of which there are only two complete specimens in existence).
The oldest register commences 1645. There is a written copy of the "Solemne League and Covenant of England and Scotland taken and subscribed by 153 inhabitants of the parish of Prittlewell, 17th March 1643". Standing close to the church, off West Street, was the Vicarage, which is said to have been built in London sent down in three parts. Its garden and adjoining ground was kept by the Rev. Belli, and then later by his successor, the Rev. Frederick Nolan, who went on to serve as the vicar of St. Mary's for 42 years.
The church organ in its present position was built and dedicated in 1876. It was completely rebuilt in 1915 by William Hill & Son, famous for the organs of York Minster, Birmingham Town Hall and Sydney Town Hall. An addition to the Pedal Organ of 'Trombone sixteen feet' was given in 1925.
The organ is built between the two Chancel arches and, together with the Screen, separates the Chancel from the Jesus Chapel. There are two manuals and pedals of twenty speaking stops and three couplers. Its fine tone is much admired by those who enjoy organ music.
In 1997 a very generous donation made it possible for a major restoration to be carried out by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, and at that time the key action was electrified and a 'mixture' added to the Great Organ.
About that time, Canon Gowing arranged for Toc H (Southend-on-Sea branch) to have use of it as their Chapel.
From the Church School to St. Mary’s Road, along East Street and North Street, the Church was entirely obscured by buildings erected on the Churchyard. The mystery players of the Middle Ages were probably given permission to erect semi-permanent structures to avoid the necessity of erecting tents year by year when they came to perform their plays within the Church, and thus, it is surmised, was gained the right to erect buildings on the Churchyard. During the rebuilding of one of these houses many graves were disturbed and a large quantity of bones removed, showing that at one time this land had been a portion of the consecrated Church­yard. Canon Reay, the Vicar, gave to the Church a part of the site of the Old King’s Head Inn at the north-west corner of the Churchyard, and the Prittlewell Improvement Scheme carried on the endeavour to clear these buildings.
The porch was restored in 1922, the windows being unblocked and stained glass placed therein. The porch contains a holy water stoop, together with a massive south door, and above, the Chapel of St. Michael and St. George.
The Chapel is known as Parvase Chamber, accessed by a somewhat difficult spiral stone stairway. Such rooms are not uncommon, but opinions vary as to the use to which they were put. In this instance there is evidence that there was a large aperture in the wall which divides the room from the church. In about 1930, preparations were advanced to furnish and set apart this room as a Chapel of Remembrance.
A Memorial was erected in the porch in 1922 to the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918, and a list of their names was placed in the porch; the names of the men who fell in the World War of 1939-1945 have since been added.
Click here to see a list of the Vicars of Saint Mary's Prittlewell from 1293 onwards.
In 2010, St. Mary's is to receive a peal of ten new bells (and frames) for the tower. The first four were cast in May, and the remaining six are due to be completed by the end of June.
The Priory and Museum         Back to Top
The Cluniac Priory of St. Mary of Prittlewell
Founded in A.D. 1110 by Robert Fitzsweyne, as a cell of the Monastery of Lewes, Sussex, the Priory is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Act, 1913, as a monument of national importance. The Mother Abbey, the Order of Cluny, in Burgundy, dates back from A.D. 910. The precise date of the establishment of the monastery and the installation of the first prior are not known, but as early as 1203 a 'William' is mentioned as prior. The Prior's entrance to the Refectory, a Norman doorway, dates from the latter half of the twelfth century, and to the left is one of the original twelfth-century windows.
Click to enlarge
In the windows are heraldic panels containing the arms of Essex and Southend, and a panel to the founder of the Priory, Robert de Essex. Along the north wall, which dates from 1180, are examples of monastic books and manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
In 1241, the Prior was Simon de Waltham, appointed by Henry III. He was a monk of Lewes. In 1258 Peter was prior, and William de Verge was appointed in 1261. In 1276 the Priory was reported as containing 15 monks.
In 1305 the Prior was directed to prepare against a French invasion, and was awarded protection. This was repeated in 1324 under Edward II, upon renewal of the war with France.
There was a rapid succession of priors about this time. John Saver was appointed in 1363; Ralph Miouns followed in 1368; Richard Ysewode in 1376, and James Wygepole in 1385.
Close to and southwest of the Refectory is another memorial in the form of a public drinking fountain (pictured above). Of grey Cornish granite, it is an obelisk mounted on a squared-off base column on a two-tier plinth, having a total height of about 8 ft. There are four half-cup troughs with a scallop design at waist level and two plain troughs at plinth level for dogs. Although, in common with virtually all such devices, the fountain has not provided refreshment for many years, it was removed, cleaned, renovated and re-installed about 1992.
Prittlewell, being a cell of Lewes Abbey, was ordered that the priory shall render to the priory of Lewes yearly and in every year after on the feast of St. Pancras one mark of silver as a "token".
In 1518 Prittlewell challenged the right of Lewes to the contribution and there was great commotion at the time.
The photo below, right is the Model of the Monastery which is displayed in the Refectory. The model was built by Arthur Wright, who was once Curator of the Priory Museum.
Upon its suppression as a religious house by King Henry VIII in 1536, Prittlewell Priory was acquired by Thomas Audley, elder brother of Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor, for sum of £40. While much was demolished following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, the magnificent Refectory (the dining room) has survived, although much restored, together with the Prior's Chamber and cellars below and the Cloisters.
The site of the church and chapter house are marked out on adjacent lawns. The photo on the right shows the model built by Arthur Wright, who was once Curator of the Priory Museum, of the Monastery which is displayed in the Refectory.
Click to enlarge
Some ten years later he transferred the property to Lord Richard Rich. Richard bought up a large number of previously monastic properties in the area. He and his descendants held many other manors in Rochford Hundred, including Milton, Southchurch, Temple Sutton, Leigh, Eastwood, Rochford, South Shoebury, Hadleigh and Hockley.
In the late 17th century the Priory was brought from the descendants of Sir Richard Rich by the family of Daniel Scratton. Daniel, a prominent figure in the Southend District, was Master of the South Essex Hunt, keeping his hounds at the Priory until 1869 when purpose built kennels were built at Billericay.
Despite the Priory passing through several further hands, the Scrattons regained it, and remained owners and Lords of the Manor of Priors until 1917 when Prittlewell Priory was bought by a local businessman, Robert Arthur Jones. He presented it to the town for use as a museum, along with a large part of Priory Park.
While still owned by Squire Scratton, the wardens patrolled the park on horseback. One of the more frequent problems they had to deal with was the theft (or attempted theft) of Swan eggs.
After considerable restoration costing £7,500, the Priory opened as Southend's first dedicated Museum on 15th May, 1922, at the centre of the beautiful Priory Park. The Museum contained the Rayleigh Mount collection, the Benton collection, and the Wright collection of Stone Age implements; The Christopher Parsons collection of birds (1820-1880) and the Hoy collection (1797-1939), which was presented by the late Major W. Valentine Weber, D.L., in 1924. There was a natural history room, which contained a good collection of local birds and small fauna. A delightful room for the amateur ornithologist, for there was really nothing so helpful in any study as having the object of it dead and quiet before your eyes for as long as you liked.
Prittlewell Priory is now scheduled by the Government as a monument of National importance.

The museum also housed a major "communications" display, centred around the products of the EKCO (E.K. Cole) factory which used to stand in Priory Crescent, just to the north of the Priory. There were also major displays on the wildlife of south east Essex, and on the history of the Priory, including items found during excavations on the monastic site. But the most important artefacts are the buildings themselves, and especially the roofs. Among the most important items on display were a series of paintings; one of these, by Stephen Pearse, is of Daniel Robert Scratton in the grounds of the Priory, and is dated 1870. The other paintings comprise a series of four large murals by Alan Sorrel, presented to the town from the 1930s.
The Priory Museum (July 2007)
Parks & Gardens        Back to Top
Southend is renowned for its wonderful parks and gardens and particularly for its superb floral displays. All the parks and gardens are continually maintained and nurtured by horticultural professionals whose expertise is underlined by regular wins over many years at Chelsea Flower Show and in the Anglia in Bloom competition.
Southend Park (Southend's First Park)
Southend Park covered almost six acres of meadow land (once known as the Milton Hall Gravel Pits, and now covered by Milton Road, London Road, St. Vincents Road and Park Road (where the entrance was) and was bordered on four sides by Park Road, Park Terrace, Park Crescent and Avenue Road. It was privately owned by Builder & Contractor William I. Steward, who charged a 6d entrance fee, and advertised it as the 'Only Public Park in Essex'.
It was already well established by the 1860s with Cricket and Croquet being played there in the summer and Football and Rugby during the winter months. There was a cricket pavilion opposite the Cricketer's Pub.
In 1875 the park had a seven foot wide cinder track used for trotting and for racing penny farthing bicycles, and other facilities included a large lake where model yachts and steam boats were sailed. A natural spring fed a fishing lake, supporting carp and tench, etc. The park was lit at night by oil lamps (there being no electricity supply).
There was an area to the south-east where wealthy young ladies - carefully chaperoned (as was the custom in those days) - would come in their carriages and park while "suitable" gentlemen on horseback would parade. Cards would be exchanged so references could be sought. All very proper. The price of £1 per carriage, and 15/- (75p) for a man on horseback, was a prohibitive amount except for the very wealthy.
In the freezing winter of 1880/81, the lake froze over sufficiently to permit ice skating. The park had fallen into disrepair and was subject to vandalism by the 1880s. The times of gentility were disappearing, and with the population explosion of Southend, the price for land for building was rising.
These houses were built on the site of the Park Road entrance to the park.

Many fêtes and galas were held in Southend Park, including the annual Grand Agricultural Gala, with fireworks and cycle races and other spectaculars including one advertising a ‘monster balloon.’

In 1881, after the Southend Corporation refused the offer of purchase, Mr. Steward sold the land privately.
The football and cricket fixtures transferred to the Marine Park. A short time after the sale of the park the building of a housing estate was started. The new housing eventually merged in with the existing Park Estate. Today the names of the streets give the few clues to where this once premier park used to be.
Priory Park
The Prittlewell Priory and the surrounding thirty acres of Parkland were given to the town for a Museum and Public Park for perpetual public use in 1917 by the greatest beneficiary to Southend, Robert Arthur Jones.
Due to the First World War, the opening was delayed, and the Park was officially opened by ceremony carried out by H.R.H. the Duke of York, (later King George VI), on 14th July, 1920. The land east of the Park was later presented to the town by the Southend Estates Co., Ltd., and the Park was extended to its present area of about 45 acres.
Priory Park pond and its swans c1923
R. A. Jones's act of giving the park to the town was not without protest or problems. Squatters had moved in and in order to bolster their claim on the grounds, built a small dwelling. This brick building still exists, and houses the toilets behind the café.
The Park is wonderfully landscaped, and has the famous "Old World Garden", which has recently been overhauled, and the newer but equally delightful "Centenary Gardens", as well as a huge pond with 'Duck Island' in the middle.
There are extensive areas for tennis, football, and Bowling Greens. The park is renowned for its superb floral displays, and is a popular venue for events so there’s often something different going on - including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Concert.
In May 2008, work began in clearing the large rockery opposite the café for the temporary siting of the Bandstand that had been in storage since being removed from the Cliffs. The first concert took place in front of a huge audience on 20th July 2008 with The Southend Band, who opened their programme with Thus Spake Zarathustra after the dedication by Mayor Horrigan.
Marine Park
Later to house the Kursaal area, the Marine Park was opened in 1873 along with gardens and walkways. It had, in its time, cricket and football pitches, and a trotting track. Even after the Kursaal was built, a football pitch existed in the north-east area of the grounds and it was home to Southend United for a time, the entrance being from the bottom of Park Lane from 1914-1934. When the football pitch was removed in 1934, the way was open for the introduction of the Kursaal's largest ride - the Cyclone Rollercoaster - coming directly from the Brussels exhibition.
Churchill Gardens
Churchill Gardens is a quite secluded ornamental garden that was transformed from the deeply excavated former brickworks sandpit in 1950.

After being acquired and renovated by the Borough Council and opened to the public on 4th May 1966 by Sir John Ruggles-Brise, Lord Lieutenant of Essex.
It runs alongside Victoria Avenue from the Blue Boar end, and covers three acres. Mostly secluded, it is very nicely landscaped on two levels with a pond, a stream and waterfall.
As with all the parks and gardens, it is nurtured and continually maintained by horticultural professionals whose expertise is underlined by regular wins over many years at Chelsea Flower Show and in the Anglia in Bloom competition.

The gardens were named Churchill Gardens to commemorate Sir Winston Churchill who died in 1965.
Prittlewell Square
Prittlewell Square is Southend’s oldest surviving public park. It was laid out between 1855 and 1861 as part of the Clifftown Estate development. The formal central pond and fountain were installed in the 1920s. It is surrounded by flowerbeds and lawns, providing a colourful and relaxing retreat. It covers around one acre, and is a very pretty and popular background for wedding photographs to be taken.
This elegant garden was created for the residents of Clifftown together with an area of market gardens (now the bowling green). Clifftown was built in several "classes" of property, depending on the extent of the sea view.
The first class houses were those on the cliff top facing the sea – Clifton Terrace and Clifton Parade. The Second Class houses were those at an angle to the sea; those further back were the third class houses, and Cambridge Road, and the northern side of the estate were the fourth class. The only shops in Clifftown at the time were those in Nelson Street.
Southend Cliffs
On 29th April 1869, the last Lord of the Manor, Daniel Scratton, sold his estate in sixty-seven lots consisting of the area between the shrubbery and the railway in Southend. The sale took three hours to complete, due to questions being asked about the rights to the road in front of Royal Terrace. It was purchased for housing by the firm of Brassey, Betts & Co.
There was concern at the time of the need to preserve the Shrubbery and allow general access to the residents of the town. In the 1824 town guide, it was reported that: 'Unfortunately this pleasant little enclosure, which, with a little attention, might be made an ornament and an object of attention, in a great measure, not only to the houses on the Terrace, but to the town itself, has been allowed, in a great measure, to fall into decay, and now deserves more the name of a wilderness then any other appellation; but it is still an agreeable spot, and it is hoped the increasing fame of this sea bathing place will soon induce those who have it in their power to turn the great natural advantages of the Shrubbery to more account.’
From an article in The Southend Standard of 9th January 1880, Mr. Brassey had offered the Local Board £500 to take over the Cliffs and Esplanade, but the offer was turned down. Application had been made by the Marine Palace Company to take over the Cliffs.
Mr. Thomas Dowsett, replying for the Board, proposed that if there was any foundation that the Marine Palace Company would take the Cliffs, he thought they had better have them, as they would do far more with them than the Board could. Mr. Garon seconded the motion.

The dispute was eventually settled by the setting up of a body of trustees to administer the care and upkeep of the Shrubbery. The residents of Royal Terrace were requested to pay ten shillings per year for its maintenance and allowed free private access. Entrance to the Shrubbery was by ticket only, the public being charged a daily rate of three pence or an annual subscription of fifteen shillings with a weekly rate of two shillings per family or one shilling singly.

In 1918 Southend Corporation acquired the Shrubbery and opened it to the general public free of charge, preserving one of Southend’s finest areas of coastline for future generations to enjoy.
Rising to a gentle height of about 50 feet above the shore, the Cliffs are renowned for their flower beds and pathways providing leisurely walks throughout its 23 acres with views across the Thames. The Bandstand, first erected in 1908, offered programmes of concerts, and the Cliff Lift (installed in 1902) provided a gentle ride to the bottom. The Shrubbery in 2009.

The Cliffs suffered severely after a major landslip in 2003, and much of it has been closed to the public since then as a safety measure. The Cliff Lift was also in need of updating to meet with European standards having been re-classified as a cable car. Work began on this in 2009, and it was re-opened in May 2010 by Mayor Holland.
Jones' Memorial Recreation Ground
Jones' Memorial Recreation Ground is situated off Sutton Road at the junction of Eastern Avenue, it covers 15 acres, divided into two parts for boys and girls of local schools respectively. In the centre is a fully equipped pavilion and all appliances for various sports games are provided.
The park was presented to the town by R.A. Jones in 1913 in memory of his wife, and a stone monument bears the inscription: To the memory of R. A. Jones M.B.E., the Children's Friend. Erected by the children of the Elementary School of the County Borough of Southend-on-Sea MCMXXVII.
Victory Sports Ground
The Victory Sports Ground, bordered by Sutton Road, Eastern Avenue and Enismore Gardens, is diagonally opposite the Jones' Memorial Recreation Ground. The Corporation erected a pavilion (which was completely renovated in 2008), and during the summer six cricket pitches are available and winter pitches for football. It was purchased and given to the Corporation in 1921 by the late R. A. Jones "In grateful memory of the sportsmen of the County Borough of Southend-on-Sea who gave their all for Britain in the Great War". The ground has handsome iron entrance gates off the Sutton Road.
During the early years of the Second World War, six Nisson Huts were erected in the park to billet soldiers, and soldiers were also billeted in the houses or rooms in houses in the surrounding roads.
Youth Commemoration Ground
Covering 10½ acres, this ex-British Legion War Memorial Ground in Eastern Avenue was presented to the Borough in March 1954 by Mr. E. Cecil Jones, the son of R.A. Jones. It was for the service of youth between 15 and 20 and commemorates not only those who made the supreme sacrifice in the 1939-45 War, but also all those who served.
High Street         Back to Top
The road leading from the Royal Hotel to the lower part of Southend was formerly nothing more than a transverse line down a slope of the cliff. It was then very steep and not more than breadth enough for a single cart.
There was a gate in the middle of the road and the land on each side had fallen away so much that there was only room for the single vehicle. “White Gate” (Victoria Circus), which gave its name at one time to the northern end of the high street, now transferred to a road on the east side of that thoroughfare, was apparently coined at the time when the builders of the Terrace obtained access to their estate from the main road leading from Leigh to Southchurch.
Major Scratton, the owner of Milton Hall (Nazareth House), let off a large field to the persons who took the lease.
c1870 Looking up the High Street, past the thatched cottage (at the junction of Cliff Town Road); the chimney of Luker's Brewery, now the site of the new College.
There was then no other means of communication to the field except through another field, and before he granted a right along a portion of that field he insisted upon a railing being put on one side and a gate on the other, so that it might be considered private property. The road that went from the beach up to the top of the Cliff was Major Scratton’s private property and nobody else had a right to it. A footpath, however, formerly went along it the whole way. Major Scratton, covenanted by his lease to grant the lessees up above a right of way down the hill, and was then bound to find not only a road, but a good road.

In 1871, when the High Street north of the railway was still known as Whitegate Road, the Middleton Hotel and Luker's Brewery were built, and in 1887, property had been erected along new roads made on both sides of High Street. The building was still in progress both along Southchurch Road and the beach east of Southend. Southend High Street became the new focus for retailing during the Edwardian period. The first major store, 'Garons', opened in 1885 other new shops quickly followed.

"Cobweb Corner" (where the network of overhead power lines for the trolleybuses converged), or "Vic Circus", as most locals recall it, was the crossroads where the High Street, Victoria Avenue, London Road and Southchurch Road met. Policemen controlled the traffic from the centre island of the junction. There was a busy Bus Station next to the Victoria rail station. The Hotel Victoria was a majestic building that dominated the junction, situated on the corner of the High Street and Southchurch Road.
It opened in 1899, and had 100 rooms, each of which had electric lighting and steam radiators on each floor kept the building warm in winter.
On the opposite corner was Dixon's, a family department store. Above the store, in large letters, "Here is Dixons" was illuminated with sequenced bulbs. At the other end of the High Street, and before the Royal Hotel, was a very small, four-roomed, thatched cottage which was usually let to summer visitors.
July 1968 - Panoramic view of the construction of the Victoria Plaza - the supporting pillars are in place. You can just see the old Eastern National bus garage (now Sainsbury's) at the top right of the photo. (Author's Collection)
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