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Saturday 20 June 2015

"Upminster is in London not Essex" writes Anon blogger

The Old Chapel, Upminster, Essex
Fifty years ago Upminster was transferred from Essex to the London Borough of Havering.  Administratively the south west of the county is now in London, ruled by elected mayor Boris Johnson.  Since then Southend and Thurrock have become Unitary authorities.  However the Essex Society for Archaeology and History has, since 1852, covered the historic county of Essex and will continue to do so. It's when members talk about Kedington and Bartlow that things get more interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your 1st sentence is correct. Your 2nd sentence is incorrect & contradicts the 1st.
Only the area run by Essex County Council is Essex. Any area not run by ECC, such as Upminster in the London Borough of Havering, cannot be in the county of Essex.
Just change your name if you lot wanna continue working in east London. It's no biggy, you've changed your name before. If you refuse to change it or stick to the actual county you'll lose credibility, in fact you already have. You history buffs should know better this than most, THINGS CHANGE!

Andrew Smith said...

Anon, you need to distinguish between the geographical and historic county from the political arrangements that exist today. The area we define as Essex is that covered by the Kingdom of the East Saxons. Geographically that covers the River Thames to the south, the Rivers Lea and Stort to the west, the River Stour to the north and the North Sea to the east. Barking Abbey, now within a London Borough, has an important part in Essex history. The excavations on the site of the 2012 Olympic Stadium reveal Essex man before Newham was created. Mill Green Ware, Essex medieval pottery, is on display in the Museum of London, and LAMAS wrote about it turning up at wharves all along the River Thames.

As someone who lives about ten miles from the nondescript border of the London Borough of Havering, I know how irrelevant it is for an Essex man to turn on the local - political - BBC London news to hear about what the Mayor of London is doing.

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History is a voluntary organisation and Charity whose members are "led by the love of Essex". We don't need to change our name to accommodate members who live in the five London over the border boroughs. We welcome people worldwide to join our organisation. We are not going to stop working in areas outside the political area of the county.

Anon, We would lose credibility if we ignored anything outside of Essex.

Happy to debate this further with named individuals. Anon, you have had your say