ISBN: 9780300116144
Essex is one the largest counties of England, stretching from the suburban fringes of East London to the fishing and sailing ports of Harwich and Maldon and the famous seaside resorts of the estuaries of the east coast. Its buildings are appropriately varied, encompassing rich Roman survivals at Colchester, powerful Norman architecture at Castle Hedingham and Waltham Abbey and the remains of major Tudor and Jacobean country houses such as Layer Marney Tower and the prodigious mansion at Audley End. Beside these highlights Essex is first and foremost a county famed for its timber buildings, from the eleventh-century church at Greensted to the early and mighty barns at Cressing Temple, and everywhere visible in the wealth of medieval houses in its scattered villages and the market towns of Saffron Walden and Coggeshall. Later periods have also made their contribution, from Georgian town houses to Victorian and Edwardian industrial and civic buildings, and from important exemplars of early Modern Movement architecture to the planned New Towns of Basildon and Harlow. Such diversity continues into the present with the major monument of High Tech at Stansted Airport.
