More Interesting Facts About Essex
1 Danbury common hosts the largest Adder population in the UK
(Honey, get your stuff. I’m taking you on a picnic)
2 Greensted Church is the oldest wooden church in the world. It was built in 1081 AD
(It's about time they replaced it with something more durable, like concrete)
3 BBC Essex is the most listened to non commercial local radio station in the UK. Highest audience figures are between 06:00 and 12:00 noon Monday to Friday
4 Manningtree near Colchester is the UK’s smallest town
5 Tiptree near Chelmsford is the UK’s largest village
(Perhaps they should just change names with Manningtree)
6 There are more speed cameras per linear mile of road in Essex than anywhere else in the world
7 The mystery of Thomas Richman’s buried treasure has gone unsolved since 1780. It is suppose to be buried somewhere in Essex
(Honey, put that adder down and start digging)
8 Layer Marney tower near Colchester is the tallest Tudor gatehouse in the UK
9 The first crocodile to be brought to the UK was in 1701 by Richard Bradley who kept it in the lake and grounds of his home in Braintree
(Has anyone seen my dog?)
10
In May 1943 in the skies above Hornchurch aerodrome an altitude record
was set for a propeller driven plane. Professor Montague Hill on
secondment from Durham University
was working on a specially modified Spitfire. In order to overcome
engine failure due to oxygen starvation at altitude, Hill concocted a
special gas that was carried in two torpedo shaped tanks attached to the
wings. This gas had a noxious smell and as such the Spitfire was
referred to by the pilot and ground crew as “old farty”. To this day the
exact altitude and gas formula are still classified as Top Secret
(Are you sure it was the engine. If I was going to attempt an altitude record in one of those I think I would make a noxious gas
11 The sunniest place in the UK is Ashingdon village
(Don’t care. I’m still going to Spain)
12 During the witch hunt in the Middle Ages there were more reported witches in Essex than Devon and Cornwall combined
(Ah, nothing changes)
13 The hit song “Billy don’t be a hero” by Paper Lace was written in the lounge bar of The Old Dog Inn Herongate near Brentwood
(May I suggest you spend 2 hours in the bar before listening to it)
14 People living in Essex are 38% more lightly to be hit by falling aeroplane parts than anywhere else in Britain
(Put that turbine down kids, dinners ready)
15 The first ice making machine in the UK was built in Romford in 1871 by James Ernest Lighthouse using the vapour evaporation method(Shortly followed by the Gin and Tonic)
16
Argon gas was discovered in 1894 by Richard Henry Noble of Wickford.
Unfortunately for Noble the discovery was credited to Sir William Ramsay
and John William Strutt (Lord Raleigh). However because of his enormous
contribution Argon along with Helium, Neon, Krypton, Xenon and Radon
are now called the Noble Gases.
17 NASA’s
space shuttle has only ever had one report of theft. That was in 1983
whilst on display atop a Boeing 747 at Stansted Airport Essex. In total
seventeen items of value were stolen along with a further fifty three
items from the Jumbo jet used to carry it. Nobody was ever charged by Essex police in connection with the theft.
(Too busy putting film in their speed cameras)
18 In 1651 Henry Joist, an amateur cartographer from Ilford attempted to measure various distances between Essex
villages. Unfortunately for Joist he failed to calibrate his equipment
first. As a result Joist’s mile was in fact just over a mile and a half.
Using his calculations would have put Clacton about thirty miles into the English Channel. From then on distances that appeared further than imagined were called “an Essex mile” later changed to “a country mile”
