Additional information
Terrain
- Grassy sea wall, field-edge paths and town streets
Landscape
- River estuary, salt marsh, mudflats, arable land and urban development
Dog friendliness
- A big walk for many dogs, with long sections on lead
Parking
- Pay-and-display at Back Lane
Toilets en route
- Back Lane car park
About the walk
Rochford, a small medieval market town, just over 3 miles (4.8km) north of Southend, is worth visiting before or after this walk for its abundance of delightful cottages, many of which are listed buildings. The town centre contains one of the few remaining market town cross patterns in England,... comprising North, South, East and West Streets. In 1257, the lord of the manor, Sir Guy de Rochefort, was granted a charter to hold a weekly market, which still takes place every Tuesday in the square. But there have been horrific, and odd, goings-on in this peaceful town. In 1555 villagers gathered in the square to witness the execution of John Simson, a farm labourer from Great Wigborough. He was burned at the stake because he refused to conform to Roman Catholicism. A plaque on the wall of a bakery shop commemorates his martyrdom. Peculiar experience A few centuries later, in 1837, shoemaker James Banyard had a religious experience which inspired him to form a Christian sect which became known as the Peculiar People. Peculiar to Essex, the sect had its headquarters in Rochford. The group took its name from Deuteronomy, Chapter 14, Verse 2, which proclaims, 'and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself'. Banyard, who took to religion after spending his life as a drunkard, rounded up followers and preached with such fervour that he and his flock were treated with suspicion and hostility. Even more strange were their dress and customs. The men were clean shaven and wore bowler hats, and the women went about their daily business in black bonnets. They rejected orthodox medicine and when one of the sect fell ill, the illness or disease was treated with the laying on of hands, or the affected part or parts would be anointed with oil. Needless to say, not all treatments were successful, and there was often an outcry among local people when children from the sect died. But in 1855, James Banyard's own son became ill and, fearing that he would not live, Banyard summoned the doctor. Such disregard of the rules caused a split in the movement and Banyard was ousted. He was duly replaced, and the centre of operations moved from Rochford to Daws Heath, 5 miles (8km) away. Banyard never regained leadership and presumably went back to shoemaking; he died in 1863. On this walk you may glimpse the ghost of a black-bonneted lady with her black skirts billowing like a sail on the flat open landscapes. She may disappear as soon as you hear the planes roaring above open fields bound for Southend Airport and if you linger long enough, she may re-appear. There are many peculiar happenings in this peculiar little town.
Read more
