Maldon
Maldon is a must for people who prefer to potter about where there are small boats and peaceful waters, shops rather than hypermarkets and streets as opposed to throughways and flyovers. Maldon's long history too is very evident in the number of older buildings dotted about the town.
The wide reaches of the Blackwater estuary have made Maldon a natural base for yachtsmen, and at least half-a-dozen clubs now flourish in the town. Boat-building has been an important industry at Maldon for many decades, and the local fishing smacks still line-up with their catches at the Marine Parade. From the bridge at the bottom of Market Hall there is a pleasant walk, with riverside views, down to the Quay beside the Queen's Head where several barges are moored. These are the famous Essex sailing barges, old craft with enormous masts and striking red sails, which used to carry coastal trade.
The Queen's Head itself is an intriguing public house being much older than the existing deeds would indicate, these date the building to 1700. Its bars are crammed with photographs, paintings and drawings of everything pertaining to ships and things maritime.
It maintains the air of a museum, although the official museums are the Maritime Museum nearby and the Maldon Museum in the High Street next to the Swan Inn. Also in the High Street, above Market Hill, is the Moot Hall with its porch standing out across the pavement on four pillars. The hall was built about 1440 for Sir Robert D'Arcy, Maldon's member of Parliament; it was purchased by the town in 1576 and employed as the centre of town government until 1974.
The churches in Maldon serve to prove the age and importance of this old port. On the corner of Market Hill and High Street stands the tower of old St Peter's Church, the remainder of the building collapsed in 1665. Against its 15th century tower Dr Thomas Plume, a local celebrity born here in 1630, had a school built from the ruins of the nave, above which was installed a library room. In 1704, Plume bequeathed his precious and extensive library to the town and now visitors can climb the winding stone stairway, enter the library room and step back into the 17th century. All the books are bound in leather, placed on wooden presses or in great wooden chests and the polished floorboards are covered with rush matting - a room that bespeaks quiet contemplation allied with a love of learning. The library remains one of Maldon's hidden treasures.
The 13th century Church of All Saints, with the only triangular church tower in Britain, remains an ancient landmark off the upper High Street. At Street level its walls include statues of famous Maldon men, from Brithnoth the Saxon to Dr Plume.
It is possible to walk along the seawall to the historic site of the Battle of Maldon, where the Danes defeated a Saxon army in AD 991. This is not a battle found in the general history books but was certainly of importance to the local Saxons. The Vikings had sailed up the River Blackwater on a raiding expedition, camping on nearby Northey Island. The local Saxons, for their part should have engaged the raiding party as they crossed to the mainland. Instead, they held back, allowed the Viking raiders to cross the causeway from the island at low tide and thereby lost the advantage and ultimately their lives. However, despite losing the battle, the defenders had fought heroically and their bravery was sung of by minstrels in the Halls of Saxon chieftains for miles around. This song is claimed as one of the first poems in the developing English language.
On a lighter note, the local library, where Plume's school began, recalls the tale of Edward Bright, a local man who weighed more than 42 stone. He died at the age of 29 requiring a coffin 6ft 7ins in length, 3ft 6ins wide and 3ft deep; the burial register of All Souls Church also records the full details.