Cover of A History of Witham

Contents

Get the whole book as a free PDF.

Contents Page
Map of Witham 4
Acknowledgements 5
Map of Witham’s surroundings 6
Introduction 7
Chapter 1. Early days 8
Anglo Saxons 9
The burh 10
The parish 12
The Knights Templar 14
The new town 15
More changes 16
The Knights Hospitaller 17
Everyday life in the 1400s 17
Chapter 2. Tudor and Stuart Witham 20
Christopher Raven 20
The Dissolution of religious houses 20
Making woollen cloth 21
Puritans 23
The Civil War, 1642-1651 25
The Restoration of Charles II, 1660 25
Everyday life in the 1600s 27
Chapter 3. 1700-1815. ‘A good handsome town’ 29
The best gentry and their mansions 29
The lesser gentry and the military 31
The Pattissons 32
The Clergymen 33
Dissenters 35
Schools 36
Witham Spa and social life 37
The Great Essex Road 39
Cider, clocks and surgeons 42
Rebuilding Witham 45
Manufacturing and farming 46
The poor 48
The French Wars, 1793-1815: the poor 51
The French Wars, 1793-1815: the wars 52
Chapter 4. 1815-1901. ‘A radical place’ or ‘a respectable little town’? 54
The Witham Fires, 1828-1829 55
The poor before 1834 57
The Union Workhouse and the poor after 1834 58
The railway, 1840s 62
The telegraph 65
Tanning, gas and coke, and brushes and drills 65
Farming 68
Peculiars, Congregationalists and the like 70
William Henry Pattisson 72
The Church of England and the Reverend John Bramson 73
Catholics 75
Charity and self-help 76
Chartists and reformers 77
Respectable mid-Victorian life 78
Jacob Howell Pattisson 80
The Empire and foreign parts 81
Water, drains and health 83
New houses and factories 85
Trouble on the farms 88
The Co-op 90
The Victorians’ last word 92
Chapter 5. 1901-1945. Paradise in Cressing Road 93
An eventual start to the century 93
Novelty 94
Pinkham’s glove factory and the liberals 97
Women and ladies 98
Health and houses 102
The First World War, 1914-1918 102
Pinkham’s again 110
Crittall’s window factory 110
The General Strike and the Great Depression 113
Progress 114
More motors 117
The ‘Great Essex road’ again 118
Flight 121
Living and housing 121
Social Witham between the Wars 126
Town Planning 130
War approaches 130
The Second World War, 1939-1945 131
Witham recovers 139
Walk 1. Round the ancient earthworks 140
Walk 2. The village of Chipping Hill 150
Walk 3. The town centre 160
Other places to see 183
Sources of information 186
Index 190