Essex is my home county and where I spent the first 30 years of my life, apart from the first 2 which were in London. We will be based here for the next couple of months and I will be writing about some of the small towns and villages that make up this county.
Battlesbridge
This little villages straddles the River Crouch and is home to several antique centres. Over 80 dealers are located here. We visited one sunny day a couple of weeks ago and stopped at The Barge Inn for a quick drink. There’s nothing like a countryside pub in England for cosiness!
I was lucky enough to catch the setting sun over the river and this oast house.
Southend Pier
Southend is a fairly large town in Essex and boasts the longest pier in the World! It extends 2.16 kilometres into the Thames Estuary. Even though I lived in Essex for 30 years I have only ever been to then end once. So on a bitterly cold day two weeks ago we ventured out to Southend with the purpose of walking to the end. My friend had mentioned that she had seen a school of seals frolicking earlier that week so I wanted to see these as well. We almost changed our mind when we arrived because of the cold but saw it was fairly busy with a number of walkers promenading along, so not to be fainthearted, we paid our £1 each and off we went.
Not even half way along I looked enviously at the train as it trundled by with all the people well wrapped up inside. We had to stop at a shelter so I could arrange my scarf and hat to get the most from their warmth. We had the intention of walking back as well but my energy levels were completely depleted so we paid the extra to take the train. I definitely made my 10,000 steps that day!
The sun was finally making an appearance but clearly not sending any warmth!
