The traditional county flower of Essex is the unspectacular Cowslip, known to locals as the paigle or peggle, and to naturalists as Primula veris. Like Essex, it’s simple, and not stunningly attractive. Continue reading
Highest Point
Essex is well known as a flat county.
Best Essex Sports Personality
England Football captains Frank Lampard and John Terry both come from Essex. Thankfully we can do much better than that.
Best Essex Girl Joke
Really?
Best Essex University
The best University is of course Essex University, based on the outskirts of Colchester near Wivenhoe, with a modern business-focussed offshoot in Southend. It has 7,052 full-time students (5,442 undergraduates) from over 135 different countries.
Best Essex Garden
The warm, dry climate and fertile soil of Essex has inspired many gardens large and small. Continue reading
Best Essex Cricket Team
No doubt at all about the Cricket Kings: Essex County Cricket Club are one of the strongest and most successful teams in the country, and have regularly supplied the England team with key players.
Best Essex Beach
Southend and Clacton would both claim to have the most popular beach, and Walton on the Naze would claim to have the most exclusive.
Frinton-on-Sea is happy to have a non-commercial beach where families make their own fun, and St Osyth (near Clacton) has the best, and only, nudist beach in the county.
Which is best? I guess the time-warp charm of Frinton wins. Unless you really want to get your kit off, and go for the all-over suntan, in which case it’s got to be St Osyth.
Best Essex Church
Chelmsford Cathedral is certainly the grandest church in Essex, and St Peter’s Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea is the oldest, as it was originally a Roman sea fort, and one of the first churches built when the pagan Saxon king of Essex invited St Cedd to spread Christianity in their kingdom.