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Wednesday 30 October 2013

A wander around the essex coastline (part 1 of 3) - Maldon

As mentioned in my previous Urban Wandering blog post, I was planning to spend the following weekend in Essex. Apart from perhaps venturing out to its nearer reaches on the ends of the District and Central tube lines, I can't really say I've ever been to Essex before, so I was very much looking forward to visiting. Following some guidance from a former local, and trying to keep away from the main towns and tourist attractions, we spent the weekend in pleasant coastal towns and villages. I have quite a few pictures to share so will break the post up into three, one for each day of our visit. Parts two and three will cover Mersea and Burnham on Crouch respectively.

Our first stop was Maldon, where after filling ourselves up with an excellent pub lunch overlooking the Blackwater estuary, we set off to explore the town. The weather wasn't great which meant it wasn't ideal for taking photographs, but at least it wasn't raining.

Old (disused?) building on the Blackwater Estuary, Maldon, Essex
Old (disused?) building on the Blackwater Estuary, Maldon, Essex

Now some sort of gym and sports centre, the old sign on the Maldon Iron Works Company Limited building can still be seen.

Old sign on the Maldon Iron Works Company building
Old sign on the Maldon Iron Works Company building

I can never resist walking along any road called Station Road. Often the walk is in vain and there is sometimes little or no evidence that there was ever a railway in the vicinity. Here however, the Maldon East railway station, closed in 1964 and now serving another purpose, is clearly visible. I couldn't see any evidence of the line itself although suspect it must have run close to the Iron Works building in the previous picture.

Maldon East railway station, Essex
Maldon East railway station, Essex

The sun came out briefly while we were wandering around Maldon, and as we headed back to the car park I came across this ghost sign for R.L.ORTH & SONS LTD. An unusual name which took some deciphering as initially I thought the surname was LORTH.

Ghost sign in Maldon, Essex
Ghost sign in Maldon, Essex

Hopefully I'll manage to get the next instalment, Mersea, posted later this week.

    


4 comments:

  1. Great information, I look forward to the other two posts as well.

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  2. R L Orth - http://www.maldonarchive.com/Robert--and--Leslie-Orth---Orth’s-Garage.php

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  3. I grew up in Maldon but I haven't been back there for over twenty years. The railway station was briefly a club of some sorts, I broke in one day to find the glitterball still intact, although many of the tiny mirrors had fallen off.

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  4. The first tall building I always thought was part of the Salt Works (Maldon Sea Salt) but I rarely strayed over that side of the river. The railway line was part of my youth in a big way, I would use it as a thoroughfare before they built the bypass along its route. The great Eddie Kidd jumped the old viaduct which was pretty much the most amazing thing ever when I was a kid.
    Every now and then I have a scoot around Maldon on GoogleEarth to see if my old haunts are still there. They are, the salt preserves them.

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