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Review Article of the Month - April 2012
Overview Articles of the Life of Rochford
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Being Aware of History
Our monthly review articles are aimed at raising our awareness of the town that is Rochford. Sometimes in expensive restaurants, shortly after you have sat down, a waiter may bring you a ‘little something with the compliments of the chef’. The little something is to raise your interest in what may follow. This month’s Review, we hope, is rather like that!
Clearing out some old papers recently, we came across the following which is the nearest thing we can find to a treasure map. We reproduce it exactly in the form we found it and leave it to those who are interested in these things (you?) to decipher it and to check its accuracy. Below the map we reproduce a little of the text that came with it. If it can stir your interest in what we have here in Rochford, we have achieved our goal for this month.
Our monthly review articles are aimed at raising our awareness of the town that is Rochford. Sometimes in expensive restaurants, shortly after you have sat down, a waiter may bring you a ‘little something with the compliments of the chef’. The little something is to raise your interest in what may follow. This month’s Review, we hope, is rather like that!
Clearing out some old papers recently, we came across the following which is the nearest thing we can find to a treasure map. We reproduce it exactly in the form we found it and leave it to those who are interested in these things (you?) to decipher it and to check its accuracy. Below the map we reproduce a little of the text that came with it. If it can stir your interest in what we have here in Rochford, we have achieved our goal for this month.
“Rochford seems to have found a new lease of life in the 18th century judging by the number of Georgian buildings to be seen. Some of these are just timber framed cottages but there are a fair number of classical style brick-built Georgian houses, many with particularly attractive door-cases complete with columns and, above them, fanlights of various shapes. There are good examples of both cottages and houses, especially in South Street and West Street.
Just as Georgian houses reflect the age of elegance in which they were built, so the Victorian houses tend to reflect the grandiose tastes of the largest empire the world has ever known. Not that the poorer Victorian cottages reflect much grandiloquence, though timber frames have been replaced by brick and a modicum of ornamentation. But Rochford has a few larger Victorian buildings almost side by side with classical Georgian, and you can see clearly the different attitudes their architects had. Look particularly in West Street.”
Notes:
1. For detail of ‘The Old House’ in South Street, go to our pages on that building that we added some while ago by CLICKING HERE.
2. For those who wish to pursue these things further you may be interested in contacting either of the following two organisations via our pages:
Just as Georgian houses reflect the age of elegance in which they were built, so the Victorian houses tend to reflect the grandiose tastes of the largest empire the world has ever known. Not that the poorer Victorian cottages reflect much grandiloquence, though timber frames have been replaced by brick and a modicum of ornamentation. But Rochford has a few larger Victorian buildings almost side by side with classical Georgian, and you can see clearly the different attitudes their architects had. Look particularly in West Street.”
Notes:
1. For detail of ‘The Old House’ in South Street, go to our pages on that building that we added some while ago by CLICKING HERE.
2. For those who wish to pursue these things further you may be interested in contacting either of the following two organisations via our pages:
3. We regret we do not know the originator of the map and writing above but will gladly acknowledge authorship if any one can tell us. We would also very willingly insert additional historical articles if anyone wishes to submit them to us. (Use the e-
