please empty your brain below
Should have directly contacted the people at St Mary the Virgin church dg, they are very friendly and accommodating, I arranged a date and they opened it up just for me. Tell them that you want to write a travel piece.

Max Roberts | 05.03.17 - 7:36 a.m. | #

I notice that in the 1980s Greater London was only north of the Thames. That must explain why the Underground is mainly north of it as well.

Nick Parker | 05.03.17 - 7:57 a.m. | #

Easy to remember: Stratford, Ilford, Romford, Brentwood, Wickford, Rochford.

Sprout Eater | 05.03.17 - 8:21 a.m. | #

I'm sure the good people of Ingatestone would rather their village be known for something other than a coach park but nonetheless 'rail replacement village' is a wonderful and spot-on description DG!

I've always felt the place name 'Warley' is out of place in Essex and should be in the West Midlands or somewhere (as indeed it is).

Stephen | 05.03.17 - 8:38 a.m. | #

You even have the accent over the 'e' in cafe - although this is 1980, so this sort of thing mattered then.

Interesting that access by public transport wasn't considered important, just how to get there by car, Thatcher had only been in power for a year, so it illustrates the bias was ingrained before she arrived (and by default passed onto children via the education system).

Still anon | 05.03.17 - 8:52 a.m. | #

Ooh, Brentwood how exciting. I went to Brentwood School in late 70s/ early 80s. I hated it, but to relieve the tedium used to occasionally get up early on a Sunday morning with a friend and walk, often to South Weald country park.

I produced a map very much like dg's for my geography mock 'o' level, much to the surprise of my cynical geography teacher. My map covered the whole London area including the (partly still under construction) M25, but had Tilbury on the wrong side of the motorway. I got an A for the mock (and the real thing).

EVERYBODY thinks you mean Brentford when you mention Brentwood.

Lorenzo | 05.03.17 - 10:37 a.m. | #

Hello dg, thank you so much for the mention, glad to be of help regarding St Mary The Virgin Church. Also may I mention the following.

St. Georges Church, Ongar Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9HR ( walkable from town centre)

Visitors can see an Art Deco Church - the only one in Brentwood - designed by the Brentwood born and educated Laurence King OBE who also designed St Mary le Bow Church , London (after its destruction in the Blitz), the All Souls Chapel, Walsingham, the rebuilding of Walsingham Parish Church and North Weald Church after fires.

Also I would like to mention Kelvedon Hall at Kelvedon Hatch, very rarely open but so so worth it when it just to see the architect designed swimming pool. Beautiful home of the Late Lord Kelvedon, Paul Channon MP.

Lynn | 05.03.17 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Great Warley church is also (usually) open on the annual Heritage/Open House weekend in September (how I visited it).

Gordon | 05.03.17 - 11:10 a.m. | #

Hello George, we found out about Great Warley church too through the Heritage/Open House weekend.

Lynn | 05.03.17 - 11:16 a.m. | #

Is the location of the country park the reason that the place between Epping and Ongar is called "North Weald"?

dg writes: Don't think so. The park's named after the adjacent village of South Weald, and a former manor house on site.

Patrickov | 05.03.17 - 11:20 a.m. | #

Shenfield is well-known in railway terms, but not just because it is going to be part of the Elizabeth line. The original "Shenfield electrification" - which took from 1938 or so to 1949 (the war got in the way) - was pioneering stuff - kind of - and an early stage in a process which is still spluttering on more than 80 years later.

Malcolm | 05.03.17 - 11:30 a.m. | #

Do you have all your Geography GCE books DG?

dg writes: The entire set, 1st Year to 6th Form.

Cornish monkey | 05.03.17 - 11:44 a.m. | #

And I meant to add - what lovely writing and drawing!

Cornish monkey | 05.03.17 - 11:46 a.m. | #

There is a Weald brook too, and a settlement of North Weald nearby. "Weald" because - like the Weald in Kent/Sussex/Hampshire - it was heavily forested.

Andrew | 05.03.17 - 12:26 p.m. | #

You can tell the good writing style, even then.

A | 05.03.17 - 12:28 p.m. | #

My grandparents lived in Brentwood, in a 'chalet bungalow' they had built in the 70s on moving from Romford (having originally lived in West Ham). My sister and I spent a whole summer holidays there the year our parents were messily splitting up. But we never went to the Weald Park. We cycled with the kids next door to Kelvedon Hatch when the bunker was still a secret (I still have the scar on my knee from falling off) and went to Southend where I ate cockles for the first time. I think I was ten or eleven.

Sarah | Homepage | 05.03.17 - 3:24 p.m. | #

I will have to look at that church. It is near somewhere else on my list: it is by the Thatcher's Arms and is called Warley Place Nature Reserve, apparently an overgrown formerly important garden. I was looking for somewhere to take a photo of London high-rises from the distance from, as I can see a good view when driving downhill but nowhere to park.

Margaret | Homepage | 05.03.17 - 6:19 p.m. | #

I haven't been there for a while, but expect it's true that the residents of Priest's Lane are pretty affluent.

I was proud to call one of them a friend though. Martin Allard lived there with his parents before moving to Devon and setting up community radio stations all over the world. As his website explains, he died unexpectedly in 2003.

His original website is now maintained by, and updated with tributes from, his friends.

Bob L-S | 05.03.17 - 7:02 p.m. | #

I studied geography around the same time as DG up to A level. Glaciation was a major part of it, and flying over mountains in Europe with corrie lakes and various moraines clearly visible from the air brings it all back, as did a trip last year to mountains near La Paz in Bolivia. Like all kids I never used it for future work, but it has been fascinating over the years recognising my studies on "field trips" Still got all my stuff, and remember the constant cross references.

scrumpy | 05.03.17 - 8:30 p.m. | #

Even Arthur Mee struggled to find anything rousing to say about Shenfield. The only thing of note seems to be St Mary the Virgin - NOT to be confused with the (much newer) church of the same name in Great Warley. It features a rare wooden arcade. The arches, Mee tells us, "are not old, but the fine columns are 15th century, and each is hewn out of a great oak tree..."

http://www.essexchurches.info/church.aspx?p=Shenfield

Certainly nothing very remarkable but, hey, in Shenfield you have to take what you can get!

Richard M | 05.03.17 - 8:54 p.m. | #

Glad others are mentioning the Brentford, Brentwood issue. I had a Latin teacher at school who insisted the Romans had crossed the Thames at Brentwood.

Robert Butlin | 05.03.17 - 9:03 p.m. | #

Back to the school days Mr DG. I'm still in School and its bugging me that I didn't pick Geography.

| 05.03.17 - 9:29 p.m. | #

This shows what a great school subject Geography is.

Cornish Monkey | 05.03.17 - 10:08 p.m. | #

I blame the pot smoking on the 'Casual Recreation Area' designation. No wonder we lost The Empire.

drD | Homepage | 06.03.17 - 12:30 a.m. | #

The overhead electric supports look clumsy - not moved on much since the 1930s. Other countries use much overhead supports that look much lighter.

IsarSteve | 06.03.17 - 10:10 a.m. | #

St M the V's website now says 'It is one of only three in the Art Nouveau style churches in the country'. Maybe the other two have been built since Lynn wrote to you.

Peter CS | 07.03.17 - 5:49 p.m. | #

Shenfield does have a good barbers in the parade of shops and I have stopped off there a few times on my way into London from the Essex east coast.

david s | 24.03.17 - 5:52 p.m. | #











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