Maldon


Maldon is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced in the area. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 14,938, and the Maldon built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics, which extends beyond the parish boundary to also take in Heybridge to the north, had a population of 23,380.

History

Early and medieval history

The place-name Maldon is first attested in 913 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it appears as Maeldun. Maldon's name comes from mǣl, meaning 'monument or cross', and dūn meaning 'hill', so translates as 'monument hill'. East Saxons settled the area in the 5th century and the area to the south is still known as the Dengie Peninsula after the Dæningas. It became a significant Saxon port with a hythe or quayside and artisan quarters. Recent scholarship has linked it to Haegelisdun, the site of the death of Edmund the Martyr at the hands of the Great Heathen Army.
Evidence of imported pottery from this period has been found in archaeological digs. From 958 there was a royal mint issuing coins for the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman kings.
It was one of the only two towns in Essex, and King Edward the Elder is thought to have lived here while combating the Danish settlers who had overrun North Essex and parts of East Anglia. A Viking raid was beaten off in 924, but in another raid in 991 the defenders were defeated in the Battle of Maldon and the Vikings received tribute but apparently did not attempt to sack the town. It became the subject of the celebrated Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon". The battle is commemorated by a window in St Mary's Church and by a statue at the end of the Maldon Promenade Walk of the slain Saxon warrior Byrhtnoth.
According to the Domesday Book of 1086, there were 54 households and an estimated 180 townsmen in 1086. The town still had the mint and supplied a warhorse and warship for the king's service in return for its privileges of self-government. The town was awarded a charter by Henry II in 1171, stating the rights of the town as well as defining its borders and detailing its duty to provide a ship for the monarch "when necessary". The town's All Saints' Church, unique in England in having a triangular tower, dates from around this period. While the precise building date is unknown, the church existed by 1180, the date of the foundation of nearby Beeleigh Abbey. A Charter of Richard I of December 1189 confirms "certain grants to Beeleigh Abbey, including the Church of Blessed Peter in Maldon and the Church of All Saints' in the same town". St Mary's Church, on the Hythe Quay has a grade I listed Norman nave from 1130, though evidence exists of an earlier church on the site from at least a hundred years before. The hotel and public house now called The Blue Boar Hotel dates back to the latter half of the 14th century, having been built by the de Veres family headed by the Earl of Oxford and used as an occasional residence supplementary to their main seat, Hedingham Castle. Meanwhile, Maldon Moot Hall dates back to around 1420.

Renaissance and modern eras

There were strong urban traditions, with two members elected to the Commons and three guilds which hosted lavish religious plays until they were suppressed by Puritans in 1576. Then, until 1630, professional actors were invited to perform plays, which were also stopped by Puritans. From 1570 to about 1800 a rival tradition of inviting prominent clergy to visit the town also existed. In 1629 a series of grain riots took place, led by the wife of a local butcher.
In the 17th century Thomas Plume started the Plume Library to house over 8,000 books and pamphlets printed between 1487 and his death in 1704; the collection has been added to at various times since 1704. The Plume Library is to be found at St Peter's Church. Only the original tower survives, the rest of the building having been rebuilt by Thomas Plume to house his library and what was Maldon Grammar School.
In the church of All Saints is a memorial window to George Washington, whose great-great grandfather, Lawrence Washington, is buried here. Unveiled by an American diplomat on 5 July 1928, the window displays Saint Nicholas with the Mayflower, Saint George and Saint Joan of Arc in the centre. At the top are the arms of the Washington family, and the arms of the USA, England, Scotland and Wales. At the bottom are depictions of George Washington, the landing of the Mayflower, the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Statue of Liberty.
Also in Maldon are Maldon Baptist Church in Butt Lane, Maldon Methodist Church in the High Street, and Maldon United Reformed Church on Market Hill. Maldon Mosque is in Church Street.
During World War II, Maldon was featured in the German invasion plan for Britain, Operation Sea Lion. The plan called for the Germans to advance to a line between Maldon and the River Severn after they had landed in the southern coast of England.

Geography and geology

Maldon is on the tidal River Chelmer by the Blackwater Estuary. It is on the A414 east of Chelmsford and north-east of Charing Cross, London, via the A13 road.
Essex is a county built on London Clay, overlain with pockets of gravel deposited by riparian action; the lowest land is made up of river alluvium and salt marsh. At Maldon, the railway cutting provided a reference section for geologists. There are three landslips on the north-facing river cliff of the Blackwater at Maldon. The middle slip is called the West Maldon Landslip, which was caused by repeated rotational slips of the bedrock London Clay, which is trying to reach a stable angle.
Hythe Quay at the confluence of the Chelmer and Blackwater, which flanks the northern edge of the town, was an important port and Cooks Yard remains significant for Thames barges. The River Blackwater, that was diverted into the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, re-emerges into the Blackwater Estuary, through locks at the Heybridge Basin, the stream bed passes down Heybridge Creek. Here it delineates the border between Maldon Town and Heybridge Parish Council.

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering Maldon, at parish, district, and county level: Maldon Town Council, Maldon District Council, and Essex County Council. The town council is based at the Town Hall on Market Hill, which was built in 1998.

Administrative history

Maldon was an ancient borough. Its date of becoming a borough is not known. It had burgesses listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, indicating that it was already a borough by then. Maldon's earliest known municipal charters date from the 12th century; some sources say the first charter was granted in 1171, others say there was an earlier charter of 1155. From 1332 the borough also served as a constituency for parliamentary elections as the Maldon parliamentary borough, electing two members of parliament.
The borough was run by a corporation, also known as the town council or borough council. In 1576 the corporation bought a 15th-century house at 39 High Street and converted it into the Moot Hall, serving as the corporation's meeting place and offices.
The corporation's functions included running the parliamentary elections. In 1768 most of the corporation's members were removed from office following legal action taken by the town's former MP, Bamber Gascoyne, who had lost his seat at the 1763 election. The removed members were not replaced, and so the corporation ceased operating. For the next 42 years the remaining freemen of the borough ran the borough's parliamentary elections, but no corporation existed to exercise local functions. The borough was eventually awarded a new charter in 1810, allowing the corporation to be re-established. The borough covered the combined area of the three parishes of St Mary's, St Peter's and All Saints'. As well as the town itself, the borough boundaries also included extensive parts of the Blackwater Estuary.
The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. The borough was enlarged in 1934 to take in Heybridge to the north of the river, which had formerly been a separate parish, and Osea Island from the parish of Great Totham, alongside several other more minor adjustments to the boundaries with neighbouring parishes. At the same time, the urban parishes within the borough were united into a single parish of Maldon matching the enlarged borough.
The borough of Maldon was abolished in 1974, being replaced by the larger Maldon District which also covers extensive surrounding rural areas. The area of the former borough became unparished as a result of the 1974 reforms. Two new civil parishes were subsequently created in 1987 covering the area of the pre-1974 borough: Heybridge north of the River Blackwater and Maldon to the south of the river. The parish council for Maldon adopted the name Maldon Town Council.
Although now a separate parish again, Heybridge is classed as part of the Maldon built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics.

Transport

Rail

Maldon was previously served by two railway lines. Today, the nearest railway stations to Maldon are Hatfield Peverel, Witham and North Fambridge. Hatfield Peverel is the closest railway station to the north of the town, whilst North Fambridge is closest to southern parts of the town.
Maldon's first railway link was a branch line to Witham opened in 1846. Later, a second line linked Maldon with Woodham Ferrers on the Crouch Valley line between Southminster and Wickford. Whilst Wickford is itself on the line between Shenfield and Southend, a short-lived spur line at Wickford also gave direct access towards Southend.
Edward Arthur Fitch, writing in about 1895, states that from London's Liverpool Street station to Maldon East via Witham there were eight trains on weekdays and three on Sundays and that, via Wickford, there were five trains on weekdays and none on Sundays. The fastest train took 85 minutes via Witham and 82 minutes via Wickford.
Maldon West railway station was opened in 1889 by the Great Eastern Railway. The line between Maldon and South Woodham Ferrers closed to passengers in 1939, the Maldon and Witham line closed in 1966.