Contents
Map of Witham		4
Acknowledgements		5
Map of Witham's surroundings		6
Introduction		7
Chapter 1. Early days		8
Anglo Saxons		9
The burh		10
The parish		12
The Knights Templar		14
The new town		15
More changes		16
The Knights Hospitaller		17
Everyday life in the 1400s		17
Chapter 2. Tudor and Stuart Witham		20
Christopher Raven		20
The Dissolution of religious houses		20
Making woollen cloth		21
Puritans		23
The Civil War, 1642-1651		25
The Restoration of Charles II, 1660		25
Everyday life in the 1600s		27
Chapter 3. 1700-1915. 'A good handsome town'		29
The best gentry and their mansions		29
The lesser gentry and the military		31
The Pattissons		32
The Clergymen		33
Dissenters		35
Schools		36
Witham Spa and social life		37
The Great Essex Road		39
Cider, clocks and surgeons		42
Rebuilding Witham		45
Manufacturing and farming		46
The poor		48
The French Wars, 1793-1815: the poor		51
The French Wars, 1793-1815: the wars		52
Chapter 4. 1815-1901. 'A radical place' or 'a respectable little town'?		54
The Witham Fires, 1828-1829		55
The poor before 1834		57
The Union Workhouse and the poor after 1834		58
The railway, 1840s		62
The telegraph		65
Tanning, gas and coke, and brushes and drills		65
Farming		68
Peculiars, Congregationalists and the like		70
William Henry Pattisson		72
The Church of England and the Reverend John Bramston		73
Catholics		75
Charity and self-help		76
Chartists and reformers		77
Respectable mid-Victorian life		78
Jacob Howell Pattisson		80
The Empire and foreign parts		81
Water, drains and health		83
New houses and factories		85
Trouble on the farms		88
The Co-op		90
The Victorians' last word		92
Chapter 5. 1901-1945. Paradise in Cressing Road		93
An eventual start to the century		93
Novelty		94
Pinkham's glove factory and the liberals		97
Women and ladies		98
Health and houses		102
The First World War, 1914-1918		102
Pinkham's again		110
Crittall's window factory		110
The General Strike and the Great Depression		113
Progress		114
More motors		117
The 'Great Essex road' again		118
Flight		121
Living and housing		121
Social Witham between the Wars		126
Town Planning		130
War approaches		130
The Second World War, 1939-1945		131
Witham recovers		139
Walk 1. Round the ancient earthworks		140
Walk 2. The village of Chipping Hill		150
Walk 3. The town centre		160
Other places to see		183
Sources of information		186
Index		190