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My eldery aunt has had to leave her home to go into a care home after 80 + years. We have had to find homes for a house full of memories. Lots has gone to the charity shops but there are a few items we think we could be sold for a little extra money for her. We have over 150 'The Essex Countryside Magazines' all in perfect condition. The starting date being 1952. Could you advise us where would be the best place we could try to sell these. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Claire

Dear Claire,Thanks for getting in contact. I’m afraid I don’t think you will get very much for your magazines as they are not very rare, although they are lovely and a wonderful historical resource. I have seen them in secondhand bookshops for about 10p-40p each. If you have a look on eBay, there are a few Essex Countrysides for sale, again at about 10p each. I would think the best price would be from either a collectors’ fair (these seem to happen quite regularly in local halls around the county), where you could either take your own table if you had other things to sell or just take the magazines along on the day and offer them to a stall holder. Or, perhaps you can find a local history group who could sell them to their members – they often advertise their meetings in local newspapers or the local library. If your aunt had any postcards, the rarer or more interesting ones of those go for £30 or more on eBay. You may like to get in contact with the Essex Record Office (easily found on the web) who might have some additional advice for you.

Good luck.

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Dear Essex History

I have recently taken possession of an old cottage and I would like to research the history of the house and it's immediate surroundings, especially when it was used as an inn. We have no idea as to when the inn was changed to a private residence or even if it's true. Would you be able to offer any advice as to where to start looking for such info ? I know the Essex Records Office may have details, but where to look - it's a mine-field for novice historians !Simon

Dear Simon,

I would start with the Tithe Map. These were produced for every parish c.1840 and Essex Record Office has most of them. The maps are kept in the large drawers to the right of the search room; you can help yourself, but you may prefer to ask one of the assistants to get them out for you if you are new to ERO. On the shelves behind the map drawers you will find the corresponding ‘schedules’ – these list every property on the map, its owner and occupier, and field sizes. You should be able to find your cottage on the map and then look it up in the schedule, which should tell you if it was a pub. Even if your cottage is not listed as a separate property, you will be able to find out which field it stands in and then which farm that field belongs to (this will confirm whether it was part of Hall Farm).

If it was a pub / inn before 1840, there is a fascinating ‘directory of inns’ (I don’t know what its real title is) on the shelf behind the map drawers, which lists all the inns and their owners by parish from about 1700.

I would also have a look at the 1^st edition OS map, dated about 1880. This won’t give you much information but it is interesting to see what other properties were around yours. They also have the 2^nd & 3^rd edn maps, of course, which will show the area in the 1920s and 30s.

If the cottage was a pub before c.1880, I think it would not have looked different from any other cottage. Rural inns were usually just a cottage where local men could go for some ale but did not have inn signs as we know them today.

In the same area of the Record Office, behind the map drawers, there is a drawer of photographs by Fred Spalding, organised by parish. I’m pretty sure there are some photos of Southminster but you can have a look through to see if there are any of St Lawrence. For other photos you have to type, e.g. “St Lawrence” into the computers on the desks to search the catalogues. If you get any results, the assistants will get them out of the store room for you – they are very helpful at ERO, and I’m sure you will find it very easy; you only have to ask.

For the history of your cottage from 1900, you could try looking at the Kelly’s directories for your area. These list the parishes and all the buildings in the main streets and their occupiers, but I do not know if they would list isolated cottages.

When you find out what farm your cottage was part of, you might then want to search the ERO catalogue for information about that farm. There are usually loads of deeds of land transfer and ownership changes for farms. Quite interesting, but takes time to wade through them to find what you want. To save time, it is worth looking at the catalogue from home, before you get to ERO. Put: http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/ into your address bar to go straight to the search pages.

Have fun!