Silver End Walking Tour
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Thomas S. Tait of Sir John Burnet & Partners, fields or allotments, use of which the built for Crittall’s son Dan, who had an ‘Guv’nor’ encouraged. Employees could interest in steam locomotion and had a buy, part buy/rent or rent the houses miniature railway in the garden. The house but there was a strict ‘pecking order’. Silver End was later used for the ‘65 Club’, a place They could only have a house deemed for retired employees. It was also a location suitable to their position in the company. for the 1980s TV series ‘The Nanny’. It is Greenfields Housing now owns many houses now a listed building. in the village and have recently replaced the windows and doors. The original village Walking Tour was designated a conservation area in 1983. It was covered by an ‘Article 4 Direction’ which removes ‘permitted development rights’. The conservation guidance said that the windows and doors had to be steel, although more recently, aluminium is being allowed. 16 Continue along Silver Street to the junction with the entrance to the playing fields, cross over to the left and stop at entrance to the Village Hall sports field. 13 Cross over the top of Sheepcotes Lane. Here you can see evidence of the rail track Craig Angus was designed by Frederick that was used to bring the gravel from the McManus who was Tait’s chief designer. area behind Temple Lane/Valentine Way It is also a listed building. Looking further to build the houses. The flat roofed houses down Sheepcotes Lane you will see at the lower end were built by Silver End the Roman Catholic church, designed Development Co. set up by Crittall to develop by Martin Evans, built in 1966. the village. These buildings are not listed. Continue along Silver Street to Broadway. 14 Continue along Boars Tye Road. Turn left at the crossroads and end back Wolverton was built in 1926 by Tait and at the shops. McManus, beautifully restored and maintained by its present owners. Opposite is the Boars Silver End Heritage Society actively Tye farmhouse, the first the Crittall’s bought. promote the village for its iconic Dan Crittall moved here from Le Chateau architecture and unique social history. with his wife and lived here until the 1980s. They run a Heritage Centre based in the It then became a residential home. Village Hall. For more information please visit www.silverendheritagesociety.co.uk 15 Continue back along Boars Tye Road to the junction and turn right into Silver Street. Photography: Catherine Hyland 1–32 Silver Street were also designed by Design: Fraser Muggeridge studio Tait and McManus. These are all listed Director: Joe Hill This walking tour guide was produced by buildings. Note the windows at number 4 Project Manager: Hayley Dixon and the original door and letter box at 5. Project Assistant: Hannah Rose Whittle Radical ESSEX in conjunction with Silver End One of Crittall’s main concerns was the welfare of his workers. All houses were www.radicalessex.uk Heritage Society on the occasion of ESSEX to have power, light, hot and cold running @RadicalEssex water, upstairs bathrooms and large gardens Architecture Weekend, 10 – 11 September 2016. for the workers to grow produce. Apart from the Modernist movement styling, Radical ESSEX is a project aiming to re-examine it is suggested that the flat roofs were used by Crittall to display how windows the history of the county in relation to radicalism could be used. All houses were to have a view either of open countryside, sports in thought, lifestyle, politics and architecture. 1 The tour starts at the shops adjacent to Francis Crittall’s home built in 1927 designed Silver End Area Map the Village Hall. Originally this was a 3 storey by architect Quennell. Note the blue plaque department store, catering to the needs of (top left). It is believed that the gardener all residents, including a bakery, furniture and chauffeur lived in the bungalows. store and butcher with meat supplied by Clockhouse Way Estate Crittall’s own farms. It came out as far as 7 Follow the garden path to the left towards the edge of the present car park and had the pond. Built in 1951 and designed a colonnade shop front. The store was by Walter ‘Pink’ Crittall with a Japanese destroyed by a fire on 13 September 1952. inspired design, the pond included a pagoda. A memorial plaque is set in the wall nearby. 2 Turn to look across the road to the large brick building, Valentine House. This was 8 Continue towards the exit of the garden originally the Silver End Hotel, comprising and turn left along Francis Way, towards of 11 rooms plus bars, a restaurant and Broadway. 5 Francis Way was the original Scout Hut HQ 14 F a function room. It was used by Crittall to telephone exchange. It is Modernist in style r a n accommodate clients and suppliers. Formally but the architect is unknown. c i two large glazed earthenware tar pots s 13 e W n 15 a stood by the main door. Following a fire 9 Turn right along Broadway to the crossroad a L y heep s Broadway c at Christmas in the mid 1980s, it became with Temple Lane. Look across the road S12 ote Silver Street a lively pub with an excellent carvery. at the first house on corner with Valentine 16 B Way. 15 Temple Lane was the first house 11 o a Francis Way 3 Walk to your left along the front of the car to be constructed in Silver End, designed by r s park to Jubilee House. Originally this was a C. Murray Hennell. The foundation stone is T y bus shelter and public convenience but was low down on the right of the side door. The e Village Hall R pulled down in 1986 to build new premises first six pairs of houses in Temple Lane are 5 o 6 4 1 10 a for Fred Robinson, a local insurance broker. different to the others, numbered 1A – 12A. d 2 Lane ple 4 Cross Broadway, walk along the front 10 Continue left along Temple Lane, from the 7 3 em T of Valentine House, keeping left at the crossroad, to the T-junction with Boars Tye 8 roundabout to entrance of Memorial Gardens. Road. This was the site of the original Crittall 9 Look across the roundabout. The Village Hall Manufacturing Company factory and Power was designed by architect C. Murray Hennell House, now hidden behind a tall hedge to and opened by the Lord Mayor of London the right, and is all that remains of the larger on 10 May 1928. It is England’s largest village complex that has been demolished. The hall with a main hall, sports courts, a stage Power House closest to the hedge, produced and two smaller halls on the ground floor and DC electricity for the houses (unusual for committee rooms on both floors. rural workers’ houses in the 1920s) as well as for the factory. From here you can also 5 Turn round to face the gates of the see the unique Church of St. Francis and Memorial Gardens. To the right of the gates to the left opposite the junction was the was a thatched roof tea rooms and Mrs. site of the bus garage. The bus service was Dunn’s open all hours shop, which is now originally set up by the Crittalls. The factory a private residence. The park gates show canteen and picture house were also near Red telephone boxes containing further Silver End village was built in 1926, inscriptions of the Crittall family initials. the bus station, but are now demolished. information on Silver End village supplied conceived by Francis Crittall to house Inside the entrance to the right there are by Silver End Heritage Society. his factory workers at Crittall Windows. the first of four notice boards, owned by 11 Cross the top of Temple Lane to the The village master plan was designed Braintree District Council but now managed left and continue along Boars Tye Road. by C. Murray Hennell. The houses were by Silver End Heritage Society with The large detached houses on the left designed by Thomas S. Tait, Frederick photographic displays. To the left under were designed by C. Murray Hennell MacManus and J. Miller stemming from the trees is a memorial to Valentine Crittall, for the senior managers of the factory. the design of Britain’s first Modernist building later Lord Braintree. in nearby Clockhouse Way, Braintree. The 12 Stop before Silver Street/Boars Tye traditional houses were designed by Hennell 6 Enter the gardens and look ahead to Road/Sheepcotes Lane junction and cross and C. H. B. Quennell, amongst others. a large white building. This is the Manors, the road. Le Chateau was designed by .