Frinton & Walton Heritage Trust

Frinton & Walton Heritage Trust NEWSLETTER Spring Edition 2010 President’s Report - Maggie Sandell It’s a great pleasure for me to be President of the Trust. I have been involved for over twenty years and have held many posts on the management committee, and in that time I have seen our Empire grow to its present size. From small beginnings when the late Clem Jones and Frank Bloom opened the Museum, to the restoration of the Cottage and station gardens and last year our biggest triumph, the launch of James Stevens No.14. We have grown into one of the most active organisations in the area. All this has been achieved by the efforts of our committee and through the support of our members. Over the years people have come and gone, but there are a few who were in at the beginning, for example, Jerry Russell and our Chairman. Brian’s enthusiasm has not waned, in fact without his boundless energy our buildings would be in a sorry state by now. That is not to belittle the work of all the committee members, each of whom work quietly in the background to keep the wheels turning. On the surface we see the gardeners, cleaners, painters and coffee ladies on Tuesday mornings at the Cottage, but upstairs in the archive room, Liz and Mary work on the records and on Monday mornings they are in the Walton Museum archive room, preparing material for the Summer Exhibitions. At a house in Ashlyns Road a dedicated team work on the text for our future publication, a post card book on Walton-on-the-Naze. John and Linda host these meetings and keep everyone topped up with coffee and biscuits. We welcomed a new member to the committee last year, a Planning specialist. Richard Naylor is keeping a eye on planning at the Tendring District Council and on our Heritage Buildings that are threatened with alteration or demolition. In the Constitution, one of our objectives is “to promote civic pride and secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest in the area”, so we are glad that we shall fulfil this ideal for the future. Mike and Gill Thomas are indispensable to the successful opening times of the Museum. Gill organises the roster of stewards and Mike is on hand to help when needed. We are one of the very few independent museums that open EVERY DAY in the summer, from 2pm to 4pm in July, August and September, with the option of an arranged visit by appointment in October, or any other time during the summer. The last person on my list, but by no means the last, is Carol Cooper. She takes and types the minutes for our committee meetings, a mammoth task as most of these take over two hours. She also organises our Winter entertainment. The varied programme of talks has brought in a good crowd to the winter social evenings and we also commend her for the outings which she arranges in the summer. With so much going on, it’s not surprising that I am proud of the Trust and honoured to be President. I look forward to a bright future and thank the members and committee for their loyalty to the cause. 2 A Walton-on-the-Naze Brickyard - Roger Kennell A glance around the town today would reveal but few buildings which were not built in part or wholly of brick. The county abounds in good quality brick earth and the brick making tradition began from early times. There were also brickyards locally. On the 27th October 1903, the brickyard of Messrs D. Mackenzie and Sons of Walton-on-the-Naze was advertised for sale by auction in the local newspaper. The advertisement for the sale listed the brick makers plant and stock in trade. It comprised of: 200,000 Facing and inside bricks, Brick Tables, Navvy Crowding and other Barrows, Hake Covers, Planks and Side Boards etc. Brick making was a seasonal craft. The brick earth (the clay) was dug in the autumn and made into a large heap, then during the winter months frosts broke the clay down ready for use. As spring arrived the brick making season began, the clay was mixed with water, then the individual bricks made one by one in a wooden brick mould by a brick maker. A labourer then transferred the newly made “green” bricks into long stacks to dry before being fired in either a simple clamp, or a brick kiln. The brick makers plant listed in the auction sale related to the process described above. The Brick Tables was where the brick maker stood to make the bricks. The table had a small heap of clay placed on it, and a brick mould, and space for the “Green” bricks when made. An Offbearing barrow, listed as other barrows was used to transfer the bricks to the stacks to dry. These stacks, termed Hakes or Hacks were covered with Hake Covers. These were wood or straw roof covers placed on top of the stacks to prevent the bricks drying too rapidly. Likewise the Side Boards were used to shield the bricks from drying wind, or when the sun was low in the sky. After “Crowding Barrow” an appropriate time of drying, approximately one week, the bricks were then transferred to the clamp or kiln by a Navvy Crowding Barrow, which was a different shape and size of barrow. These barrows were run along wood Planks to prevent the barrow wheel sinking into any soft ground. After the “green” bricks had been fired and allowed to cool down, the kiln or clamp was broken open and the bricks sorted for best and lesser quality bricks, and then removed, again using the Navvy Crowding Barrow, into large stacks. The bricks were now ready for sale and back to the auction sale listing, these account for the 200,000 facing bricks and the lesser quality inside bricks listed as the stock in trade Brick making by hand was a skilled, but simple, process and had been unchanged for centuries. When the bricks are used to construct the houses and commercial properties around us, they then become one of our valuable possessions. 3 Chairman’s Report - Brian Jennings With winter nearly over, our garden team will be like spring lambs! If you can spare an hour, new faces are always welcome. As a voluntary organisation, we are reliant on you, our members, to make the Trust function and grow. We have been lucky over the past 25 years to have members such as our first secretary, Clement Jones, a former editor of the Yorkshire Post. Running the Cottage and Gardens in Frinton, Walton Maritime Museum, James Stevens No.14, and helping Frinton in Bloom to succeed all takes time, and more hands are needed. This winter we have increased our display area at the Museum and made improvements to the access for disabled persons at the same time as providing an inner door to keep the place warmer for our much appreciated stewards. Over the coming months we hope to improve the displays by providing new professionally printed boards. This will depend on funding as each costs £200-£300 to produce. As with life in general, progress with the reinstatement of the gate keeper’s hut and repositioning of the crossing gates in Frinton has been delayed by form filling and paper chasing! I hope we will have more progress very shortly. Aside from all the building maintenance, attending meetings and training courses, reading at least five Trust e-mails each day, what else do we do with our time? You may know about the Halifax aircraft which crashed into the sea off Walton during the Second World War, particularly if you have read Geoff Rayner’s book “Seaside Front Line” or visited the Museum and seen parts of the plane which are on display there. Well, as a result of more local dredging, another part of a Halifax has recently come into our possession. This tail leg was flown out to Burlington, USA to be examined and cleaned by an expert before being returned to Walton ready for display, all at no cost to the Trust! We are most grateful to Geoff Rayner for his help and specialist advice on this artefact. If you have any interesting local information or objects which can be displayed or copied and put in the Museum so that others can enjoy viewing them, rather than one day they go to a car boot sale and leave the area for good, please think of the Trust and our Museums at Frinton and Walton. If you have an interesting story to tell about our Maritime Coast, we would like to hear from you in connection with an oral history project being run by Maritime Heritage East. You can get in touch with me on brian.jennings 50 @btinternet.com or 01255 861440 4 Frinton’s Forgotten Architect - Brian Blackler We came to Frinton in 2002 keenly interested in older houses and looked into the history of our home, Hempstead Lodge, Holland Road. Built in 1907, Hempstead Lodge (illustrated on the front cover of this Newsletter) retains many original features and was designed by William Hayne JP about whom we knew little. But we met local historian, Jane Caddick, who had a wealth of information, which she kindly shared and much of the credit for what follows goes to her. William Hayne designed many local houses, including Holland Lodge (1905-6), the corner house, next door.

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