Essex, one the largest counties of England, stretches from the suburban fringes of East London to the fishing and sailing ports of Harwich and Maldon and the famous seaside resorts of Clacton, Frinton, and Southend. Its buildings encompass rich Roman survivals, powerful Norman architecture, and the remains of major Tudor and Jacobean country houses. Essex is first and foremost a county famed for its timber buildings, from the eleventh-century church at Greensted to the early and mighty barns at Cressing Temple, and a wealth of timber-framed medieval houses. Later periods have also made their contribution, from Georgian town houses to Victorian and Edwardian industrial and civic buildings, and from important exemplars of early Modern Movement architecture to the major monument of High Tech at Stansted Airport.

The wars of the fourteenth-century English kings with France and Scotland resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of men involved in warfare on land and sea. This book draws upon new research to identify and analyze these soldiers at all social levels in the specific context of the county of Essex. New approaches to the history of the later Middle Ages allow important evidence of military service to be correlated with the rich documentary material stemming from landholding, taxation, administration and other aspects of economic and social life. Significant comparisons can then be made: increased demands for taxation and for shipping from maritime communities, for example, cast light on the impact of war upon the 'Home Front'. The uprising of 1381 is considered as the consequence of the intensive militarization of the south and southeast coast of England and the consequent cost to taxpayers. In a series of related chapters which add up to a wide-reaching survey, leading researchers explore key aspects of military, social and economic history in fourteenth-century Essex. From the raising of forces to serve the king, through a study of aristocratic lawlessness which may have been linked to violent experiences on the battlefield, to new ways of analysing data to give insights into men recruited as archers and mariners, and a consideration of military aspects of the Peasants' Revolt, this is a rewarding examination of medieval fighting men which affords much new insight into Essex history.

A local study of how the reformation affected the lives of ordinary people in Essex.

The immensely rich archives from the administration of the English poor law before 1834 include letters to the overseers of the poor that came from the poor themselves. As personal testimonies of people claiming relief, which are often written in a stunningly 'private' tone, pauper letters allow deep insights into the living conditions, experiences and attitudes of the labouring poor in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This edition contains some 750 of these letters, all those presently known to survive in the county of Essex. The Introduction demonstrates the immense importance of this neglected source, both for the social historian and for the comparative study of literacy.