Langford and Ulting – a short history
Langford
The parish of Langford was so named because of the long ford along the side of the River Pant or Blackwater, ‘lang’ in Saxon meaning ‘long.’ It is a tiny rural village with many iconic listed building. Its Mill was recorded in the Domesday Book (although not its 11th Century church, which is unique for having the only extant western apse in the county - and possibly in England). St. Giles’ Church still has a weekly service, but is also home to the ‘Heavenly Supplies’ community shop in the vestry.
Langford Hall, which was used as the Manor House for many years, was built during Tudor times and has been greatly altered and added to since then and was the seat of power.
The manor was acquired by the Wescomb family in 1680 and in 1782 Nicholas Wescomb built Langford Grove – described as one of the best mid-Georgian houses in Essex (sadly now demolished) - who held onto it until the line died out in 1832. Two Wescomb daughters married Byron brothers (cousins of the poet) and the village came under their control. Both of these brothers and the children of one of these brothers became the 9th and 10th Lord Byron and took up their seat in Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire, and so left the village. Nicholas Wescomb had also built a ‘cut’ from the Mill through to the River Chelmer to take his grain and flour to the markets in London via Maldon. However, with the building in 1793 of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation Canal, the seaward end of the ‘cut’ became redundant, was filled in and is now a hazard on the golf course. The remainder of the ‘cut’ is now overgrown but plans have been mooted to make it navigable again and to run small craft from the centre of the village to Beeleigh.
With the construction of Langford Grove, Langford Hall was let out to various tenant farmers, and in the 1890s housed the Cleveland Bay Horse Stud.
The Langford and Ulting railway station (or Halt as it was) on the Witham-Maldon branch line was open from 1848 until 1964 when it was closed as part of Dr. Beeching’s cuts.
In 1927 the village sprang into prominence when it was chosen as the site for a new Steam Water Pumping station. This new works provided a great deal of work for villagers and the emphasis changed from rural to industrial for a while. In 1963 the steam operation closed and an electric pumping system was installed. The old steam pumping station became a scheduled ancient monument in 1986 and is now The Museum of Power.
The school (which ran from 1875 to 1920) was used as the village hall until 1993 when it was sold, and is now two private houses.
There is little employment in the village now, and inhabitants commute to work. There is a very lively village hall (which was a Victorian cowshed before its conversion) which houses not only a day-nursery for pre-school children, but has many activities in the evenings and weekends both of an educational and social nature. It also hosts the annual Art Show – a fundraising venture started in 1998.
Although small in size, Langford has had its fair share of celebrities living there, including a nobel prize winner (John William Strutt who was born in Langford Grove), a first-class Essex Cricketer (Rev. Charles Littlehales), one of Scott’s 1901 Antarctic crew (Second Lieutenant Michael Barne), and an 1887 Wimbledon Tennis Doubles Champion (Herbert William Wrangham Wilberforce, grandson of William Wilberforce, who partnered the late Queen Mother’s Uncle, Patrick Bowes-Lyon).
Ulting
Ulting is also a very rural parish with a great many listed buildings, but with a more scattered make-up than Langford. Agriculture is the main occupation in this village, including the Ulting Hall estate, although there are other small businesses which run from homes – garden design, electricians, plasterers etc.
The Parish church of All Saints was built c. 1150, with major restoration works in the 1870s. The Cult of ‘Our Lady of Ulting’ began when a chantry of the Virgin Mary was established there and the church became a place of pilgrimage ranking with Walsingham and other famous shrines. The River Chelmer runs next to the church and through Ulting which, although beautiful, has the disadvantage of being attractive to ‘wild swimmers’ who cause a great nuisance in the summer.
In 1832 the first sugar beet factory in England was built in Ulting, although its useful life was cut short by cheap imports of cane sugar. Robert and James Marriage believed that refining sugar from locally grown beet would reduce the importation of cane sugar and thereby the use of slave labour. Their aim was to promote the abolition of slavery by producing sugar by ‘free labour’ in England. They formed a company, and built a steam mill (at a cost of £2,000) half a mile downstream from the existing Hoe Mill. It was sited just upstream of the present Sugar Mill (or Sugar Baker’s) Cottages, in Ulting Lane, where the river and the lane are at their closest), using the most modern sugar production principles. The mill employed thirty men, women and children.
In 1898, Ernest Doe started his, now extensive, business by taking over the lease of the blacksmith’s shop in Ulting, on what is now known as Doe’s Corner. The mechanisation of farming has changed farming out of all recognition and Doe’s have kept up with the times bringing in new innovations as they come onto the market. The annual ‘Doe Show’ in February is an iconic event and draws farmers from all across the country.
The Maldon Ironworks post in Ulting at the junction of Church Road and Crouchmans Farm Road, is a most unusual relic from the past. The finial is the only surviving one of the type which was quite rare even in its 1930s heyday.
The artist, photographer, architect and textile designer, Humphrey Spender (1910-2005) moved into the village after the war and lived there until his death. In 1989 he was commissioned to design the 42ft long Maldon Embroidery to commemorate the Millennium of the Battle of Maldon in 1991. The Embroidery is on permanent display at the Maeldune Heritage Centre at the top of Market Hill, Maldon.
Ulting Wick is one of the many listed buildings in the village, but this has extensive gardens which are open to the public and have been featured on the BBC’s ‘Gardener’s World’ Programme, and in articles by The Royal Horticultural Society, and ‘Gardens Illustrated.’