Chochokiera what a wonderful way to describe your home it sounds really beautiful I bet you love talking to people when you are outside. Have you always lived in the area?
Thanks, Jackie. I've lived in my village for around 25 years or so. It's full of historic buildings and was a lovely place, sadly, my local council are destroying it with huge over-development. A giant estate is creeping round behind us and now a large estate is proposed at the front of us too: but we're not having that, we're fighting it for all we're worth. You're right, I do love talking to people when I'm working in my front garden. We've a lovely community here, we all know each other.
Yet my heart really lies in Goldhanger and D'Arcy. There's a network of small villages and towns around D'Arcy which were all connected by Tiptree Heath: Tolleshunt Knights and Major, Messing, Tiptree, Great and Little Totham, Inworth, the Wig Wigs, Salcott cum Virley, Layer Marney, Layer Breton and Layer de la Haye, Maldon, Mersea Island: this was my family's stamping ground for centuries. I imagine JB knew all of them. Visit Messing and Layer Marney Towers if you're up that way again, Jackie, they're lovely villages. You can climb to the top of one of Layer Marney's Towers, stand among the ancient, spiralling chimneys and look out across the countryside.
