Photographs of Essex

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The name Essex derives from the East Seaxe or East Saxons and was the name of the early Saxon Kingdom founded by Aescwine in 527 AD. The Kingdom occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating much of what would later become Middlesex and Hertfordshire, though its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lee. The county town is Chelmsford, but Colchester in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunum. Coggeshall is a small Essex market town with over 300 listed buildings including at least two interesting churches, so worth a visit.
Essex is a low lying county with some interesting windmills and ruined castles as well as some very long piers and the oldest Christian church in England still in regular use.