Witham

This article is about the town in Essex. For the village in Somerset, see Witham Friary. For the river in Lincolnshire, see River Witham.

Witham
Population	22,500
OS grid reference	TL821145
District	Braintree
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WITHAM
Postcode district	CM8
Dialling code	01376
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	Witham

Witham (Template:PronEng Wittum) is a town in the county of Essex, in the south east of England with a population (2001 census) of 22,500. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the larger towns of Chelmsford (7 miles to the south-west) and Colchester (15 miles to the north-east). The River Brain runs through the town and joins the River Blackwater shortly outside it.

History

Early history

Excavations by Essex County Council field archaeological unit at the recent Maltings Lane development discovered evidence of Neolithic occupation of Witham including human remains and several trackways across ancient marsh. Excavations of the Witham Lodge (Ivy Chimneys) area of the town unveiled remains of a Roman temple in the 1970s as well as a pottery kiln. This would have been alongside the main Roman road from London to Colchester and used as a stop over point on the long journey, another notable find during the excavation was a Votive Offering pool in the grounds of the temple, the pool contained several artifacts that would have been offered to the gods.

The name Witham is Saxon in origin and remains unchanged in spelling. The parish of Witham appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. The manor of Witham was given to the Knights Templar in 1148. To the north of the current town is Cressing Temple which was the earliest foundation of Templar lands in Britain, built over 700 years ago.

The town as it is now started life on 'Chipping Hill', where the old forge and the church still exists to this day. As the years went by, the hamlet grew to become 'Witham' and St Nicolas Church of England Church (a unique spelling) serves a congregation of around 150 people each Sunday. During the latter half of the 18th Century and the early 19th century, Admiral Sir William Luard was the town's most prominent citizen, a resident of Chipping Hill and a founder and patron of St. Nicolas' Church. His funeral cortege through the town in 1910 was witnessed by thousands.

Witham briefly enjoyed a period as an affluent spa town after the discovery of a mineral-bearing spa in the town by Dr Taverner in the 18th century. Witham was also a centre of the wool trade until the decline of the industry in the late 17th century.

1st September 1905

Main article: Witham rail crash

Witham Station September 1st, 1905.

Witham railway station was the scene of a serious accident on Saturday 1st September 1905. The 09:27 London Liverpool Street to Cromer 14 carriage express derailed whilst travelling at speed through the station. 10 passengers and a Luggage Porter were killed when several of the carriages somersaulted onto the platforms causing considerable damage to the rolling stock and the station. 71 passengers were seriously injured. This remains to this day the worst single loss of life in a railway accident in Essex. In 2005 an opportunity to commemorate the centenary was missed and the incident is now largely forgotten. Ben Sainty, a signalman, whose quick action averted the next train hitting the wreckage has a road named after him in the town, Ben Sainty Court.

Post War

The town expanded greatly in the late 1960s and 1970s when the Greater London Council built 3 large council estates on the west and north sides of the town and a smaller one to the South for families from London to move to as part of the 'New Town' and 'Expanded Town' overspill policy of that time.

Starting in the 1980s but accelerating in the 1990s and 2000s a large number of houses were built in several estates to the south and southwest of the town infilling the farmland that used to exist between the town and the A12 bypass. The most recent of which is the Malting's lane development, which when completed will exceed 1200 homes, a school, business park and community shopping area.

A one time famous resident of the town is the author Dorothy L. Sayers whose statue stands opposite the town's library. The library stands on the site of the old Whitehall cinema, which closed in the late 1970s.

Transport

The town is served by Witham railway station, situated on the London Liverpool Street to Ipswich main line on National Express East Anglia. Trains take approx 45mins to reach Liverpool Street. The station is also the junction with the Braintree branch line to Braintree, Braintree Freeport,Cressing and White Notley. Another branch line, now dismantled, went from Witham to Maldon.

Witham is situated on the A12 trunk road between Chelmsford and Colchester. Originally the A12 ran in a straight line through the middle of the town; however for some decades there has been a by-pass completely avoiding the town.

Because of these excellent transport links, the town has a large number of residents who commute to work in London. This is evidenced by Witham railway station's appearance within the 150 busiest railway stations in Great Britain, which would not be expected based on the town's population alone.

Economy and facilities

Witham has a mainly linear town centre, concentrated on the high street and its two modest shopping precincts form a cross, bisecting the High Street, the Newland Shopping Centre of 70's design to the North and the Grove Centre an 80's brick design to the South. There is a reasonable range of small shops and a full range of major high-street banks, national chains include Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Thorntons, Boots, Clinton Cards and Superdrug. The town has four supermarkets - Tesco in the Grove Centre, Iceland in the Newlands Precinct, Newland Street, Morrisons on Braintree Road, near the station, and Netto, on Highfields Road, near the Football Club.

Leisure facilities include a bowling alley, Benton Hall Golf and leisure centre, a pool club and a library which occupies the building of the town's long-closed cinema, the Whitehall. A 'River Walk' runs for three and a half miles through the town and is home to a range of wildlife. Bramston Sports Centre is also located in Witham. The sports centre contains three swimming pools: a teaching pool, a diving pool (referred to as the Merlin pool) and the main pool which is 25 metres long (half the standard Olympic and competitive pool length). The Centre also includes four squash courts and a "Kinetika" gym.

The Morrisons supermarket site was previously the Safeway supermarket site, and before that the factory site of Crittall Windows Ltd, until 1994 when the factory was closed and moved to Braintree.

Woolworths closed on the High street in late December 2008 as a quarter of their stores closed across the United Kingdom. It is now a 99 Pence store.

A significant industrial presence remains in the town, mainly concentrated on three industrial estates on the eastern side of the town close to the junction with the A12. There is also significant office accommodation in the town centre area.

In March 2007 Crittall closed its Braintree factory and returned to Witham to occupy a new factory on the Freebournes Industrial Estate. The factory Crittall moved into was built for J.L. French in 2001, but never used for production. The new Crittall factory is visible on the right hand side of the road exiting Witham towards Colchester via the A12.

Education

There are two secondary schools in Witham, Maltings Academy and The New Rickstones Academy, both achieving a slightly below average 5 A*-C GCSE rating, averaging around the 40% mark.

The town's primary schools are Templars, Holy Family, Howbridge, Powers Hall, Chipping Hill Infants School (although this will become a primary school in September 2010 and move to a new site in the south of town by September 2011), Rivenhall CoE, Elm Hall Primary, Southview and Silver End Primary. Both Chipping Hill Infant School and Powers Hall Junior School received Outstanding OfSTED reports in 2008.

Government

Witham is part of the Witham constituency of the House of Commons. The local Member of Parliament (MP) is the Conservative Priti Patel, who was elected at the 2010 General election, being the first Asian female Conservative MP ever elected to Parliament.

The constituency includes Hatfield Peverel, Langford, Wickham Bishops, Marks Tey,Tiptree, Tolleshunt Knights, Stanway Kelvedon, and Coggeshall. It is regarded as a safe seat for the Conservative Party, and Priti Patel holds a strong 15,196 vote majority.

Witham is under the jurisdiction of Witham Town Council (its parish council), Braintree District Council and Essex County Council.

Witham, and parts of the Braintree district, hold one of the best recycling schemes in the UK, with compulsory recycling, reaching over 50% recycling.

Notable residents

• James Gibson, the 2003 World Breaststroke 50m (Long-course) Champion, was born in Chelmsford and lived in Witham.

• Eddie Hall, Multiple British and European karting champion was born and raised in Witham.

• Graham Hedman, 2006 European Champion, 4x400 men's relay, was born in Witham.

• Admiral Sir William Luard, K.C., President of the Greenwich Naval College and Admiral of the Fleet.

• Dorothy L. Sayers, translator of Dante's Divina Commedia, and a famous writer of detective fiction, died in Witham in 1957.

• John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, Nobel Prize winning physicist for the discovery of argon, died in 1919 at Terling Place, Witham.

• James Winslow, Australian and Asian Formula 3 champion lived in Witham before moving to Australia and then the US to race in Formula Atlantic.

• Molly Conlin, EastEnders star as Dot Cotton's granddaughter "Dottie"

• Cody McDonald former Witham Town player, who eventually moved to Norwich City F.C..

• Olly Murs who was the runner up in the 2009 series of The X Factor. He attended Howbridge Junior School and then Notley High School where he was a star centre forward in the school's football (soccer) team. He also played semi-professionally for Witham Town.

Climate

Climate data for Witham
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: MSN Weather

Twin town

Waldbröl, North Rhine-Westphalia

External links

• Witham Town Council
• Photographs of Witham's 'Riverwalk' in the Frost
• Sasori-Karate - A Traditional Wado Ryu Karate Club based in Witham