Here at the Essex Record Office our Archive Assistant (and events wrangler) Neil Wiffen has been looking at things again, specifically the 1777 Chapman and André map of Essex. Here he explains all:
Hopefully you are all aware of the wonderful Chapman and André map of Essex. If not, you can view it in incredible detail on Tim Fransen’s excellent website (I dare you not to be amazed and to lose hours of your life by exploring the late eighteenth century landscape of Essex: you have been warned!)
So, I was preparing an event listing for our 2027 season of talks, where we will be discussing the (spoiler alert!) witchcraft statutes of 1563 and 1604 with Emerita Professor Marion Gibson (Tickets now available). To accompany the text there is always a need to have an illustration or two and, thinking outside the box, I thought that showing the Chelmsford gallows, as shown on John Walker’s 1591 map (above) would be a suitable image, albeit well known. There are not many images of gallows and the couple of other instances I could think of where those depicted by Chapman and André.
The first was of one of the sites along the river Thames and either shows gallows or a gibbet (could they be both?) and the other was those just to the north-east of Romford on the common, what we now know as Gallows Corner.
As interesting as these are, I thought I would check out the site of the Chelmsford gallows to see what Chapman and André show. Well, you could knock me down with a feather! There, it was in a semi-circular enclosure – what a view it must have been to the surrounding properties. I had never ‘looked’ before and it was hiding in plain sight, albeit at quite a small scale!
This might not be news to any of you out there, it might just be me not looking! Do let me know though if this is news to you and, do let me know what else you have found surprising/delightful on the Chapman and André map. And the funny little field of ampersands opposite the gallows – well I’m fairly sure they are hops. Take a look at the big field in Castle Hedingham!
Neil
If you would like to come to our talk and book launch for “Witchland” with Marion Gibson on the 29th September, we are running it twice! Once in the morning at 10:40 and once in the afternoon at 18:40.