The vast majority of the records preserved at the Essex Record Office have been donated or loaned freely for the benefit of the public. We, and generations of researchers and residents, are grateful for the generosity of donors and owners of records who help to ensure these documents are safely preserved and widely accessible to the public.

However, from time to time the Record Office is alerted by The National Archives to documents coming up for auction. If it is something significant enough and suitable to acquire for the archive, we seek external funding for the full cost of the purchase. Our first approach is usually to the Friends of Historic Essex, the charity that supports ERO. For relatively small amounts, the Friends are generally more than happy to finance the purchase of documents themselves, which are then added to our holdings for all researchers to access.

Occasionally the documents we are told about are more expensive than the Friends on their own can fund, so we may need to apply to other awarding bodies to help build a bigger pot of cash. The Essex Heritage Trust, the Essex Society for Archaeology and History and other local organisations have kindly provided grants for this. But for higher value documents it is often the support of the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries (FNL), with their generous contributions, that has allowed us to successfully acquire the item in question.

However, this is not always the case and just recently we were delighted to be directly approached by a vendor who had just purchased a document which we unsuccessfully bid for in 2019 – the ‘Survey and Valuation of the Estate of the Earl of Essex in Parishes of Stebbing, Saling, Rayne and Bocking’, which we remembered as ‘the one that got away’!

In 2019 we were alerted that this volume was about to be auctioned and the then Chair of the Friends, Dr Chris Thornton contacted FNL, who gave a promise of funding, and the Stebbing Local History Society (SLHS) to see if they might be willing to contribute as well.

The very active SLHS were excited with the possibility of this volume being acquired for the ERO, as they have a long-running research programme with American academic Prof Lawrence Poos of the Catholic University of America, looking at the landscape history of their parish.

For many of our parishes, the earliest complete map showing individual plots of land detailing ownership, tenancy and land use can often be that created (with the accompanying ‘Award’) for the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, with the resulting maps dating from the late 1830s into the early 1850s. While there will almost always be earlier estate maps, these can often be of only limited areas rather than an entire parish. Therefore, this volume which contains many maps of areas across Stebbing, as well as adjoining parishes, would be very useful as it shows the area 40 or so years earlier than would have been surveyed on the Stebbing tithe map (D/CT 332B).

All was progressing nicely: a member of SLHS had visited the auction house to examine the volume to give it the once over and had given the ‘thumbs up’; a decent sum of money had been pledged and our bid was made. Come the day of the auction, we waited with bated breath to see if we were successful – and we were not! SLHS passed on their details to the auction house, for forwarding to the successful purchaser, in the hope that they might be permitted to photograph it for academic purposes – nothing was heard. Chris Thornton counselled us to keep an eye out for it appearing again in the future, for you never know …

Fast forward six or so years and ERO were approached early in 2026 by someone who had been attending an antiques fair and had come across the very same volume of maps on a stall and being retailed for much less than we had lost it for. Realising its importance, he purchased it and got in contact to offer it to the Record Office for what it had cost him. ERO sprang into action and approached the Friends of Historic Essex to ask if they would cover the purchase price. They of course said yes.

However, it was remembered that SLHS had been approached before and the Friends thought it only right and proper to let them know that they were about to purchase it. And this is the lovely bit: SLHS came back, quick as a flash, having spoken with Prof Poos over in America, saying that between them they would pay the purchase price of the volume as well as the cost to have it digitised so that interested researchers around the world would be able to have access to the maps via Essex Archives Online. Prof Poos says:

It’s heartening to be reminded that though we can’t buy history, we absolutely can sponsor its rescue. I’m just pleased to have been able to help the Essex Record Office ensure that this book will be where it belongs, partly of course because of my own Stebbing research but equally for the benefit of who knows who will want to study it in the future.

While Graham Jolliffe, Chair of SLHS adds:

The Stebbing Local History Society recognises that the ‘Survey and Valuation of the Estate of the Earl of Essex’ volume is the most important piece of Stebbing history that has come on to the open market since the foundation of the society thirty years ago. After the disappointment of not being able to secure its purchase in 2019 we are absolutely thrilled that it is now in public ownership and in the very safe hands of the Essex Record Office. As a consequence, the SLHS is very pleased to be able to contribute the monies required to enable the volume to be digitised. We very much look forward to being able to use it to throw a light onto Stebbing in the late 18th century.

On a recent research trip to Essex, the Record Office and FHE were pleased to host Prof Poos and Graham Jolliffe for a first showing of this important document.

Also present was the current Chair of The Friends of Historic Essex, Jenny Butler:

The Friends were delighted to be asked to fund the purchase of this important collection of maps for the Record Office, having missed out on acquiring them in 2019, especially so after my predecessor as Chair, Dr Chris Thornton, had raised a considerable ‘fighting-fund’ from several funders. The Friends are even more pleased to have helped identify our current generous donors which has allowed our own resources to be preserved for future purchases of documents.

This volume of maps has been added to the archive of documents that the Record Office looks after, covering almost a thousand years of the history of the county.

If you would like to visit and undertake your own research with us, you can find out more about visiting here.

To help the work of the Friends of Historic Essex in supporting ERO, you can contact them through their website: Friends of Historic Essex – 70 Years of helping to preserve Essex’s archival heritage; their support is greatly appreciated, and there’s always something they can help us with!

We look forward to seeing you soon as you undertake your own research at the Record Office.