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On Monday the 4th of October 2021 I drove to Great Wakering and parked up on the roadside on Common Road for free.
According to a medieval tradition, Wakering (probably Great Wakering) was the site of a monastery during the seventh century AD. Two Christian cousins of King Ecgberht of Kent, named Æthelred and Æthelberht, were murdered at Eastry, a royal dwelling in the Kingdom of Kent, during King Ecgberht's reign (664–673). They were prevented by a miracle from being buried at Canterbury, and were taken instead to an existing monastery at Wakering in the Kingdom of Essex and enshrined there as saints. Ecgberht's brother and successor, King Hlothhere of Kent, is said by William of Malmesbury to have ridiculed the idea of their sanctity.
I walked up to St Nicholas Church.
The village church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, dates back to Norman times and the board of rectors or vicars inside begins in the year 1200 with simply "Robert", and the next incumbent equally simply named "Peter". As well as the parish church, the village also has a United Reformed Church in Chapel Lane, a Methodist church, and an Evangelical (formerly Peculiar People) church on Great Wakering High Street.
I walk on back down Common Road and pass the Village duckpond and its sign warning me of Ducklings. How dangerous can ducklings be Ha Ha!
A little further down I take a footpath on my right, signposted for the England Coast Path, this takes me across Great Wakering Common.
Here is the new Golden Jubilee Community Wood planted November 2002. The wood has been planted with native broadleaf trees and shrubs.
Ten years later they are celebrating the Queens Diamond Jubilee with a bench.
I follow the path on towards Oxenham Farm.
Continue along the road which has open arable land to the left and rough grassland to the right.
Look out for kestrels hovering overhead and redshanks in the fields.
I see a Great Spotted Woodpecker fly in and land on a telegraph pole, but it nervously flew off as I tried to get a photograph.
I keep to the road as it turns right and pass through Oxenham Farm.
At the seawall I turn left and walk along the footpath on the top of the wall.
Note how many of the salt marsh plants such as Cord Grass, Glasswort, Sea Aster and Sea Blite have succulent leaves which are an adaptation to salty conditions. On the far side of the creek you can see Rushley Island once owned and farmed by Captain John Harriott founder of Thames River Police in 1800.
Above is the bridge over to Havengore Island.
This island is a marshy area which is linked to Essex by a secured bridge. Havengore bridge is the only means of crossing into Foulness Island but it can only be used when MOD Shoeburyness range is not active.
I pass the boathouses with the tip of Potton Island on the far side of the creek. At low tide the waders, herons and gulls can be seen feeding on the mudflats
I pass many Houseboats, I often wonder what it'd be like to live on the river.
What do they do for drinking water, sewage etc?
I pass two classic cars, a Morris Minor and a Triumph Herald!
I pass Wakering Boatyard and as you'd expect numerous boats of all sorts.
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| Seen better days! |
I follow the Potton Creek and see the bridge up ahead over to Potton Island.
Potton Island owned by the Ministry Of Defence is a sparsely populated island west of Foulness in Essex, England. It is connected to the mainland by a swing bridge with a traffic light system, and the road leads to Great Wakering.
Unlike some of the other nearby islands which were formerly marshland, Potton Island has been inhabited at least since the Neolithic era. It was home to several arable farms until it flooded in 1884, leading to its temporary abandonment and longer-term use as pasture. The island was reclaimed in the 1940s but some time after being acquired by the Ministry of Defence in 1955 it reverted to pasture. In June 2005, it was disclosed that Potton Island was considered by John Major's Conservative government in the 1980s or 1990s as a potential long-term storage site for high-level nuclear waste. Local government (Southend-on-Sea Borough Council) subsequently expressed their surprise and concern that they had not been party to any consultation on the matter.
I walk on until you come to a fence alongside the path and at its end turn left away from the sea wall. Cross the dirt road and walk straight ahead following the path as it crosses an area of grassland.
I walk pass Fleet Head and towards Halfway House Farm.
I walk out onto Common Road which I follow for a short wat before I turn right down another path.
Ahead St Nicholas Church appears on the horizon, then a very nice surprise. I'm walking the path and I see loads of kegs stacked outside a building. Its gotta be a brewery surely?
Yup, it's George's Brewery and its subsidiary Hop Monster!
HISTORY OF GEORGE‘S
The story begins with 21-year-young brewer, Mark.
His father, George Mawson had been a real ale fan for several years and was a tad concerned that his lad appeared to prefer Euro fizz in the style of Holsten Pils than our own home-grown English ale.
As an Abbot Ale fan George tried to get his son to follow in his footsteps and remove the yellow peril. In a bid to introduce a ‘proper man’s beer’ Mark was enticed with Greene King Abbot, however, Mark’s taste buds were somewhat different to that of his cigar smoking father and he couldn’t bear Abbot!
After much wailing and gnashing of the teeth the father and son gang happened upon a welcoming hostelry called The Guildford Tavern in Southend-on-Sea.
This local pub did sell the beloved Abbot of Mark’s father’s eye but also kept an ale known as Adnam’s Best Bitter. It looked brown, it smelled brown, by golly it was brown.
The misguided young Mark appeared to be able to keep this stuff down and indeed ordered several more pints. This was the point at which he couldn’t keep it all down but at least the penchant for yellow bubbles appeared to be in recess.
George had done it. He had converted his boy from a lover of the deviant yellow to a purveyor of the finest brown. Satisfied with a job well done, he promptly died. The love of beer and the path they took together to reach it was the driving force behind the weird ginger kid and his home brewing kit.
Christmas brewing was very prolific as Mark brewed recipe after recipe trying to match the beers that his father and he had tried together in the years they had.
In December 2008 Mark was working as foreman bricklayer on a site in Leytonstone. It was snowing and no one was allowed to work as it was too cold to lay bricks. The mobile phone rang (yes there were mobiles then) – it was an old workmate of Mark’s from their days of working at Matchbox. They’d both been made redundant along with everyone else when Matchbox toys packed up their Rochford factories and sailed off to take the whole thing to China. Mark had gone into bricklaying and his mate Stevie Mann had gone to London to brew for Bruce’s Brewery in one of the “Firkin Alehouses” that Bruce’s became so famous for. The brand name ‘Dogbolter’ is still a favourite with the more mature ale drinkers that can still remember it.
There was an entire brew kit for sale that had come out of The Pheasant and Firkin in London. Its current owner had set the kit up in Ramsgate and had outgrown it so needed a bigger kit. Did Mark want to purchase it? The whole thing, everything needed to set up and start your own brewery…
Mark purchased the brew kit and began the mindbogglingly crazy task of getting permission to brew and getting the kit up and running. This took nearly 2 years so the bricklaying had to continue. In 2011, Eddie Gadd, the previous owner of the kit came up from Ramsgate for the pilot brew and the first beer of George’s Brewery was brewed May 11 2011.
The beer was called Freak Show and was brewed under the Hop Monster Banner, the subsidiary of George’s Brewery. The first cask of that brew went to the Station Arms beer festival in Southminster, Essex.
Much beer has flowed under the bridge and through the vessels at George’s Brewery since then and they now supply around 15 Wetherspoons and over 60 other outlets around Essex and sometimes much further afield.
Years of crafting the beers and perfecting the taste have resulted in the production of 6 core George’s beers plus the house beer ‘Hilda B’ brewed exclusively for the East Anglia Pub company and 4 Hop Monster beers. As the team like to get experimental there are 3-4 specials brewed each year for the George’s and Hop Monster brands.
The award-winning brewery have CAMRA awards for several of their ales and have taken the ‘Beer of the Festival’ accolade on more than one occasion at local festivals.
With an exciting re-brand in 2019 George’s is set to grow and when the time is right, the intention is to move to bigger premises – the tiny cattle barn where George’s was born is getting a little cramped with their ever-expanding range.
You’ll find Mark, still very much hands on, happy to welcome tours of the micro-brewery, serve you in the shop or tell tales of the life of George’s.
I pop in, the smell is amazing as a full fermentation is going on! I shout for sometime before the brewer pops out and I buy some beers to try at home later!
HISTORY OF HOP MONSTER
George’s brewery was up and running and the team had perfected the taste but wanted to experiment with ingredients and hops to try and produce more funky ales than most drinkers would expect in their glass of traditional beer.
And so, Hop Monster was born.
The whacky idea behind the brand thought up by Mark was ‘Hendrix Hop Monster’, a long-dead ghost of a brewer that had returned from the grave to put vast quantities of hops back into the beer. A distinct contrast to George’s named after Mark’s father born out of the journey they took and the love they shared for real ale.
The first-ever beer brewed at George’s was, in fact, a Hop Monster beer. It was called ‘Freak Show’ as it featured bundles of freakishly new and expensive hops that had been coming into the country from America. The yeast and hops used pushed up the price but the taste was worth it.
Since then they have experimented and brewed with hops from Australia, New Zealand and across Europe to create different taste experiences.
I walk back up to the car at Common Road back pass the Duck Pond and off home.
Just under 5 and a half miles, a pleasant walk.
