Rayleigh: A History

Rayleigh owes its origins to the flints on Hambro Hill, which attracted its first human residents as long ago as the Stone Age. In Saxon times the focus moved to the area covered by the modern High Street, but it was not until Rayleigh Castle was built by the Normans that the town really came to life. Its market and fair made it one of the principal towns in south-east Essex throughout the medieval period, and many significant historic buildings from the 14th century onwards, including Holy Trinity Church, the Dutch Cottage and the windmill, survive. After a period of decline in the 18th and early 19th centuries the town's importance was revived by the coming of the railway in 1889: farms, nurseries and market gardens all prospered.   Rapid development followed, and the 20th century saw massive expansion beyond the High Street area.
(This book includes a short history of Rawreth.)

	Number of pages: 148
	Number of illustrations: 155
	ISBN: 1 86077 355 9
	Publisher: Phillimore & Co Ltd Madam Green Farm Chichester West Sussex England PO20 2DD
	Publication date: September 2005
	Price: £15.99

What the critics had to say about "Rayleigh: A History"

"Ian Yearsley has rapidly become the historian for south Essex.  [Rayleigh: A History] is well up to his usual high standards... packed with fascinating detail of the town's history... [and] magnificently enhanced by 155 illustrations..."
Rayleigh Times

"The facts are accompanied by some fascinating and seldom-glimpsed photographs and [Ian] gives this ancient town just about the most comprehensive biography it can have known... It is bound to be a revelation to anyone who has ever lived in or near Rayleigh."
Southend Evening Echo

"... put together entirely by him speaking to his computer..."
Southend Evening Echo physiotherapy article

Some of the items you'll encounter in
"Rayleigh: A History"

Rayleigh Mount, circa 1908, showing the (sailless) windmill and Holy Trinity Church.	London Road, Rayleigh, circa 1905.  Holy Trinity Church and the windmill are just visible top right.	Down Hall, one of the four main manor houses of Rayleigh, pictured in 1923.

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