7:00am Saturday 20th March 2010
By Jim Worsdale
FORMER Southend police sergeant and author Len Sellers is deep into an investigation into the history of his home parish of Eastwood.
After some four years of research and more than 80 interviews, he is confident he has come up with evidence confirming the importance and rich history of his surroundings.
Len, who served in the old Southend Borough Constabulary for 30 years from 1967, reckons it will take him another six months to complete his mammoth task and produce a book of perhaps 650 pages.
He hopes it may achieve some of the kind of praise heaped on one of his earlier books.
A few months ago, former M15 director-general Stella Rimington named Len’s 1997 book Shot in the Tower as the best of all on spies in Britain. It was the previously untold story of ten men who came to England to spy for Germany before World War I and were tried and shot in the Tower of London.
Len, who moved from London to a remote and largely undeveloped Eastwood as a three-year-old, has meticulously and painstakingly been uncovering and sifting the evidence of the district’s history.
The original Eastwood covered a much more extensive area than today’s, once embracing slices of Rochford and Belfairs. The Earls of Warwick and Lord Rich lived there, it was part of the Royal hunting ground, visited at least three times by Edward I, and the Knights Templar, a military organisation, owned many acres in the 13th century.
A famous preacher and author, Samuel Purchas, was vicar for ten years from 1604. In later times, Eastwood, where the River Roach rose, had its own thriving, private oyster company with around 50 staff.
Len said: “Many residents have given me fascinating information about their own family history and memories of Eastwood.
“Others have loaned old photos. Eastwood was a very special place with quite astonishing history and connections.”
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