Village News and Events

in Boxted and Langham

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Replastering the Hub

Essex Mills History

This weekend is National Mills Weekend. Join Explore Essex to celebrate a piece of Essex history and learn a little about the five mills we are proud to own today.

Mountnessing Mill 1937 (Credit: Catalogue Mills archive.org)

Mills are an integral part of Essex’s history. The Domesday survey of 1080-1086, the first attempt to quantify mills on a national level, documented that Essex had between 200 and 225 mills, many of which have since been demolished.

In the 16th Century, water became the most important source of mill power but by the latter part of the 19th Century, steam engines began to replace waterwheels, except in rural areas where they were supplemented by a steam or oil engine.

The agricultural depression at the turn of the 20th Century, followed by two World Wars, saw many mills close down or diversify.

Take a look inside a steam mill

Have you ever wondered what it is like inside a Steam Mill?

Whilst we’re unable to open up our mills to visitors at the current time, we’d like to show you around virtually.

Beeleigh Steam Mill is one of the largest milling sites in Essex and records show there have been mills on this site since 1066.

Watch the Wentworth Beam Engine in action, running with compressed air, at Beeleigh Steam Mill earlier this year.

Did You Know?

At Explore Essex we’re proud of our mills. We’ve dug out a few historical gems about each one to celebrate their heritage.

Alderford Water Mill used to mill corn but switched to producing animal feed during WW2. It is one of the best-preserved water mills in Essex, containing most of the original machinery.

The Weatherboard Water Mill at Beeleigh, which housed 2 water wheels driving 10 stones, was destroyed by fire in 1875 but the Steam Mill survived and the building now houses a rare Wentworth beam engine, elephant boiler and circular all-iron steam mill dating from 1845.

Finchingfield Post Mill is the oldest mill in Essex, built around 1756. Finchingfield used to be home to 7 mills, this one is the last mill standing! The mill’s four sails could be rotated to catch the wind, driving a pair of millstones. A tail pole was used to turn the mill.

Mountnessing Post Mill, built in 1807, is in full working order and although it stopped operating in 1933, it still occasionally mills flour!

Stock Tower Mill was a wind powered corn mill. The mill used wind power up until around 1930, then ran for a further six years using an internal combustion engine.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about our mills in celebration of #NationalMillsWeekend and we hope to welcome you as a visitor soon.

In the meantime you can explore more about our mills and heritage places here.

Stay local, stay home, keep exploring.

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Boxted Mill

Here’s a little slice of Boxted history from Lucinda de Jasay and Arabella Douglas-Menzies of Boxted Mill.

Photograph by E M Gardner, an authority on watermills, from Mills Archive

The Domesday Book records a mill at Boxted in 1066 and it is probably true to say that milling was carried out here continuously until the old mill was demolished in 1925. Like many other watermills around the time, its disappearance from the landscape was largely the result of the introduction of big steam roller mills, capable of working 24 hours a day.

Boxted was a water driven grain mill, the only remaining trace of which are the flood gates (automated in 1994), the mill race, which can be seen from Boxted Bridge, and the mill outbuildings. The two storey brick built miller’s house on the roadside was built in the 1840s.

The Munsons were millers of longstanding in the area. A retired Naval Commander Munson lived at Boxted Mill in the 1950’s; his nephew was the miller at Thorrington Street Mill – his great uncle milled at Boxted Mill.  Mr Bullough was the next owner then the current owners moved here in 1969.

During floods Boxted Mill is entirely cut off, as all the approach roads are sometimes several feet under water, but in spite of this the house is free from damp and so far has not flooded, demonstrating the skill of the original miller’s choice of the site.

Just before Boxted Mill was demolished in 1925, Pat Rooney, then an art student, managed to complete a series of pen and ink sketches of the building, which appeared in the December 1966 edition of ‘Essex Countryside’ magazine, alongside informative descriptions of the workings of the mill. Pat Rooney is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Boxted. A selection his drawings can be seen below:

Finally, you may be interested to know that a former Boxted resident, Ambrose Waller, wrote a most informative book ‘The Suffolk Stour’ (published 1957) giving a detailed account of the Stour from the Roman times until the 20th century.

Photograph of Boxted Mill taken by James Blewitt pre 1966

In 2014, as a modern twist to the long water power history at Boxted Mill  a mini hydro power station was constructed by Farm Power Hydro Ltd, channelling water through an archimedes screw above the flood gate, to make electricity – enough to power 40 houses.

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Download the minutes of the Boxted Parish Council meeting held on 11 March 2020

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Digital help at home

There will be no digital help at the Hub for the time being, but fear not! You can still go online and get help and support.

Michael Smith at Colchester Borough Council is still offering digital support via a remote service. See the Council’s webpage (https://www.colchester.gov.uk/digitalaccesssupport/) or, for further information, contact:

• Colchester 01206 282 452/ Clacton 01255 686497
• Email: Digitalaccesssupport@colchester.gov.uk

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Get updates on Coronavirus from the government and take part in the latest symptom survey

Covid-19 symptom checker app

People of all ages and backgrounds are joining together to fight COVID.

Support the NHS, help scientific research and help get us out of lockdown safely.

Take 1-minute to report your health daily, even if you are well. To help support this important initiative, more volunteers are needed using the app.. You can even report on behalf of older relatives (like your mum or nan) in the app today.

• Download the app for iPhone here
• Download the app for Android here

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As anticipated, we are now seeing a high demand for assistance with food and household essentials from elderly and vulnerable Boxted residents. We are now giving out care packages to our elderly, fragile and isolated members of the Boxted community.

We would like to support also any NHS workers in Boxted who are in dire need of help. The vast majority of people that we are assisting right now are well-known to us, and are those most in need

Therefore we would like to ask you if you might, from time to time, be able to donate ANY food, fresh or non-perishable, loo roll, household products or ladies’ sanitary wear/Tena products.

Donations may be collected by us from your doorstep, or you can deliver them to the doorstep of the Hub, Tuesday to Friday inclusive, 10 am till 2 pm.

We encourage everyone to join as one community. We have asked the vulnerable and elderly to get in touch with us should they need any help with the following:

• Food supplies
• Basic household essentials
• Pick-up or refill of prescriptions
• A friendly chat

We also offer a ‘meals on wheels service’ that you can order by telephone and which we can deliver to residents of Boxted.

You can contact us via telephone:
DAYTIME 01206 272129
EVENINGS: 07488 345019

https://www.facebook.com/boxtedhub/

Please note that the service we offer is primarily for those Boxted residents over 70 and those in most urgent need – who are vulnerable in these difficult times.

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Church services

Churches can longer be kept open as places for prayer and solace.Therefore all churches will be locked and will remain so until further notice.  The car park at Boxted church  has also been closed for the time being although it is still possible to park and visit the graveyard.

Should you require prayer please contact Revd Mandy Elmes via email lwb.wb.gh.parishes@gmail.com.

Sunday services are now on theLangham and Boxted Church Website for all to view under Streamed Services. https://lb-churches.co.uk/streamed-services/ They will be uploaded on Sunday afternoons for as long as services are streamed.

Download the services booklet here

Download notes from last week’s sermon by Rev’d Anne Mason

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Keeping your home safe in these changing times

Stephen Armson-Smith
Crime Prevention Tactical Advisor
Essex Police

Having been “confined to barracks” during lock down don’t forget to lock up your home securely when you do go out. Whether going for your daily exercise, or to get your provisions, or with some now beginning to return to work its important get back into the habit of locking up when we leave our homes unoccupied.
Even if you are at home still consider your home security for as it gets warmer, we get to see a rise in the number of “Creeper Burglaries” where burglars take advantage of open gates, windows and doors.

An open or insecure garden gate will provide the thief with access to the back of your home.  If you have unoccupied rooms that are accessible to others from outside or off flat roofs make sure the windows are closed, if you need ventilation in these rooms whilst at home at least lock the larger window and only have the small window open even during the daytime. If you only have just bigger windows consider a lockable window restricter and a small alarm sensor on the window to detect entry.

Leave any accessible door open or insecure and an opportunist thief will pop in and anything lying around will be gone. You may have only popped out, or down the end of the garden or having a quick shower; it only takes a second for a thief to steal.

A few tips for keeping your home secure:

1. Don’t attract a thief with insecure pedal cycles or cars or gates.
2. Keep side or rear gates, sheds and garages shut and securely locked.
3. Doors closed and locked? Don’t forget that with a PVCu multi-locking door you may have lifted the handle but until you turn the key or thumb turn on the inside you have not locked all the locks in place. Before going out or turning in for the night don’t forget to check all doors, someone may have closed it but did they lock it?
4. Windows – lift the blinds or open the curtains and check they are closed, the sun may have been on the TV when it was hot, and so the curtains were drawn with the window open. Remember the above advice about open windows. Make sure in case of fire that keys to windows and doors are readily accessible to occupants but not in view of possible burglars.
5. If you have an intruder alarm activate it when going out and activate the zone for the unoccupied area whilst in.
6. Car keys – don’t take them to bed with you, where possible leave them in noisy drawer/location. Keep the keyless fob in a “Faraday” bag.
7. If you do hear a suspicious noise in the house that you are not happy with dial 999 and make a noise, shout out, it could cause any intruder to flee, they may not have known you were home, remember your life is more important than your property. If safe to do so get a good description of the person/s and if possible the car index number and direction of travel.

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Advice on passwords

Grahame Stehle
Colchester District Neighbourhood Watch
colchesternhw@gmail.com

The following advice is pertinent to both business and personal users of digital devices and online services. Laptops, computers, tablets and smartphones contain a lot of items such as business-critical data, customer information, personal information and details of online accounts.

Passwords – when implemented correctly – are a free, easy and effective way to prevent unauthorised users accessing your devices. Things to keep in mind when using passwords for personal or organisation devices and services:

• Make sure you switch on password protection – Set a screen lock password, PIN, or other authentication method (fingerprint or face unlock).
• Use Two-factor authentication (2FA) for important’ accounts. – This requires two different methods to ‘prove’ your identity.
• Avoid using predictable passwords (Pa$$word123)
• Passwords should be easy to remember, but hard for somebody else to guess.
• IT systems should not require staff to share accounts or passwords to get their job done. Avoid password overload – Passwords only need to be changed when a compromise is suspected.
• Staff will forget passwords, so make sure they can reset their own passwords easily.
• If using password managers, make sure the master password is a strong one
• Change all default passwords.
• The most secure passwords are made up of three random words and can be further strengthened by adding numbers, capital letters and symbols, eg pink31Rainbowjam9!

Password ‘Spraying’

One common way that online accounts are breached is through password spraying. Lists of a small number of common passwords are used to brute force large numbers of accounts.

These attacks are successful because for large set of users there will be some using very common passwords.

The NCSC recently conducted a research study which allowed participating organisations to assess how vulnerable they would be to a password spraying attack.

Results from the study:

• 75% had accounts with passwords featured in the top 1,000 passwords
• 87% had accounts with passwords that featured in the top 10,000

Whilst account lockout policies limit attackers trying multiple passwords against a single account, the account lockout counters usually reset over time, allowing persistent attackers to try hundreds or even thousands of common passwords.

One of the most effective ways to secure against these attacks is to prevent users from using common passwords in the first place. Using a password blacklist stops users choosing common passwords. More information on password blacklists can be found here.

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We are reminding people in Essex to be vigilant following reports that fraudsters are attempting to take advantage of the current climate by carrying out crime online and at people’s doorsteps.

Sadly fraudsters will look to take advantage of any situation. This means tricking people into parting with their money and information, including posing as government officials, bank or other financial services employees by text message, online or by knocking at doors.

While we have only received a handful of incidents, it’s important that people be mindful before handing over money or personal details.

Some simple steps you can take are:

• Do not assume or believe a call, a knock on the door or a deal online is genuine.
• Take five minutes before taking action and trust your instinct. If it doesn’t feel real or genuine,  probably isn’t.
• Challenge any calls, visits or messages you may receive.
• Never click on links and never divulge personal information – the police and government departments will never ask you for these details.
• If you receive any fake gov.uk/coronavirus messages, please report these to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
• Contact your bank immediately if you think you are a victim of a scam.

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Next visit:
Wednesday 20th May
7.30pm – 9pm

Boxted Royal British Legion car park

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Useful links:

Boxted Village Hall
Boxted Village Website
https://boxtedparishcouncil.org.uk
Boxted Primary School
Boxted British Legion

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Copyright © 2020 Boxted Village Website, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
boxtedvillagenews@gmail.com

Newsletter editor: Angela McLauchlan   :   Design and layout: Shirley Szymanek

Village News and Events

in Boxted and Langham

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Beautiful Boxted

Chapel Road, Boxted, early on a Spring morning.
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Photo by John Davies

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Village life in lockdown

Life for James Collitt and his family (pictured above) under lockdown is busy to say the least! Here James gives you an insight into what the family have been up to.

“Joelle and I have lived in Boxted for the last 3 years after moving from the middle of Colchester. We have loved being somewhere so open and pretty and quickly settled into village life. We have three children and our oldest two go to the local school which is brilliant. Joelle is a primary school teacher and currently on maternity leave with our third.

“Life in lockdown hasn’t been too different for Joelle as she was already at home; the biggest difference being that she now has to teach the oldest two instead of being off! The children have really enjoyed ‘mummy school’ and quickly made a school register for ‘Cheetah Class’, making sure they order their lunches each day. They have been doing numerous art projects and our oldest is currently designing and making a ‘house’ for one of her soft toys. It’s been great to see them baking and enjoying being outside in this fantastic weather. Both children have recently learnt to ride and are relishing the freedom of cycling.

Before lockdown, I used to run and walk along many of the local routes in the village and surrounding area by myself. Now that we are off together, we’ve loved exploring these routes as a family and try to go out most days if we can. Thankfully, the baby enjoys been carried in a sling so we do not have to stick to pram friendly paths.

“I have been furloughed from my job as an estate agent. No visits are currently allowed to value properties nor can viewings be conducted or surveyors able to assess properties with the result that the property market has ground to a halt with all estate agents shut. A skeleton amount of staff are working from home dealing with running sales and enquires.

“I have decided to work my way down the ever growing DIY and jobs list. It’s been nice to have time to consider what needs doing and to relax in the garden rather than constantly working and thinking about work; a rare treat. I did work from home for one week which was a different experience entirely. I am also on the parish council and although we can’t actually ‘meet’ in person, we are still planning to meet to discuss local issues using ‘Zoom’. Our children are far more experienced with this as they often ‘Zoom chat’ with their friends and relatives which is a great way to stay in touch.

“We do not know how long we will be in this position for and when the ‘lockdown’ will end or indeed how life will be afterwards but we are grateful for good health, local walks and the chance to be together and spend time enjoying things without the rush of modern life.”

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Keeping calm and carrying on

Community spirit continues to be evident within Boxted and Langham as volunteers support those in isolation who cannot get out to carry out essential tasks such as food shopping and prescription collections.

Langham Community Shop continues to work tirelessly serving the villages by making up boxes of grocery orders and volunteers delivering to various residences. The Good Neighbours Scheme is also handling a number of requests serving both villages with most requests for prescription collections and drop offs.

The Good Neighbours scheme, which has been in operation for 11 years now, is proving to be more essential than ever and with many more volunteers stepping up to help, it is serving its purpose in many ways. The Good Neighbours contact details are below:

Monday to Friday 8 am to 7 pm. Call for help on
Monday……….230525 or 272773
Tuesday……….273804 or 271079
Wednesday….272755 or 272774
Thursday……..322301 or 272599
Friday………….273301 or 271813

PLEASE TELEPHONE THE NUMBER(S) SHOWN FOR THE DAY ON WHICH YOU MAKE YOUR CALL If there is no reply, please do not leave a message but RING ANY OTHER NUMBER.

Finally, during this difficult time, a quote to bring hope:

“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” ― Emily Dickinson

Claire Arculus

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Virtual Parish Council meeting
Wednesday 13th May

Any members of the public who wish to join this meeting please contact the parish Clerk, Karen Thompson on boxtedparishcouncil@gmail.com
who will send you the link.

Download the agenda here.

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Digital help at home

There will be no digital help at the Hub for the time being, but fear not! You can still go online and get help and support.

Michael Smith at Colchester Borough Council is still offering digital support via a remote service. See the Council’s webpage (https://www.colchester.gov.uk/digitalaccesssupport/) or, for further information, contact:

• Colchester 01206 282 452/ Clacton 01255 686497
• Email: Digitalaccesssupport@colchester.gov.uk

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Homemade face masks

Although the Government is not currently advocating the use of masks in public, you may wish to consider making one at home. The instructions come from Johns Hopkins University, experts in global public health, infectious disease, and emergency preparedness which has been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19.

To make the masks a little more comfortable, use elastic instead of cloth for the straps.You can also add a pipe cleaner inside the top so you can bend over the nose for a snug fit.

It is essential to use tightly woven 100% cotton and you can use flannel for the inside liner to make it softer on the face.

Download the full instructions here

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Get updates on Coronavirus from the government and take part in the latest symptom survey

Covid-19 symptom checker app

People of all ages and backgrounds are joining together to fight COVID.

Support the NHS, help scientific research and help get us out of lockdown safely.

Take 1-minute to report your health daily, even if you are well. To help support this important initiative, more volunteers are needed using the app.. You can even report on behalf of older relatives (like your mum or nan) in the app today.

Download the app for iPhone here:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/covid-symptom-tracker/id1503529611

Download the app for Android here

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Be a Mass Observer on 12 May

Since the 1930s, ordinary people have written to Mass Observation about their experiences of key events. You can contribute your experiences to MO by keeping a journal of your experience of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s not too late to take part in the one-day documenting of your experiences on 12 May – find out more here.

MO would really welcome contributions from school children and wider community groups. This could be a journal, drawings or writing in any style to record your experience.

Click here for further information and to find out how to contribute.

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As anticipated, we are now seeing a high demand for assistance with food and household essentials from elderly and vulnerable Boxted residents. We are now giving out care packages to our elderly, fragile and isolated members of the Boxted community.

We would like to support also any NHS workers in Boxted who are in dire need of help. The vast majority of people that we are assisting right now are well-known to us, and are those most in need

Therefore we would like to ask you if you might, from time to time, be able to donate ANY food, fresh or non-perishable, loo roll, household products or ladies’ sanitary wear/Tena products.

Donations may be collected by us from your doorstep, or you can deliver them to the doorstep of the Hub, Tuesday to Friday inclusive, 10 am till 2 pm.

We encourage everyone to join as one community. We have asked the vulnerable and elderly to get in touch with us should they need any help with the following:

• Food supplies
• Basic household essentials
• Pick-up or refill of prescriptions
• A friendly chat

We also offer a ‘meals on wheels service’ that you can order by telephone and which we can deliver to residents of Boxted.

You can contact us via telephone:
DAYTIME 01206 272129
EVENINGS: 07488 345019

https://www.facebook.com/boxtedhub/

Please note that the service we offer is primarily for those Boxted residents over 70 and those in most urgent need – who are vulnerable in these difficult times.

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Langham Community Shop

With our amazing team of volunteers, helpers, and drivers – led by Charlotte and Helen – we are continuing to work behind closed doors every day fulfilling telephoned orders for collection, or for free delivery to residents of Langham and Boxted.

We are very well stocked with all store cupboard essentials, plus fresh bread, milk, fruit and vegetables, wine, beer, cakes, chocolate, treats and everything else that we always sell.

We continue to use many local suppliers for strawberries, asparagus, eggs, Highwoods Honey, Wicks Manor ham, bacon, sausages and burgers, Fairfield crisps and potatoes, Peacocks bakery.

If you would like to place an order, please call us on 01206 272431 between 9am and 11am and your order will be ready later that same day.

A selection of the vast array of products available from Langham Community Shop:

*** The Cheese and Pie Man visits on Wednesdays 8.30am-2pm ***

*** Fish and Chip Van on Fridays 11am-2pm ***

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Church services

Churches can longer be kept open as places for prayer and solace.Therefore all churches will be locked and will remain so until further notice. The car park at Boxted church has also been closed for the time being although it is still possible to park and visit the graveyard.

Should you require prayer please contact Revd Mandy Elmes via email lwb.wb.gh.parishes@gmail.com.

Sunday services are now on the St Mary’s West Bergholt Website for all to view. This requires no Facebook account and therefore means everyone can access the recorded services. They will be uploaded on Sunday afternoons for as long as services are streamed.

Download the services booklet here

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So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.
Today’s trouble is enough for today. – Matthew 6:34

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Join the Zoom meeting – 10th May 10:00am

Zoom Worship Service with Communion. Please log on from 9.55am for a 10am start.

Log on here

Meeting ID: 879 4667 4262
Password: 832120

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The purrfect place for Jerry

Jerry or Gerry (varies, sounds the same so we don’t suppose he cares) is old (about 19) but doing fine during lockdown.

As well as a cosy place to hide and sunny places to bask he gets a twice daily visit from a friend from Colchester with food and fuss and a weekly visit from Stephen Garner, the church warden.

As a Langham Hall cat as well as the church’s security detail, he has an account with a local vet for his routine care needs.

We do wonder if he is missing all the other visitors to the church and Sunday services though.

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Essex Libraries service update:

Book of the month

Even more e-magazines

One-minute book reviews

Read the full article here

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Next visit:
Wednesday 20th May
7.30pm – 9pm

Boxted Royal British Legion car park

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Useful websites for essentials

During these unprecedented times, you may find it useful to order some essential items online.

Milk and More

https://www.milkandmore.co.uk

Colchester Dairy

https://www.facebook.com/Colchesterdairy/

Facebook

A Facebook group, “Colchester Borough Emergency Coordinations Group“, has been set up consisting of people offering help and support during this difficult period.

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Useful links:

Boxted Village Hall
Boxted Village Website
https://boxtedparishcouncil.org.uk
Boxted Primary School
Boxted British Legion

Boxted WI on Facebook
Boxted WI on Twitter
Boxted 10K
Boxted Airfield Historical Group
Langham Community Centre
Langham Community Shop
Langham Village Website
Dedham Vale & Stour Valley ANOB
Essex County Council’s PROW Interactive map
Colchester District Neighbourhood Watch

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Copyright © 2020 Boxted Village Website, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
boxtedvillagenews@gmail.com

Newsletter editor: Angela McLauchlan : Design and layout: Shirley Szymanek