This was to have been a rest day from my running around the countryside, but guess what, I did some driving around the countryside anyway. I'm sure some of these country roads weren't as narrow when I bicycled along them when I was a boy. And one has the sensation of driving through a green tunnel with the tall, thick hedges on either side of the lanes.
I went on an expedition to snap pictures and visit some structures build with Collier's bricks.For three and a half years after leaving school (What do I do now?) I worked at W H Collier trying to make bricks. Some of the results ended up in this crinkle-crankle (a decorative, wavy wall) along a road in Great Braxted, Lea Lane. This close up displays something of the variety of colours and the texture of a hand-made brick. Time was when a maker could recognize the bricks he made from their shape and the characteristic face pattern.(Not really; one cheats and looks at the letter on the frog before the brick becomes part of a wall!) 
I followed back roads to Wind Mill Hill to a single lane road which has become a farm track, except it is metalled, as it is so little used by general traffic. There is a triangulation point still in a field nearby; a legacy from the days when England was first mapped by the Ordnance Survey. There were bluebells in their natural woodland habitat.
I visited Feering the village where I delivered mail for a while, too, on a push bike. The parish church, now part of the united benefice of Kelvedon and Feering, is dedicated to All Saints. There a is great old yew tree in the churchyard.
And there is a village green with village sign, old telephone box and post box.
I followed part of my route along Goggeshall Road to Feeringbury Manor and turned up another road which is little more than a single track road to Sky Green and Langley Green past Honigals Farm to Great Tey and then to the brick works in Marks Tey. The brick works was sold by the family that had run it for over a century but still trades under the name W.H.Collier. There are fewer hand-makers now and I met Terry, who is now retired but works a couple of days a week, and reminisced about the 'good' old days when it really was hard, long days. I tried to make decent bricks for three and a half years and worked with Terry then, and we remembered Tadeusz 'Ted' Noremberg the best and fastest maker we knew; he made it look so effortless and his speed came from economy of movement. And we didn't wear gloves then, either. More place names on the old A12 between Kelvedon and Colchester: Copford, Stanway, Lexden. I came into Colchester and parked at the top of Balkerne Hill opposite the Hole in the Wall, the remains of the Balkerne Gate in the Roman Wall; the Mercury Theatre and Jumbo the Victorian water tower.
My quest was to walk around some more and take a few more pictures and find Jack's (at the end of Long Wyre Street!).
I then took a leisurely wander around the Castle museum which has fun things to do like wearing a replica of a Roman soldier's helmet, hefting mail amour to feel just how heavy it was and draping a toga over your shoulder. There was also an exhibition of etchings and woodcuts by seventeen local artists including James Dodds. That, for me, was a totally restful day completed by ringing a plain course of Kent treble bob on the delightful bells at Inworth in the evening before getting back to Silver End to write this and correct some errors in previous blogs. A writer is his own worst editor.
Probably one of the most photographed and painted views of the quay at Maldon with St Mary's church overlooking the river.
Very blue isn't it? 
