I am guilty of complaining about the little seaside town that I live in. I find myself complaining about how quiet it is, how dead it can be during the weekend and how annoying the dog owners are. Don’t get me wrong. I love dogs and think they make the most amazing pets BUT there seem to be a lot of irresponsible dog owners. If you intend to walk your dog and you allow your dog to relieve themselves, PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG! Right. That’s me off my soapbox. This is, after all, a post about the unappreciated good things about Harwich, Essex, England.
Harwich is at the very northern end of the Mayflower Line. It boasts a lot of historical snippets dating back to Roman Times. There are a lot of notable names connected to Harwich: Captain Christopher Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, lives in Harwich; Samuel Pepys, the famous English diarist, was a member of Parliament for Harwich, Captain Charles Fryatt, who is a First World War lived and was buried in Harwich; and my personal fun fact favourite, apparently, Clive Owen lives near Harwich (haha!).
There are a suprising number of little historical corners in Harwich: Captain Christopher Jones’s house (apart from being captain of the Mayflower, he was a quarter owner of the Mayflower as well); several notable lighthouses dating back to the early 1800s, as Harwich was a notable port and it was where the Royal Navy Dockyard was established; the Harwich Redoubt Fort, which was a circular stronghold built to defend England against the Napoleonic invasion; it also has the old Electric Palace, one of England’s oldest purpose-built cinemas still surviving and functional.
I’ve always loved my little seaside town, my home away from home. I like to say it’s where I properly grew up, because I learned to live and depend on myself and not my parents. I love the little interesting nooks and crannies of this little town and it breaks my heart that some of the people who live here don’t seem to care enough about their town to keep it pretty and clean. We all have to have pride of place, to be proud of our quaint little town because it is significant and important historically.
Yellywelly 