Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East of England.
It is a home county.
Ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant.
Home counties are counties which border London.
The office of Lord Lieutenant can be considered viceregal but is certainly not equivalent to Governor-General. A very spiffy uniform is usually authorized, however. He or she has no official duties between parades that I could find.
The county's coat of arms contains three Saxon seax knives on a red background.
Essex was once a kingdom, but was subsumed into the Kingdom of England and later became just a county thereof.
Essex is home to the Dunmow Flitch Trials.
Famous people who were born in Essex include Dame Maggie Smith and Jamie Oliver, though at different times. Winston Churchill slept there once.
The motto of the county council is: "Essex Wonks".
That is all.
Correction: "Essex Works".
For extra credit, say the following really fast three times: The sixth sick sheik sucked on seven Saxon seax.
If anyone knows any other interesting things about Essex, or if you have any cute Essex anecdotes, please put them in comments. On soubriquet's blog, though.
The Essex village of Coggeshall had a good way to combat the plague. They put a barrier across the road to stop it entering.
ReplyDeleteWitch trials were common in Essex in days of yore. I can confirm there is plenty of material available to restart such trials today.
You didn't mention Essex girls.
ReplyDeleteQ: What do you call an Essex girl with half a brain ?
A: Gifted!
Indeed no study of Essex would be complete without a study of the Essex girl who is (possibly erronously) known for her signature style of orange spray tan, fake boobs, peroxide hair and the brain capacity of a fruit fly. The patron saint of Essex girls would be Katie Price but alas she is born in Sussex! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Katie_Price_Jordan.jpg
ReplyDeleteThe only way is ...
ReplyDelete@Adullamite - How else would you keep the plague out?
ReplyDelete@A. - I'm starting to sense Essex has a peculiar reputation in the UK, completely unknown in the USA. Is it just girls?
@EmmaK - I like it! So I went searching for websites that had collections of Essex Girl jokes. I had no idea! The only thing is most of them were to dirty to repeat on this classy PC blog of mine. But I found one that was clean enough and still funny:
"You can keep an Essex Girl occupied for hours on end by simply writing 'please turn over' on both sides of a piece of paper."
Thanks for stopping by!.
@Symdaddy - Yes? Yes? Go on...
Essex Boys became famous in the Thatcher (spit) years. Their inbuilt 'barrow boy' mentality meant they were ideal for the Financial world she ran after. The stock exchange, once considered all bowler hat and middle class, became dominated by them. It became a byword for vast amounts of money and no class.
ReplyDelete@Adullamite - I'm learning more and more!
ReplyDeleteSeaxophone.
ReplyDeleteEssex is down there somewhere. London and turn left.
ReplyDeleteNever been.
Probably never will.