ECHM visited by BBC Essex – Essex Quest!
On Sunday 19th March the Museum became destination No.3 for the popular BBC Essex Quest show, the two intrepid reporters, Liana Bridges and Barry Lewis.
Tasked to locate 4 selected locations in Essex from cryptic clues and then phone-in support from listeners! Coming from Sible Hedingham, it was exciting to listen as they narrowed down the possibilities – first believing it was Ridgewell airfield they needed to go to, then the Earls Colne Airfield & finally deciphering that they needed to get to a Water Tower! Listeners correctly directed them to the Museum!
We most enjoyed hosting them, with Liana interviewing both Gordon Brown, the Chair, and local historian John Stedman – who succinctly gave a potted history of the Old Atlas Works and the R.Hunt factory a major part of Earls Colne life from the 1820’s to the late 1980’s. The Stedman family have been in Earls Colne for over 500 years and generations worked at the Ironworks with John working there until the final day it closed its doors in 1988.
We were also able to give some information about our recent research on the ill-fated Flying Fortress Yankee Queen, which crashed in Earls Colne in October 1943 – and which will be a subject of our upcoming WW2 talk on 1st April, plus give advanced notice of John Stedman’s next and ever-popular “Walk around the Works “ talk which will be on 29th April.
