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SOUTH WOODHAM FERRERS is better known as a modern new town rather than a settlement with any history.Never a traditional Essex village, its origins lie firmly in the railway age. Nevertheless, as this fascinating new book reveals, though its life as a village spans little more than a century, it does have a history and careful research by the author and fellow members of the South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society over the past 20 years has uncovered a wealth of intriguing detail about the birth and development of the place. From the local historian's point of view, this relatively recent time scale has two particular advantages. Firstly, photography was already well established and the Society has been able to collect a unique pictorial record of the entire past of the town. Secondly, the reminiscences of older residents, combined with documentary evidence, have made detailed and informative captions possible.

After the railway station opened in 1889 the unproductive fields of two adjoining farms in the Crouch valley were divided by new estate roads and parcelled into hundreds of individual building plots which were offered for sale to Londoners who desired a new life in the country. The 1920s and '30s in particular saw a marked increase in population, the growth of a thriving community life and the establishment of many new businesses. A valuable feature of this informative book is a section devoted to a series of maps and photographs which illustrate in detail how some of the present day housing estates relate to the former 'plotland' development. These provide a particularly helpful insight into the dramatic changes of recent years.

A significant contribution to the published history of Essex and an invaluable photographic archive, the book will be warmly welcomed throughout the area, not only for the light it throws on the making of South Woodham Ferrers but also for the human interest of the lives and work of the pioneers who made it. The more a place has changed the more we enjoy seeing what it was like before - and this vivid, visual account of South Woodham Ferrers will satisfy every modern resident's interest in its past.

Illustrated £11.95 Available at discount from the Community Information Centre & Local Bookshops.

ISBN 0 85033 832 8

ABOUT the AUTHOR ...

JOHN FRANKLAND is a confessed 'outsider'. His childhood years were spent in his birthplace Harpole, in Northamptonshire, and Greenock in Scotland. His secondary education was completed in South London where an early interest in history found a practical outlet with a local archaeological group. After earning a B.A. degree in Town Planning at the Polytechnic of the South Bank he joined Essex County Council where he has heen directly involved in the South Woodham Ferrers new town project for all 20 years of his professional life.

He moved to South Woodham Ferrers in 1973, is a member of the local Evangelical Church and was for six years editor of the town's community magazine. A founder member of the Local History Society, he originated the Society's award-winning audio-visual presentation on the history of the town and has masterminded a number of their local exhibitions. He is a keen cyclist who regularly cycles the ten miles between home and office and is a veteran of two John 0' Groats to Land's End rides. This cycling obsession does not stem from any dislike of motor vehicles as another of his passions, in a strictly non-participatory sense, is motor sport.