Episode 27. Radical Essex

SYNOPSIS

An oversimplified association of Essex with metro overspill from London’s East End tends to obscure not only the varied topography of the county, but also its proud association with radical politics. In fact, the geography of Essex ranges from the lilting rural landscapes which have attracted artists and intellectuals to the plotlands which have long attracted the adventurous and self-sufficient. This is before taking into account the second longest county coastline after Cornwall, and the series of islands and islets suitable for private communal living.

Taken as a child by his parents in 1950 to the “pioneer territory” of Canvey Island, Ken Worpole is a product of the “Essexodus” from London to Essex, but also, as a long-time resident of Hackney, a product of the complex “push-pull” relationship of countryside to metropolis. He tracks the many social experiments in Essex since the 1880s, some offering secular or spiritual recuperation from the effects of London poverty and others a Tolstoyan renunciation of industrial life. The episode then concentrates on two communities linked to the trauma of war. Firstly, back-to-the- land pacifism in wartime Britain at Frating Farm Hall, which is the subject of Ken’s 2021 book, No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen. And secondly, the Othona community which was formed to foster post-war reconciliation in 1946 by the RAF chaplain, Norman Motley, next to the historic, 7th century chapel. St Peter on the Wall, at Bradwell-on-Sea.

GUEST

Ken Worpole is a writer and social historian whose many books include works of literary criticism, architecture and landscape ethics. A contributor to the book, Radical Essex, he is an acknowledged expert on Essex’s experiments in community living. Ken has served on the UK government’s Urban Green Spaces Task Force, on the Expert Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and as an advisor to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a founder member of the Demos think-tank and of Open Democracy.

Ken’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded online on 26 April 2023.