During last week’s Council meeting Chris Black spoke about a heritage booklet that the council is producing. The aim is to foster interest in our local history and to encourage visitors. Chris supported the idea and made three suggestions:
(For those new to Rayleigh, the Martyr’s Memorial commemorates four protestants who were burned to death in the 1550s, during the reign of Queen Mary. One of them, Thomas Causton was burned in Rayleigh High Street itself early in 1555 . Apparently so great was the popular feeling against this that he was led to his place of death bound in a cart in case a rescue attempt was made.
The memorial itself was unveiled on September 23rd 1908 by the local MP Rowland Whitehead -incidentally Rayleigh’s only ever Liberal MP – in front of a crowd of 2000 people. )
No vote was taken, but hopefully these points will be included.
There is an article on the Beagle and Charles Darwin and its connection with Paglesham on one of my web sites http://cardshark.pcs-net.com/beagle.htm which I hope that you might find interesting. John