248 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 



Saints' Church, Ulting, the junction of the river Ter, the Paper Mill, Little 

 Baddovv Mill, Sandford Mill, and Barnes Mill, Springfield, and concerning most 

 of these places the " Skipper " had a fund of information to communicate. 



The first halt was made at a small eyot, where many river-side plants were 

 gathered in profusion, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Pearl affording information to those 

 unfamiliar with field botany. 



At Beeleigh Lock the following paper was read : — 



Notes on the History of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. 



By E. A. FITCH, F.L.S., &c. 



All our Essex rivers rise in the north-western portion of the county. This 

 somewhat peculiar physical feature is due to the outcrop of the chalk in that 

 district. A four-mile radius from Radwinter Church (near Saffron Walden) 

 includes the sources of the Blackwater, the Chelmer, the Stour, the Colne, and 

 the Cam. The Stort is reached in seven miles. With the exception of the Cam, 

 these Essex rivers take a southerly or south-easterly course, and are mostly con- 

 tained within the county. 



The Blackwater rises at Crawney Wood, Debden, and to the north-west of 

 Wimbish Green, joined by two other brooks, or " burns," as it trends round 

 Radwinter Hill. It then flows through the Sampfords (the " Sandy " Ford) and 

 the Bardfields, receiving many smaller tributaries in this district and Wethers- 

 field, and at Shalford (the '' Shallow " Ford) is its first mill. Then on past 

 Panfield, which derives its name from the river Pant, to Bocking and Stisted. 

 The high road crosses it at Blackwater, thence to Coggeshall, and by Feering to 

 Kelvedon, where it is crossed by the railway a few yards before the railway 

 station, and by the high road over a single span bridge, with five small arches 

 for flood water, built in 1788. The old seven-arched bridge, now much dilapi- 

 dated, still remains, situated a short distance to the south-eastward. Morant 

 gives " Easterford " as an alias of Kelvedon, as in John Norden's map (1594), 

 and says " Easterford denotes the more eastern ford, which it is in regard to 

 Rivenhall water, now covered with a bridge, and to that at Wickham mills " 

 (Hist, of Essex, ii., 150). The river now turns sharply in a south-westwardly 

 direction, and flows past the Braxteds to Witham meads, the high road running 

 almost parallel with it, where it receives the important affluent known as Pod's 

 Biook, which is fifteen miles in length, and has five mills on its stream. The 

 Blackwater now passes below Wickham Bi, hops, through Langford (the " Long" 

 ford) nearly to Beeleigh Mill, which is on the Chelmer. It then flows parallel 

 with its sister river almost to Fullbridge, when it turns northwards and flows in 

 a semicircle round the Little Marsh and Potman Marsh, joining the common 

 estuary at Heybridge Creek, just at the back of Maldon East Railway Station, 

 a little more than half-way from Fullbridge to the Hythe, Maldon. The tide 

 flows up under the stone bridge (Heybridge High Bridge) to Heybridge Mill. 

 This bridge at the end of the Causeway was doubtless the one solitary bridge 

 over the river when the Chelmer only took the water from Beeleigh Mill, the 

 flood water going into the Blackwater channel ; and even to-day in the old leases 

 of the Maldon wharf property it is described as on "the bank of Beeleigh Mill- 

 stream." Fullbridge was then a shallow ford ; now the tide rises about seven ftet 

 at ordinary tides, and to ten feet at spring tides. The whole river is doubtless 

 a much cleaner cut channel than formerly. 



The river Chelmer rises about two mil s to the north of Thaxted, less than 

 one mile south-east of the Blackwater, and these ri\ers almost join about one 

 and a half miles above their common estuary ; in fact they interchange their 

 waters here commonly in flood times. Running round Thaxted the Chelmer runs 

 through Tilty, where it receives a rather large but nameless brook on either side. 

 Between Great and Little Easton there is its first mill, and at this point its 

 channel is within a mile of the source of the Roding. Traversing Easton Park, 

 through Church End, Dunmow, the silvery streak approaches almost to Felstead 

 where it receives the Stebbing brook, on which are two mills, through the 



