The Day Before Yesterday: a Glimpse into Wivenhoe's Past

This booklet covers the early history of Wivenhoe from 1360 up to 1900 with much anecdotal evidence. It commences with the story of William Beaumont and his wife who came to live at Wivenhoe Hall circa 1495. It refers to Roger Townshend’s purchase of the manor, ship-building, the role of the church warden and the ‘Towne Shoppe’ in the sixteenth century; the sale of the manor to Nicholas Corsellis, Civil War and the plague in the seventeenth century; smuggling and Captain Harvey’s revenue cutter, the sea-water baths, and the workhouse in the eighteenth century; the role of the church, the coming of the railway, the building of Phillip Road School, the new Gas Works and the Wivenhoe waterworks in the nineteenth century.