IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Ravensdale, CLACTON-ON-SEA, CO15 4QN

Pickers Ditch Local Nature Reserve http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_details.asp?C=0&N=&ID=336 was acquired by Tendring District Council in 1990 and designated as a Nature Reserve two years later; it consists of 3 hectares of meadows beside the Picker's Ditch brook. For more info see http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Pickers%20Ditch.htm

Picker's Ditch Meadow was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1992. This is the view from the Thorpe Road entrance. Picker's Ditch is a tributary of Holland Brook and is off to the right in the vegetation here.

A new crossing in Image

One of the meadows on Image http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_details.asp?C=0&N=&ID=336

The church was once Grade II* Listed but has been upgraded to Grade I. This is the east end viewed from the graveyard.

This stream gives its name to Image

It's hard to believe that before the Victorian era, Great Clacton was just a small village and Clacton-on-Sea would have been just farmland and perhaps the odd cottage. The whole of this area is now built up but you can pick out the original village buildings around the Norman church. The church was badly restored in 1865 but there is a lot of the old left to interest. The 15th century tower was never completed, hence the unusual timber structure on top.

Currently undergoing refurbishment works, the Queen's Head Hotel is a Grade II Listed building, and the Historic England website describes it thus:- "C16/C17 or earlier with C18 or later additions and alterations. Timber framed and rough rendered, plaster panels to North Road. Red plain tiled roofs, L-plan, hipped with gablet to left. Hipped to right face (North Road). Large rough rendered chimney stack to rear left, 2 rough rendered stacks to North Road face. 2 storeys and attics to left range with a flat headed dormer and 3 window range of various small paned vertically sliding sashes including a ground floor bay with tripartite front window and tripartite window over. Blocked doorway to left. 2 C20 panelled doors with top lights and flat canopies on brackets to right. Very large 2 storey 5 light bay window with small paned glazing to right. Right return, 2 window range of 3 light casements with transoms. Recessed door in moulded surround with toplight and fanlight." In the photograph North Road is the one on the right where the red car is about to join the main road (St John's Road).