Essex

Essex is a in the. The is, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of , close to the  border, which reaches 482 feet (147 metres).

Divisions and environs
The area under the control of the county council, or, is divided into a number of local government districts. They are, , , , , , , , , , and. and are  which form part of the county for various functions such as  but do not come under county council control. also covers the two unitary authorities.

The ceremonial county, the area including the unitary authorities, has boundaries to the east with the coastline of the ; to the south with the northern bank, or estuary, of the and ; to the south west with ; to the west with  across the  and the ; to the north west with ; and to the north with, mostly marked by the.

History
The name Essex derives from the East Seaxe or East Saxons. The was traditionally founded by Aescwine in  AD, occupying territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating much of what would later become  and Hertfordshire, though its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lee. It is through this origin as one of the 'Saxon' kingdoms that Essex is specifically not part of the region known as (the latter comprising, , and ), settled by tribes calling themselves 'Anglian'. in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunon, and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint.

Essex County Council was formed in 1889. However, the, and from 1915 the , formed part of the county but were not under county council control. also formed a county borough from 1914 to 1974. The boundary with was established in 1965 when the former area of the East Ham and West Ham county boroughs and of the, , , , , , ,  and  districts was transferred to form the s of Barking,  Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest; an area similar to that known as Metropolitan Essex.

Essex became part of the  in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the  region. In 1998 the districts of and  separated from the  of Essex becoming.

Population and settlement
The pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. The has effectively prevented the further sprawl of London into the county, although it contains the s of  and, originally developed to resettle Londoners following the destruction of London housing in  but since much expanded. also acts as a protected barrier to the further spread of London. Much of the, consisting of the residential towns of , , and , is more developed and forms part of the.

Because of its proximity to and the economic magnetism which that city exerts, many of Essex's settlements function as s or villages where London workers raise their families. Essex is known for being the origin of the political term, and of the joke.

Part of the south east of the county, already containing the major population centres of and, is within the  and designated for further development. To the north of the Green Belt, with the exception of major towns such as and, the county is rural, with many small towns, villages and hamlets largely built in the traditional materials of timber and brick, with clay tile or thatched roofs.

Transport
The main airport in Essex is, serving destinations in Europe and North America; , once one of Britain's busiest airports, is undergoing redevelopment, but still has limited passenger flights to destinations such as the. There are several smaller airfields, some of which owe their origins to air force bases built during or. These are popular for pleasure flights; examples include Airfield  and. 

The port of is one of Britain's three major ports, while the port of  links the county to the  and. A service to closed in December 2005. Despite the to  in  across the, a pedestrian ferry to  still operates from Tilbury during limited hours, and there are foot ferries operating across some of the county's rivers and estuaries during the summer months.

The and  both cross the county, and the  and  trunk roads are important radial routes from London. There is an extensive public transport network. The main rail routes include two lines from London to Southend-on-Sea, operated by and several routes operated by  including a third route to Southend, the  and the. The district is served by the. The routes operated by 'one' and c2c, both of which are owned by, connect to and  stations in the east of the.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Essex at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Industry and commerce
The at  was one of England's first out-of-town shopping centres; it remains popular despite congestion on the nearby M25 motorway and direct competition from.

Industry is largely limited to the south of the county, with the majority of the land elsewhere being given over to. Harlow is a centre for electronics, science and companies, while Chelmsford is the home of Marconi (now called  and owned by  of Sweden since 2005), and Brentwood home to the 's European HQ. is home to the production facility for British and foreign. Chelmsford has been an important location for companies since the industry was born, and is also the location for a number of insurance and financial services organisations, and is the home of the soft drinks producer. Other businesses in the county are dominated by and the. Colchester is a garrison town, and the local economy is helped by the 's personnel living there.

Education
Essex has an essentially comprehensive education system with 16 independent schools and 80 state secondary schools, not including s. However there are four selective schools with two in Colchester and two in Chelmsford, all being single sex. They produce exceedingly good A level results, far outstripping any nearby independent schools, and often in the top ten for English state schools and are the top four in Essex (and the East of England), being in a league of their own. Nearby Southend on Sea also has selective schools. Chelmsford is the largest district by school population, and Maldon the smallest (with only two secondary schools). At, Epping Forest is helped by the in , and Brentwood is helped by the single sex ; these schools produce results similar to selective schools. At A level, the best performing comprehensive is in Brentwood, followed by the St John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School in Chelmsford. Essex's worst performing school is the in Basildon with 13% of pupils achieving 5 grades at A-C including Maths and English, followed by the Alderman Blaxill School in Colchester with 14%.

Essex has a comprehensive and selective education system. There are eight selective schools with two in Colchester, two in Chelmsford, two in Southend on Sea and two in Westcliff on Sea, all being single sex. There are selective streams in several other schools in the county. Examination results are much higher than the UK average, particularly in the selective schools.

Average score at GCSE by council district (%)
% of pupils with 5 grades A-C including English and Maths in 2006; compare to average house price by district.
 * Uttlesford 58.8
 * Chelmsford 57.5
 * Brentwood 55.0
 * Rochford 53.4
 * (Southend on Sea Unitary Authority 49.9)
 * Colchester 48.4
 * Epping Forest 44.4
 * Castle Point 42.6
 * Braintree 40.2
 * (Thurrock Unitary Authority 38.5)
 * Basildon 36.9
 * Tendring 36.3
 * Maldon 32.6
 * Harlow 32.4

County emblems
The County's consists of three Saxon  daggers arranged on a red background; the three-seaxe device is also used as the official logo of Essex County Council..

The traditional county flower of Essex is the, locally known as the paigle or peggle, and frequently mentioned in the writings of Essex bucolic authors such as Samuel Bensusan and C. H. Warren. As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity chose the  as the. .

Samuel Bensusan and others have suggested that if Essex had a county bird, it would be the (known locally as the peewit) whose lonely cry characterises the Essex marshes known as saltings.

Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a from  and a  from ; the traditional  for a person from Essex is an Essex Calf, so named because the county was famous for rearing beef cattle for sale in London meat markets; calves from the county were famed for their large size and known as 'Essex lions'.

Towns and villages
''See the

Places of interest

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Twinning

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