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Find a Property or Properties in Essex
Properties in Basildon, Chelmsford, Clacton, Colchester,
Epping, Halstead, Harlow, Harwich, Maldon,Southend, Braintree and Brentwood. |
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Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast
with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include
Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest and Colchester to the southwest.
The town received its charter in 1238, although there is evidence of earlier settlement
- for example, a record of a chapel in 1177, and some indications of a possible
Roman presence.
Its position on the estuaries of the Stour and Orwell rivers and its usefulness
to mariners as the only safe anchorage between the Thames and Humber led to a long
period of maritime significance, both civil and military. The town became a naval
base in 1657 and was heavily fortified, with Harwich Redoubt, Beacon Hill Battery,
and Bath Side Battery.
The Royal Navy is no longer present in Harwich but adjacent Parkeston continues
to offer regular ferry services to Hoek van Holland in the Netherlands and Esbjerg
in Denmark. Many operations of the large container port at Felixstowe and of Trinity
House, the lighthouse authority, are managed from Harwich, and plans for the development
of a new container port in Bathside Bay were approved by the British government
in December 2005.
The town's coastal position, however, made it vulnerable to the North Sea Flood
of 1953.
Harwich today is contiguous with Dovercourt and the two along with Parkeston are
often referred to collectively as Harwich.
Harwich was the home town of Christopher Jones, the master and quarter-owner of
the Mayflower, and was also a base for that ship. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys
was MP for Harwich.
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