About
The Village
Ford End is a pretty Essex village in the parish of Great Waltham, on the B1008 between Chelmsford and Great Dunmow.
Ford End has an old cricket green, also once used as a village green, surrounded by houses (some dating back hundreds of years), a church, a blacksmiths (now a private home) and a village well (also in the garden of a private home). This pattern neatly follows the Anglo Saxon village design (as outlined in The Making of the English Landscape, by W.G. Hoskins).
Ford End also has a village hall (available to hire for private functions) and a Church of England Primary School.
The village was written about by Winfred Eastment in “Ford End – the story of an Essex Village”.
The B1008 is an old Roman Road and can be found identified as road 300 in Margary’s Roman Roads in Britain.
The Website
This website is for residents of Ford End to share news, announce events and discuss relevant topics. If you are a Ford End resident and you have something you would like to share, please see the page “Contribute to this site!” for more information.
Ford End, Essex 
My late cousin Winifred Eastment wrote “We weave as we go” (1972) which documents her time as the wife of the vicar at Ford End. She also wrote “Ford End – the story of an Essex village”. Do you now of these two books?
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Thank you for your comment, Malcolm. One of the residents in the village has mentioned this book and we are currently looking for more copies to keep at the church. It would be a valuable document for the village to have available.
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Malcolm, Is it possible to contact the next-of-kin of Winifred Eastment, as I am keen to get permission from the copyright holder to reproduce content from her published history of Ford End.
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My husband has one of these books and would be happy to donate this to the church. He and his family came from Fordend.
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I was researching the history of my house in Torquay and found out that Winifred Eastment lived there. She wrote several books, but I am so glad to find out she was married to a vicar. Did she also have the surname of Phillips?
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Yes, she wrote under the names Winifred V Philips, Winifred Eastment and, oddly, S O Green. She was fairly prolific I believe and turned her hand to history, fiction and possibly theology.
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My grandfather was a Vicar and I have many of his personal books.One is the book “Heart to heart” by Winifred Eastment and this has been signed by the author for her “gratitude and much help at Pleshey” and is dated 1970. (My grandfather was Revd Canon Kenneth George Symcox)
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Incidentally, I believe that your grandfather was also a published author ?
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If a humble bookseller could help, I can tell you that Winifred Eastment nee Winifred V Philips – apparently also known as S O Green – was the author of numerous books, including two histories of Ford End, one published by the Women`s institute, the other published by Essex Countryside. Her other titles include We Prayed for Peace, Heart to Heart, Down at the Vicarage, Wanstead Through the Ages, and Wanstead Parish Council, the latter being a 15 page booklet.
Hope that helps,
Nick Osmond
Heanor
Derbyshire
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Nick, I have copies of both the first and second edition of Winifred Eastment’s book on Ford End, and would love to get permission to serialise them on this website. As a bookseller, have you any idea how I could contact the copyright holder?
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Hi,
I`m no expert, but I understand that usually the author holds the copyright to their work and then the work continues to be protected by copyright until 70 years after their death. I assume that during the 70 year period the copyright is held by their descendants.
The exceptions are a) where a person is employed to write a book (not very likely to apply in this case) or where an author signs over their rights to a publisher in return for royalties (even less likely to apply in this case).
Would suggest you try to check out the date of death of Winifred – I would contact any surviving family in any case, if only as a courtesy. Possibly Malcolm (see above) could help ?).
Do let me know how you get on as I would be interested to read anything that appears.
If I can be of further help, just ask.
I will get back to you if I think of anything else helpful.
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Thanks Nick. I’ll follow your suggestions, and hopefully find the right people to ask, as you say, as much of courtesy!
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