Essex is crammed full of historic gems. The county is home to Britain’s oldest recorded town, Colchester, the medieval towns of Thaxted and Saffron Walden and the magnificent Audley End House and Ingatestone Hall. The splendid Layer Marney Tower is the tallest Tudor gatehouse in England, Hedingham Castle is a superb Norman Keep and the splendour of Hylands House has previously doubled as the White House.
Contrastingly there are densely populated urban towns with a whole range of architecture from the medieval to the 21st century spilling over into vast tracts of open countryside.
The county’s wild salt marshes, huge expanses of mud flats and estuaries remain pristine and largely undeveloped. The ooastline is steeped in seafaring history. The busy ports of Harwich and Tilbury are extremely film-friendly as are the county's fishing communities and seaside towns with their charming Victorian piers, fishing and yachting centres.
Essex has a diverse contrasting landscape from the medieval to the modern, the remote to the gritty and all on the doorstep of London. Whatever the script, Essex has everything except mountains!
