In the latest of her occasional features, Susan Yates - chair of Thurrock Historical Society - years for a return to the road and imagines all the places she will be able to see soon - Covid-19 willing!

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THE children are back at school but us golden oldies are still stuck at home. I have just bought a new car and long to take it for a drive. Perhaps to visit St Osyth Priory, Roman Colchester or maybe the bronze age site at Springfield Lyons.

Springfield Lyons Bronze Age (2000BC to 750BC) enclosure is found just off junction 19 on the A12. It has always fascinated me. Its sheer size is impressive and it isn't hard to visualise Bronze Age people living here. This site was excavated in 1981-3.

It consists of a circular enclosure, a ditch broken by a number of causeways, a bank and internal timber ramparts. The ditch was about 1.5m deep and 5m wide. Its main entrance is a causeway from the east which would have been guarded by a timber gateway.

In the centre would have been a large timber roundhouse approximately 7m in diameter with entrance facing east so they could see the rising sun and two smaller roundhouses. Finds included moulds for bronze swords, loom weights and spindle whorls.

The inhabitants would have grown spelt wheat, barley and beans. The enclosure was in use about 900 BC and then abandoned.

The site was used in Saxon times as a cemetery and the excavated graves can be easily seen.

Having had my Bronze Age fix I move on to Roman Colchester. When King Cunobelin died in AD40 he left his kingdom to two of his sons, Caractacas and Togodumnus. Rome had long been harbouring ambitions to conquer Britain and in AD 43 Emperor Claudius sent his legions under Aulus Plautius to invade. They landed at Richborough and marched to the Medway where they fought and killed Togodumnus. Camulodunum (Roman Colchester) was captured and Emperor Claudius, protected by his Praetorian Guard, entered Colchester to take the victory.

Standing at the Balkerne Gate (this gate is said to be the best preserved Roman gateway in England) one can visualise the roman soldiers on guard duty or may be Boudica and her tribesmen making their way in to raise the town to the ground and slaughter its inhabitants.

The gate was built in the first century between AD70-96. It had two arched passageways with separate arched footways on both sides. What we see today is the south side footway and the remains of the guard tower.

If imagination is failing I find a visit to the Hole in the Wall pub next door helps. A walk through Castle Park and a look round the Norman Castle is a must as it was built circa 1076 and is the largest Norman keep in England. More importantly it is located on the foundations of the Roman Temple of

Claudius and is probably the reason for its good state of preservation. It was constructed on the orders of William the Conqueror and this splendid example of a Norman keep is the result.

After satiating my appetite for the Roman I think I will visit St. Osyth and its Priory, which was built just after 1120 by the then Bishop of London Richard de Belmeis. It was a house for Augustinian canons and dedicated to St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Osyth. St. Osyth was an English saint born in Buckinghamshire the daughter of sub-king of Mercia called Frithwald.

She was raised in a convent and wanted to become an Abbess however she was made by her father to marry Sighere the King of Essex and gave him a son. She never lost her ambition and whilst Sighere was away hunting she persuaded two local bishops to accept her vows as a nun. It wasn't until after her husband's death that she established a convent at Chich, now St Osyth, where she became the first abbess.

While in St Osyth visit the Cage. This was a medieval prison and the 13 St Osyth witches were imprisoned here in 1582 including the notorious Ursula Kemp. She was found guilty because of her reputation to be able to remove curses placed by witches. She was accused by Grace Thurlowe and her own eight year old son also testified against her.

It was because of this and a promise of clemency that she confessed and in doing so implicated

others. Allegedly she stopped beer from brewing and caused death by witchcraft. The witches were sent for trial. Only three were found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to death by hanging. This included Ursula Kemp. The cage was used as a prison up until 1908 when it became a private residence.

It is said to be one of the most haunted homes in England. It was put up for sale in 2005 and remained unsold for many years.

I am not sure where my next outing will take me but it will be somewhere interesting in this wonderful county of ours.