In the latest of her features for Nub News, Thurrock Historical Society's Susan Yates takesa soaring view across the county.

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I WAS lying in bed one night recently unable to sleep when I remembered a story I was told about the Lloyds of London building in Lime Street known colloquially as 'the oil rig'.

When it was commissioned what the owners wanted was a building that was recognisable from the air. So if you flew over London you would know Big Ben, Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral and the Lloyds Building.

I began to think what Essex buildings would be easily recognisable from the air.

I have flown over Thurrock on many occasions when flying out of Gatwick and the first structure you see is the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge unmissable as it is still the last bridge across the Thames before it reaches the sea carrying south bound traffic from Essex to Kent.

Construction of the QEII bridge began on 2 August 1988. The bridge is 2,869 metres long and clears the river by 60 metres. The bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday 30 October 1991.

It is still the only bridge across the Thames downstream of Central London to be opened since Tower Bridge in 1894. It is the busiest estuarial crossing in the United Kingdom, with an average daily use of more than 130,000 vehicles.

It was designed by German civil engineer Hellmut Homberg and the total cost of construction was £120 million.

By March 2014, a total of 1,486,929,267 journeys had been made. The highest recorded daily usage was 181,990 on 23 July 2004 but a report in 2016 by Highways England suggested the crossing is used around 50 million times a year. I wonder when the first hold up on the bridge was!

Further down river you see Hadleigh Castle or at least what remains of the romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes.

Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War, becoming important economically and defensively. Built of Reigate stone and ragstone rubble and tiles with a lot of cockle shells in the mortar.

The foundations of the curtain wall remains between the eight towers. These are now not very high but it is still a Grade I listed building and is of great interest being the only work of this type in the country.

Further along the river we see the famous Southend Pier stretching 1.33 miles out into the river and Thames Estuary. The original pier was of timber and replaced by an iron pier which opened in August 1889. The pier railway opened in the early 1890s and was the first pier railway in the country. It is the longest pleasure pier in the world.

Away from the river I once took a flight with a friend who had a pilot's licence. We flew in a Cessna from Andrewsfield, Dunmow to one of my favourite places - Hylands Park at Writtle.

Hylands House was completed in 1730 for the lawyer Sir John Comyns. This beautiful house in its own grounds stayed in the Comyns family until 1797 when the house passed by auction to Cornelius Hendrickson Kortright.

It was Kortright who employed Humphry Repton to redesign the park and enlarge the house. Repton walked and rode the estate working on his famous 'red book' for Hylands. Sadly the one for Hylands has been lost. The house passed to Pierre Labouchere until 1839 when it was purchased by John Attwood who sold it to Arthur Pryor in 1858. He sold it to Sir Daniel Gooch in 1905. It was then purchased by John and Christine Hanbury of Truman's brewery fame.

John sadly never lived at the house dying suddenly in 1923 leaving it to his wife and son John who was one of the first pilots to die in WWII. Christine made great changes to the grounds creating a terrace at the rear of the house and a ha-ha replaced the Repton fence which partially circled the house.

Christine also created a private consecrated area within the pleasure garden dedicated to her husband and son. It is an area that I always find very moving and I can imagine her sitting there in her solitude remembering happier times.

She died aged 89 in 1962 and the house and park eventually went to Chelmsford Council who restored the house to its former glory.

It now stands surrounded by the A414 on two sides gleaming white in the bright sunlight in an oasis of green. Now in the 21st century it is used for weddings in its sumptuous banqueting room as well as being open to the public with guided tours and of course a tea room.

From here we flew north to take in another Essex building recognisable from the air - Bocking Windmill. This beautiful post mill stands proud in Bocking Church Street and is visible from Bocking Common.

Built in 1721 about 160 metres west of its current location and moved in 1830 to its present home. It has a two storey roundhouse with one pair of common sails (look like trellis with sail cloth stretched across) and one pair of spring sails (look like venetian blinds operated by a bow spring). It has three pairs of stones two driven by wind and one pair driven by auxiliary steam engine. The mill is 13 metres high. The sails have a span of 18.3 metres. Although not working this mill is Grade I listed and well worth a visit.

Whilst in the area it is also worth visiting Bocking Church another Grade I listed building.

This is a Peculiar which means the dean or rector is appointed not by the local bishop but by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself.