Some time ago I drove past a sign for the village of Radwinter in Essex and was captivated by the name, and after a few months of brooding on a story, I took the opportunity to write one about a family called Radwinter as part of the National Novel Writing Month challenge.
I had never been to Radwinter, all I knew of it was the name and what I could find by looking on Google maps and Google Earth, and what I found from the internet about the place’s history on the village web-site. I have no connection with it, although many of my own relatives were born and lived not far away and would have known it.
The other day, over in the east of England with my cousins, I took the opportunity to go and find Radwinter. We parked and I glimpsed the St Mary’s church through the winter trees.
Unfortunately the church was locked, but what a fascinating place it looks; we spent a while wandering round the graveyard, just as a character in my novel might do, looking for familiar names on the graves.
Radwinter is a tiny place, but oh so pretty, although as it is set on a crossroads of a very busy road there was a lot of traffic whizzing past and no people about. We wandered around looking at the different buildings, and I was fascinated by the old village pump, which you can see below, with the almshouses in the background.
I shall write more later, but if you are interested, whether you have a connection with the place or not, have a look at the parish web-site:
Lois Elsden 