Essex Folk Tales for Children

Essex Folk Tales for Children gathers stories connected with the county’s towns, villages, coast and estuaries. Jan Williams includes nursery rhymes associated with Colchester, then moves through tales of dragons at Wormingford and Great Bentley, the basilisk of Saffron Walden, and ghost stories from Canvey Island, East Mersea and Mersea Island. Romans, Vikings, smugglers and highwaymen also appear, with accounts linked to places such as Benfleet, Fingringhoe, Epping and Leigh-on-Sea.

The collection concludes with fairy stories including The Bad-Tempered Brownie, Beauty and the Beast and The King of Colchester’s Daughter. Written for children aged 7 to 11, the book presents local traditions alongside familiar storytelling forms, helping to connect imaginative tales with the Essex landscapes and communities named in them. Simon Peecock provides the illustrations.