UK Data Archive

The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass universities. The university shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Essex and the motto: "Thought the harder, heart the keener" is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon. The university comprises three campuses in the county, in Southend-on-Sea and Loughton with its primary campus in Wivenhoe Park, Colchester. Essex is rated Silver for Teaching Excellence by the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework, named University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards in 2018, and is ranked an internationally excellent research-intensive university by the REF. Essex's Department of Government received Regius Professorship conferred by Her Majesty, The Queen in 2013 and the university was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize on two occasions for advancing Human Rights in 2009 and Social and Economic Research in 2017. The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £317.8 million of which £34.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £299.8 million.Essex has produced many distinguished alumni in several fields across the world least but not limited to: Nobel Prize laureates, a head of state, senior governors and politicians, executives and economists, scientists, artists, academics, authors, and film directors.

Wivenhoe Park is a landscaped green space of more than 200 acres (81 ha) at the eastern edge of Colchester, England. It is the site of Wivenhoe House, a four-star hotel, based in an eighteenth-century Grade II listed house. Wivenhoe House is also home to the Edge Hotel School, the first school of its kind in the UK and since October 2018 a department of the University of Essex. Since the 1960s, Wivenhoe Park has also been home to the Colchester Campus of the University of Essex. John Constable painted the park in 1816. His painting, Wivenhoe Park, is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.Wivenhoe Park has received a Green Flag Award six times and has received a Gold Award as a Hedgehog Friendly Campus. The parkland has been voted one of the top ten green spaces in the UK, in the People's Choice Award on four consecutive occasions and is the only university campus to have achieved this award.The park is host to a very large colony of rabbits. Habitat surveys have identified many other species at Wivenhoe Park.

Wivenhoe House is a grade II-listed house located in Colchester, Essex. It is in use as a 4-star hotel.

Salary Brook Local Nature Reserve is a 17.1 hectare Local Nature Reserve covering a stretch of Salary Brook and its banks on the south-east outskirts of Colchester in Essex. It is owned and managed by Colchester Borough Council.The site has a variety of habitats, with the brook itself, pasture, ponds and marsh. Fauna include four species of bats, water voles, lizards, nightingales and reed warblers. Berrimans Pasture has over one hundred plants, particularly ones typical of unimproved damp grasslands.There is access from Scarfe Way, Sherbourne Road, Titania Close and Sandpiper Close.

Colne Local Nature Reserve is a 34.7 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Wivenhoe in Essex. It is owned and managed by Colchester Borough Council.Most of the site is east of the railway line through Wivenhoe, but two areas are west of the railway line adjacent to the River Colne, including Wivenhoe Marsh, which is close to Wivenhoe railway station. Several streams discharge into the marsh. The central and southern areas are Wivenhoe Woods, which have sixteen tree species with sweet chestnut dominant. The northern part is Lower Lodge, scrub and grassland which has a row of mature oak trees on its eastern boundary.Access points include Rosabelle Avenue.

Colchester Academy, formerly Sir Charles Lucas Arts College, is a secondary school in Colchester, Essex specialising in English and Health Sciences. It opened on 6 September 2010.

Upper Colne Marshes is a 114.1-hectare (282-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south and west of Wivenhoe in Essex. It lies along stretches of the River Colne and Roman River.The site has grazing marshes, salt tidal marshes, beaches, sea walls and intertidal mud. It has an important assemblage of nationally scarce plants and diverse ditch types. The grassland is species rich, with rare types such as sea barley, and salt marsh has the nationally uncommon lax-flowered sea-lavender. Insects include the nationally scarce Roesel's bush-cricket.The site is in five areas, some of which are crossed by roads and footpaths.

The Greenstead roundabout is a large roundabout junction in Colchester, Essex, England.It is a "magic roundabout", where traffic travels both directions around a central island. It is a ring junction comprising five mini roundabouts, with two lanes in each direction, joining each to its neighbour. It is known for its complexity, and the resulting confusion it causes for some motorists. The nickname "magic roundabout" comes from the television programme, The Magic Roundabout, which was popular in the 1970s, when this novel layout was devised.It is located between the Hythe and Greenstead areas of the town, with the A133 (St Andrew's Avenue); Avon Way; Greenstead Road and the A134 (Elmstead Road). The Colchester roundabout lacks the intermediate traffic islands found on the similar roundabout in Swindon, but nonetheless it is possible to traverse around the large inner roundabout in a clockwise or an anti/counter-clockwise direction as desired. The creation of the roundabout stirred much controversy among the local community, as large amounts of the nearby Greenstead cemetery were destroyed to make way for the project. Since that time, many houses have been built between the roundabout and the cemetery, diminishing the size and use of the cemetery significantly, with the majority of housing now being let to students.

Wivenhoe ( WIV-ən-hoh) is a town and civil parish in the Colchester district, in north-eastern Essex, England, approximately 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements; however, with considerable development in the 19th century, the two have since merged. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 7,637, compared with 7,221 in 2001.The town's history centres on fishing, ship building and smuggling.Much of lower Wivenhoe is also a designated conservation area, with many streets being of particular architectural interest.

Rowhedge Ironworks was a shipyard situated on the River Colne, and in the village of Rowhedge, in the English county of Essex. It existed from 1904 to 1964, and built a number of coastal vessels, including VIC type Clyde puffers and ferries for the Hythe Ferry in Southampton. The yard also specialised in building small craft for overseas buyers, often in kit form for assembly abroad, including vessels for use on Lake Titicaca and the River Nile.The site of the yard is now occupied by a riverside housing development.

Rowhedge is a village in the Colchester borough of Essex, England. It is located just over 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Colchester town centre and is part of the civil parish of East Donyland.

Welsh Wood is a 3.2 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Colchester in Essex. It is owned and managed by Colchester Borough Council.Trees in this site are managed by rotational coppicing, and include ash, hazel, sweet chestnut and the rare small leaved lime. It is carpeted by bluebells in the spring, and there are other flowers such as yellow archangel and wood anemone. Dead wood provides a habitat for stag beetle larvae.There is access from Deben Road and Barbel Road.