It was the day before the autumn equinox, but the weather had other ideas: perfect blue skies and hot sunshine, in a last flurry of summer. Where to go? What to do? Why not a trip to Silver End: train to Witham, then bus to our destination, only 40 minutes’ travel if the connections work.

We do like a bit of social history, especially living history in bricks and mortar. Over the past few years we have spent very happy days visiting Saltaire, New Lanark, Port Sunlight and East Tilbury, all living villages that were created to house the workers from local industry. Whether through philanthropy or a desire of the ‘master’ to exercise control over his workforce more easily is a moot point…

But our closest ‘model village’ was until this weekend a mystery to us, despite the fact we have driven past the sign to it on the A12 countless times over the years. Silver End was developed from 1926 as a village to house workers for the Crittall windows factory, and plenty of the original buildings survive, mostly with the distinctive metal-framed windows produced at the site, and apparently used here to test their durability in the face of British weather.

Especially on Silver Street and Francis Way, the view is still remarkably intact, with flat-roofed ivory-white buildings, often with pebble-dashed chimneys, in remarkable conformity.

Aside from these, there is an array of contemporary housing designs, each immediate group differing from others through the whims of different architects, together with buildings providing community services such as schools, hotel, larger houses for the management and municipal parks.

One of the most celebrated of the listed Modernist houses is ‘Le Chateau’, the one that established the template for the rest of the village, although its current state of apparent neglect shows that listing is of little value in itself unless it comes with a responsibility to maintain.

But the whole community still feels intact. We had been expecting the worst, especially having seen East Tilbury, but we were very pleasantly surprised…

East Tilbury still has the iconic BATA factory, albeit in a state of dereliction, at its heart…

… but sadly at Silver End, the Crittall factory buildings were mostly demolished in 2008. The heart was ripped out of the meaning of the whole settlement, despite its recognition as a conservation area.

Just a few disused factory buildings survive today, amid a vast swathe of brownfield land. It is hard to imagine any modern development that could replace these without destroying the raison-d’être of Silver End. Perhaps it would be best left in this state of ‘urban decay’, which of course would certainly add wildlife value into the mix.

The small area we were able to explore (most is behind serious exclusionary barricades) had a typically random mix of plants from Narrow-leaved Ragwort to Raspberry, and Red Valerian to Guernsey Fleabane, all covered in Large and Small White butterflies and Seven-spot Ladybirds. Brownfield sites never fail to excite!

While the hub of Silver End seems to be the Co-op, on the site of a department store to serve the model village which burned down in 1951, only at the edge of the village is there a pub, the Western Arms. And what a find that was: a good pint (or two!) and great food  (homemade pie for me, mushroom linguini for Jude, with a seafood starter from the fish kiosk) in the beer-garden. And with a female Migrant Hawker  for company  as well! She found the wooden fence to her liking, and arched her abdomen several times as though she were egg-laying, although no water in sight: a mystery to finish our excellent day out!