Not devoid of bucolic charm

The 1594 map of John Norden

The railroad from Wickford to Burnham 
traverses a very pleasant open country, largely 
pastoral in its interests and industries, and certainly 
not devoid of bucolic charm. It carries you to 
Battlesbridge, where an iron bridge spans the 
Crouch near the old water-mill, and where, as 
tradition states, fugitive warriors crossed the river 
after the Battle of Ashingdon. Next you reach 
Woodham Ferris, where Maurice Fitz- Geoffrey 
founded a priory for Black Canons at Bycknacre, 
in the days of our second Henry ; a Transitional 
arch, standing in solitary desolation among the 
corn, was recently perhaps it yet stands the 
sole relic of that once rich foundation. The 
curious may find an illustration of this arch, and 
much interesting letterpress touching the priory, in 
Archteologia (1793). Another three miles takes you 
to Fambridge, whither we have already rambled ; 
then, looking southwards from the train window, 
you will survey a wide stretch of perfectly flat 
marshland, scribbled over with winding creeks 
and narrow dykes, spanned by many little bridges. 
Presently you will catch glimpses of the white 
sails of yachts and the masts of barges in the far 
distance, afloat upon the broader waters of the 
Crouch Estuary. Althorne is soon passed, and the 
next station is Burnham-on-Crouch the ' Burne- 
ham streete ' of John Norden's map. 

from Marsh-country Rambles (1904) by Herbert Tompkins