Billericay is a very historic town whose origins go back to pre-historic times although for many years it was not an independent town, but was regarded as a hamlet of the village of Great Burstead; albeit a very large hamlet . The town is connected with two important events in British history and one event that at the time attracted national and international attention.
In the summer of 1381 some of the residents of Billericay took part in the Peasant’s Revolt against the unfair imposition by the Government of the day of a Poll Tax on the population of England. It was in Norsey Wood just to the north of Billericay that the Peasants made their last desperate, but unsuccessful stand against the forces of the King. During the 19th Century a workman who was digging gravel in the Wood found a ditch and a cave containing some charcoal and pieces of brick which may have been connected with the Peasants’ last stand.
Billericay is also associated with the Mayflower Settlers of America. The Secretary of the Mayflower Settlers was Christopher Martin who came from the town and who also owned three properties in it. Two of the properties were across the road from what is now the Chantry Café, and this is probably why the suggestion that he lived in that building arose. Christopher Martin was a mercer (linen draper) and a former church warden of Billericay’s then mother parish Great Burstead, who it appears may have had differences with the vicar of the latter, William Pease, who was a tenant of his and so turned Puritan and from there got involved with the Mayflower Settlers. When Christopher Martin went to America with him also went his wife and his step-son. During the mid 1920s there was a possibility that Christopher Martin’s supposed old home might be sold, dismantled and shipped to Boston in America and re-erected there. The news of the possible sale, dismantling and shipping to America made national news and the matter was raised in Parliament in London. Fortunately this did not happen. The Mayflower is commemorated in several ways in Billericay. A likeness of it features on the town sign. There is a Mayflower Hall in Billericay and one of the town’s secondary schools is named after the ship.
During the First World War on the night of 23rd/24th September 1916 the German Zeppelin airship L32 was brought down just to the south of Billericay with the loss of its crew. The place where the airship had crashed attracted great crowds who came not only from the immediate neighbourhood, but also further afield including London. The Great Eastern Railway, which served Billericay, put on six special trains to enable people to go to the town to see the site of the crash. In booking the large number of sightseers back home the town’s railway station ran out of tickets. The event was reported in newspapers throughout the world as well as in Britain. One of the local newspapers serving Billericay, the Southend Standard, produced an illustrated supplement on the airship’s crash. The airman who was responsible for the destruction of the airship, Second Lieutenant Frederick Sowrey, Royal Flying Corps was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for having brought down the airship.