MALDON, Chelmsford and Witham were the stars of the small screen last week as our county featured on Michael Portillo's Great British Train Journeys.

Following George Bradshaw's historic holiday guidebook, the former MP has travelled the length and breadth of the country discovering what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

And now in its third series, the popular BBC2 programme saw the former Tory MP trying on a fat man's waistcoat and baking his first loaf of bread as he travelled from Sudbury to Southend.

Local historian Stephen Nunn was tasked with showing Michael around Maldon.

He said: "I'm trying to promote Maldon and boost the town's economy through tourism so when I was contacted by Michael's production company I thought this would be a great way to do it.

"He was travelling to Southend from Sudbury following Bradshaw's guide which mentions the story of Edward Bright – the fat man of Maldon.

"He was interested in this and so wanted to stop off in Maldon and find out more.

"We went to Edward Bright's house and then to where a statue of him is located in the town.

"Michael said he liked Maldon and seemed genuinely interested in the stories which is great. He seemed like a very nice man.

"We also re-enacted the myth that seven people could fit inside the fat man's waistcoat which was good fun.

"The filming took about two days, but only about two to three minutes were shown on air.

"It was great to see the town on TV again and will hopefully bring more people to the district."

While in Maldon, Mr Portillo also visited the town's old rail station.

Mr Nunn added: "As Michael was doing a programme about train journeys, he visited the old Maldon East station, The rail line to Maldon was closed in the 1960s and I was actually one of the last few to ride on the final journey – it was a Sunday school trip."

Station was open for 118 years

The station opened on September 7, 1848, and closed nearly 118 years later on April, 18, 1966.

The station was opened as Maldon, but was renamed Maldon East on October 1, 1889, and Maldon East & Heybridge on October 1, 1907.

It has seen various uses over the years including that of a bar and restaurant.

The station was built extravagantly in the style of a Jacobean mansion with ornate chimneys and Dutch gables and across the front is a nine-arch arcade.

It is believed that the station's splendour is due to the fact that the deputy chairman of the Eastern Counties Railway, David Waddington, was an election candidate when it was built.

It seems that quite a number of men, most of them freemen of Maldon and thus able to vote, were offered employment on the railway construction some time before the election.

The workers who were dismissed shortly after the poll, were paid a guinea for their efforts and they gained the nickname of 'guinea pigs'.

Marriages had an important link to county's railway history

AFTER a brief stop at Layer Marney Tower, near Colchester Michael was back on the train and headed for Chelmsford.

In Essex's county town he met Hannah Marriage, from the family-run Marriage milling company based at Chelmer Mills.

The dynastic company was founded in 1824. Hannah is a sixth-generation Marriage and heads up the newly-formed flour marketing team.

"It was really good to have Michael come down to the mill," she said.

"The production team contacted us in early June and told us that in the third series Michael would be headed to Essex, travelling from Sudbury to Southend.

"Because of the mill's link to railways they were keen to involve Marriages in the programme – which was very exciting.

"The mill used to have its own rail links and so coal would be brought in on trains and flour taken out.

"Michael was really interested in finding out about the history of this and was a really nice guy. His crew came down and did some filming about two weeks before Michael himself.

"We then spent two days filming the on-camera parts but only a few minutes are shown on TV. He had quite a big crew with him and it was really exciting to be a part of it all.

"Michael was really keen to find out as much as he could and he was genuinely really interested in finding out more about Marriage's history.

"He got stuck in with the bread-making and seemed to really enjoy himself."

It is a true family business – Hannah's father, George, is managing director of the flour side of the business, her uncle Peter runs the animal feed division, while cousin James, in his mid-20s, works in the animal feed sales team.

She continued: "Marriages is synonymous with Chelmsford so it was great that we could feature in the programme.

"The programme is a fantastic showcase for our county and we were privileged to have taken part."

Edward Bright: At 42 stones, he's the largest man who has lived in the town

Edward Bright was born in 1721 and was a post boy in his youth.

He became a candle manufacturer and grocer and the house and shop where he lived still stands on the High Street and is known as Church House.

Bright died on November 10, 1750, at the age of just 29, and was thought to be the 'largest man that had ever lived in Maldon'.

The last time that he had been weighed when he was 28 his weight was 584 lbs, or nearly 42 stones.

He was 5'9" in height and round the chest measured 5'6" and the stomach 6'11".

He was buried in All Saints' church on the November 12 in a vault near the tower arch.

A special coffin was made and a note in the parish burial register records 'a way was cut through the wall and staircase to let it down into the shop; it was drawn upon a carriage to the church and slid upon rollers to the vault made of brickwork, and interred by the help of a triangle and pulley.

A wager was made about how many men could fit into Bright's waistcoat. The wager was whether 500 men could be buttoned into the waistcoat, but this was topped by the man who got seven men from the Dengie Hundred, so making 700 men.

George Bradshaw

George Bradshaw was born on July 29, 1801 and died on September 6 1853.

He was a cartographer, printer and publisher.

In 1840 he became the first person to produce a comprehensive timetable and travel guide of the railway system in Great Britain.

Although at the time extensive, the guide still comprised a series of fragmented and competing railway companies and lines, each publishing their own literature.

Throughout his programme, Great British Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo uses 'Bradshaw's Tourist Guidebook'.

The guide is extremely rare in book form but was an invaluable source of information for the Victorian traveller (if they could afford it), highlighting the most popular places to visit.

The guide and Bradshaw have featured heavily in literature, including a reference by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.