Essex Girls!

Mishap My parents and I moved to Wembley in around 1953/4, so your time and mine in Clapham probably didn't coincide.

Eleothan - we were born just round the corner from each other by the common. But it would seem from our profiles that we were not being born at exactly the same moment!

Er, left a word out. I meant, I must be getting old . Ha, ironic that

Yes, I think Plummers was probably mainly fabric, might have been household things too, not sure. Definitely fabric though cos I bought my wedding dress and veil fabric there.
I remember the old red brick library - didn't realise the one that replaced it has also gone now. I must be getting

Then they built a new one next door to it. now that has gone, and the new central library is somewhere else entirely. Petra will know!

I worked for a time in the old central library, the red brick one.

Plummers sounds familiar, was it a curtain, material shop?

It came to me this afternoon, petra - I think it was Plummers.

It wasn't opposite Keddies, just that it was on the other side of the road. I just had a look on google maps and I think it was the building on the corner of Clifftown Road and High Street - now Bargain Buys.

Hi AshTree. No, the fishmongers has gone. The bridge is still there and there's always a good music being played there.
I'm trying to think what was opposite Keddies. Will try to remember to look when I next go to our beautiful new library. That's looking at old pics.

Is there still a fishmonger's under the railway bridge petra? Come to that, is there still a railway bridge? . There used to be another department store, on the other side of the high street to Keddies. It was on a corner. I bought the fabric for my wedding dress there! Can't remember what it was called though, think it began with a P. Any ideas?

I live in Southend. The department store you are thinking of is Dixons.
Would it surprise some of you that there is now a Michelin (sp) stared restaurant at the corner by the Kursal. The Kursal casino was where I worked as a croupier for the Walker brothers (Billy Walker, the boxer) that was interesting :-)
The Keddies family home is now a wedding venue. I love my home town, and as I've said before: kiss me quick hats are a tiny part of the town.

Pompa I do agree with you about Frinton. It was our most visited beach when I was a child - the whole family, 6 of us, would pile into the car on a sunny Sunday and spend the day there, then drive up to Clacton for fish and chips in the early evening.
I've lived in Devon for 38 years but I still miss Essex. I do visit now and again because my family are still there, in the Maldon and Burnham area. Last time we spent an afternoon at Battlesbridge antiques centre and another afternoon wandering around Colchester. And yes, Tiptree is lovely, rural England at its best but so close to the capital. Good choice!

I can't claim to be a born and bred Essex lad, I was born in Yorkshire, but have lived in Essex for the greatest part of my life.

Mishap I was also born at my grandparents' house - in Grandison Road.

Eleothan - I too was born in Clapham at my grandmother's house in Tregarvon Road.

And I also remember the floods, particularly as they affected Canvey Island just down the road from us.

We also had a Rossi ice cream factory in the Broadway and sixpence and a pudding basin got filled up.

I'm an Essex girl. Born in Little Thurrock. That's between Grays and Tilbury. The 1953 flood water came to the bottom of our road. A lot of the old houses had a Dutch style influence but most got pulled down in the 60's. West Thurrock was covered in cement from the Blue circle cement works, and we also had a margarine factory and other proctor and gamble works. IN East Thurrock there was a Bata shoe factory and all junior school kids got free plimsolls each year. Lots of people worked at Tilbury Docks as dockers but some went as far as Dagenham to the Ford plant. My dad worked in the docks at both Tilbury and the Royal Docks in the East end of London.
At the end of our road there was a very large quarry dug at the time before the Stone Age for the flints. We also had Dane holes underground caves where Flint was extracted before Roman times.
We also had tilbury fort which I believe was Elizabethan.
I escaped Essex when at 18 I joined the WRAF. My accent at that time was definitely North Thames Gas Board but now that's gone otherwise I could be in East Enders!

I was born in Black Notley Hospital Braintree though my parents lived in Stratford East London. it was a TB hospital - mother had TB. at birth I was wisked off to a nursery in Writtle while mother convalesced in Passmore Edwards on Clacton sea front. Back to London then a move to Clacton when I was 10 where I stayed until I was 25- moved to Colchester and did my nurse training there. Several years later moved to Chelmsford and then to Witham, after that just one year in Rayleigh as I was working in Southend. DH took early retirement from his job at Thurrock Council and we moved to Wensleydale. Two and half years later being too cold we moved a bit further down to the east Midlands where we will stay I think. I miss Essex and feel more at home there but DH wont move back - the congestion gets to him. I have a sister and MIL in Colchester so a meet up would be good.

I was born in Clapham, moved to Wembley when 4 years old, Romford at 8 years old, a Suffolk village at 13 years old and then Colchester. After that, West Sussex and Lancashire but for the last 27 years in East London. I suppose I think of myself as a Londoner primarily although the teenage years I spent in Romford were very happy.

Born in Essex (near Chelmsford), both parents and both grandfathers born in Essex. One set of grandparents lived in Westcliff, the other set near Colchester. One of my favourite places in the world is Goldhanger.

I have just wasted a lot of time looking up old haunts on the net. It is addictive - time for bed! I found my old singing teacher Freda Parry and discovered that she was Hubert Parry's cousin. And my old GP; and one of my primary teachers etc.....fascinating!

I started by looking up Bread and Cheese Hill to check that I remembered its strange name aright - and it was right.

I am from the North but met my two best friends, to this day, in North Wales. One was from near Colchester and I spent a whole summer fruit picking - strawberries, blackberries and apples near there. The memories are as if they were yesterday. I loved it! The other friend was from Leigh on Sea and visiting her was an eye opener! The only time I have ever been sailing was there and this was followed by an evening at the sailing club. I had never been anywhere so posh (and still haven't)! This was almost 50 years ago and I have never been back. TOWIE bears no resemblance to my memories so I guess Essex is as diverse as Lancashire.

My Rossis experiences started with washing up - the water was filthy! - and then out front selling ice cream on the sea front in a little kiosk. I went up to uni in 1966, and was working in the children's home that summer, but was at Rossis the summer before - so I probably missed you.

Most of my courting was at uni rather than Southend, where I was a sweet innocent girl.

Oh Meads Ballroom! That was a great night out. And who remembers Shades nightclub in Southend - well, nearer Thorpe Bay really. And the Shrubbery, right at the end of the High Street, on the right, facing the seafront.