Abridge, Essex

Living in Abridge by Carol Gook

My parents, Rene and Freddie Gook moved to Abridge in the mid fifties. They were eastenders who belonged to a cycling club and used to visit Abridge at weekends - their destination was Brighty's cafe. They were captivated by the village's charm, and bought one of the new bungalows, we lived at 5 Alderwood Drive.
My Mum had a job in the city and would commute to work on the no 10a bus, my Dad was an electrician and travelled to wherever he was working on his motor bike. I was born in 1967, closely followed by my two brothers... I remember my Dad extending the tiny bungalow to fit us all in!

I remember Brighty's little sweet shop and the cafe quite clearly. The shop was old and dark and had a distinctive smell with creaky floors, I remember the older couple who ran the shop - Mr and Mrs Brighty, I guess. When they closed the shop to make way for the Roding Restaurant, I was about 10 years old, I was given an old tin toy, from the shop's old stock, a monkey which ran up a string when you pulled the string tight. It was in its original box... my Mum took it to keep it safe... I still have it today. The other buildings in the Market Place were interesting too, there was a car showroom selling Volkswagens, called Abridge Engineering, which was by the bus stop. Opposite was the doctors surgery and I remember this as a big house, old and musty smelling. Then, there was a butchers - Owen, a Hairdressers - called Susannah, the Post Office too which seemed to sell everything! Then in the late sixties a trendy boutique appeared, called Janice. Think it became an antique shop later. And also a betting shop next door!
There was a big old house, derelict, almost on the corner of Hoe Lane, before the cricket field, which had an orchard at the back. I can also remember there being a grocer's shop, maybe owned by the Bayles family near here too, sort of at the front, or maybe next door. People would sell flowers and vegetables grown in their gardens, at their gate. I guess these were still the post war years and part of a village way of life. One front garden, opposite the pub The Maltsters, would be completely covered in Marguerite daisies.
The cricket field was home to the annual village fete - I loved the fancy dress competitions - there was cricket here too, of course.
I remember new housing being built on the site of the derelict house, a little cul-de-sac called The Poplars.

I went to Lambourne Primary School, the tiny little village school, which I loved. Lots of my classmates' parents had also attended the school before them. I remember the teachers - Mrs Barr, Mr Whyte who taught some of us to play piano and guitar, and Mr Garner was headmaster at the time. There was a Mr Elliott there too who inspired me personally as an artist and I remember him reading us amazing stories. My Dad helped to build the swimming pool at the back of the school one summer. I remember the school milk freezing in the cold country winters, the warm canteen with lovely dinner ladies.  I did a paper round before school, for the local newsagent, first by car at Lambourne End with the newsagent's wife, then a village round on my bike.
I passed my 11 plus and went on to school at Loughton County High, a Grammar school. I'd take either the 250 bus, an old red single decker to Theydon Bois then catch the tube to Loughton, or the 167a, to Loughton, from the market place. Had to give up my paper round at this point!

In the summer holidays we'd play in and by the river, go on lots of walks using the local footpaths, pick blackberries in Hoe Lane then on to Lambourne End for ice cream and Hainault Forest. I used to ride my bike to Ongar and swim at Grange Farm Outdoor pool. It was a very idyllic outdoor life, loads of interesting places to go. Like the Bluebell woods and the old air raid shelters at the back of New Farm Drive, such simple adventures on your doorstep. We'd play in the fields at the back of Alderwood Drive too.
I sang in the church choir. going to Lambourne Church each Sunday, with choir practice on a Friday night at the newer church in the village. Lambourne church always felt a bit mysterious, with its ancient wall paintings, and brasses on the floor,  but I remember it being really interesting. Loved singing at the weddings!

I remember the Log Cabin cafe too, as a teenager, Sunday aftternoons meeting friends, with it's pinball machines and jukebox. The local Youth Club was great too, that was in the Village Hall on London Road. There was an old garage, Raven's on London road - we'd stop here for petrol, Mr Raven would be at the pumps. We'd go shopping in nearby Romford, to the market and developing shopping centre, on the Greenline bus, which ran every hour.

When I was sixteen my parents moved to nearby Buckhurst Hill... but have often revisited Abridge which although different, still has its own special charm and happy memories.

Growing up in Abridge - roger walker

We moved to Abridge in 1948, I was 8 years old, with mum and dad Pat and Stan Walker.  We lived at no 41 Pancroft Estate later re numbered 45.  My early memories of the little villiage was of Brighty's shop and cafe where all the cyclists use to stop for refreshments.  It was the dad Burt and son Fred  and I think it was his mother who looked like a gypsy.  She used to sit behind the counter with a little old clay pipe in her mouth and above the counter was a big wooden beam with a spur hanging from it.  Fred used to say he found it out in the fields the other side of the river.  He reckoned it  was a Roundhead spur from the civil war.  Also my other memories include Bertie Ferns who used to be governor of the Blue Boar pub. Whenever you went into the pub and Bertie used to be serving he would always be a little worse for wear.  Across the road there used to be a big old house which was Dr Hancock's, the village doctor, unfortunately long gone as the house caught fire, never did know the true story.  Every Sunday morning all the boys of the village who luckily had motor bikes, to mention a few Brian Mumford, Kipper, Johnny Crabb, Colin Taylor,  would meet outside Brighty's shop and each one would set off individually to Theydon Bois to see who could get there the quickest and back to the villiage. I used to attend the junior school at Hoe Lane, the school still stands there.  Then I went onto Ongar Sec School.  We used to be picked up in Abridge villiage by a coach run by Ongar Motors.  We used to play over the fields, now all gone and houses have taken over.  When I was about 13 I got a job looking after chickens and pigs for a local builder, Dick Low was his name.  The fields where the chickens and pigs were was next to Abridge junior school sadly no longer there due to more building of houses and bungalows.  My dad used to work for W.C. French and mum used to be a florist in Barking.  Our next door neighbours were Stokes and the other side was Reeves.  Next door to the Stokes there was an old gentleman.  I can't recall his name but he used to invite all us street kids into watch his TV, no one else owned a telly at that time.  Going back to the village I remember a house next door to the post office which used to be a newsagent.  Mum used to buy me my weekly comic The Eagle there.  Years later most of the village boys went to Clem Hare's 21st birthday party in the hall behind the Blue Boar which is now part of the restaurant.   There was the Flacks, the Barnes, the Cooks.  Would love to hear from any of them if still around.  Good old days, not the same any more.  Too built up but my memories will always remain.  All the shops have gone - Bayles the grocers, Brities, Trixes cafe, where we used to see the mice run along the shelves, the bakers.  Also Bayles had a drapers shop on the side by the Blue Boar.  Luckily the Blue Boar still remains though not as I remember it.  The public transport in the village used to be a no 10 bus which would come from Victoria, turn round in the market square and return back to Victoria.  The other bus service no 250 single decker used to run to Romford.  Then there was a single decker bus Greenline which never stopped in the village but used to pass through and I believe it went to Windsor.  Happy days.  Roger walker

Abridge in the 1950's

I moved to Abridge in 1950 when I was ten years old. My parents bought the white cottage on the London Road, which had a wooden building next to it. This very soon became The Poplar Cafe, my mother’s dream of riches!
I attended the little village school for a year until I passed the 'Scholarship' and went on to Loughton County High School for Girls in 1951. The head teacher, Mr Garner, took the top class (the oldest children) and I remember him quite well. He seemed a very kind man but very old to me. I imagine he must have been close to retirement age because a new head was appointed a few years later, who had several huge, Airdale dogs. Mrs (Daisy) Barr, who taught the youngest children was related to my aunt and uncle, Kath and Vic Barr, who lived next door to us at no. 1 Bayles’ Cottages. At no. 2 Bayles’ Cottages was my uncle Vic’s mother and younger brother, Jim.
When my mother opened the cafe, she was in competition with another cafe almost opposite, which (we always believed, although we never went into it, of course) had a ‘genteel’ clientele requiring cream teas, fairy cakes and suchlike. My mother aimed to corner the market and serve a ‘better class of person’, but she never achieved her aim because she more often served large numbers of cyclists on day trips from the towns. They would stop off at 5.30am for cooked breakfasts and return at about 6.pm for egg and chips!  At weekends particularly, our two up, two down cottage became an extension of the cafe and my small brother (8 years younger than me) and I were exiled either to the one free downstairs room (which housed my piano with no room for much else) or our bedroom (my brother and I shared a room until I was 19 and went to teacher training college) or else my brother roamed the village with his mates, or I went off on the no. 10 bus to Leytonstone to spend the day with my ‘aunt’and ‘uncle.’  We would rather be anywhere than amongst the hoards at the café!
Later, in 1957/8, my boyfriend and I convinced my mother that she should re-invent the café as a Coffee Bar, a trend that was sweeping the country at the time, and so the Poplar Café became the haunt of bikers and ‘Teddy Boys’ who loved the juke box and the pin table.  My mother never forgave me for bringing down the tone of her beautiful tea-room! However, she did have to admit that it was more profitable this way, because the juke box alone (of which she shared the takings 50-50 with the juke box supplier) matched the entire week's takings that she used to get with the old-style café!  It enabled her to sell up in 1961 (for £4000) and retire to Poole, Dorset.

Abridge picture A106012

This photo appears at the back of Essex Living Memories. The two ladies in the foreground with the prams appear familiar - The lady on the left may be Mrs Peagram with her son Colin in the pram. The couple with the child in the pushchair outside the butchers looks like and could actually be my parents and me. They might have just stepped off the No.10 bus the back of which you can see parked by the Blue Boar Pub on the left. At the time this photo would have been taken we weren't yet living in the village, but my parents formed the Leyton Self-Build Group which started with 100 members but was left with six committed members who built houses in the semi-detached style opposite Raven's Garage in London Road. My father at this time would have been spending all his spare time in the village building the houses, with the five other men and my grandfather who was a bricklayer by trade. They also had help from Frank Reeves who was a local drainage expert.

To the right of the picture behind the women with prams is Brighty's Electrical, beyond that the weatherboard Post Office, the butcher's shop and a big chestnut tree which was one of several trees in the grounds of Dr Ellis's house, built in the Georgian era, but later demolished to make was for a cul-de-sac. The old van parked in the Market Place possibly belonged to Trixxie who raised poultry up at Lambourne. He was brother to Six Foot, a very small man who lived half way up Hoe Lane. Six Foot kept a very narrow shop (located behind the van) where large quantities of fresh eggs were sold, hen and duck, and fresh tea was served from an urn. There was just about enough room for the counter on the left, a small alleyway for the customers and on the right a stool or two and a ledge to put a plate and cup on. I think you could buy a sandwich or a biscuit. Next to Six Foot's tiny shop was Bertie Brighty's shop which also had a cafe at the back. You would go down steps to get into these old buildings.

You can also see the greengrocer's shop with the Hovis sign on the wall. Fresh bread would be delivered there daily from the bakery at Theydon Bois.

Chigwell Photographic Memories

We have turned the corner we saw in photograph A106020. The view is much the same today, with Gould’s Cottages (c1840) on the left-hand side. On the right the weatherboard house is Retreat House, for much of the 20th century a post office, and now much extended.

Chigwell Photographic Memories

The White Hart building (right) dates from the 1880s, but the establishment is much older, being mentioned in a list of inns of the 1720s. A cattle fair was held in June at Abridge from the 18th century to the 1870s.

Chigwell Photographic Memories

The Blue Boar, the building on the left with the two columns, is mid 19th- century, and was probably built to sell the products of the Anchor Brewery, which became the Abridge Brewery and finally a store for the Whitbread company. However, it is mentioned on the same 18th-century list as The White Hart.