Aveley An Age Away.

A Memory of Aveley.

I lived in Aveley Villiage from when I was born in 1957 until we moved to the Kennington Estate about 1971.   We had a funny house in Church View which seemed to be back to front compared to some of my friends houses.   Our end of Church View was a Cul de Sac with a circular turning area in the road where it ended.   Hours were spent by the children in our road playing in the street, skipping, hopscotch, rounders or riding our bikes up and down and around the 'banjo' shaped end of our road.   From the upstairs front bedroom, which was my parents room, you could look out and see the recreation ground beyond the houses opposite us.   Every year a fair would arrive (twice I think) and cause great excitement, we loved it and would disappear over there as often as our parents would allow.   I remember the old High Street very well, I should do - I ran enough errands!   Clarks Butchers, the Greengrocers, Reads newsagent, the lady who ran the Post Office, the women in the Bakers shop - my Mum seemed to know them all, I couldn't get away with a thing, but I was safe.   Those days seem so far away now and I moved from the area years ago, but how things have changed.   As a child I thought Aveley must be the most boring place on earth, as an adult I think back and have such fond and happy memories of my early days there, the people and the way everything was.   Maybe I'm just getting old .......