Baddow, Essex

woodlands school

From 1961 to 1967 I attended Woodlands School in Oaklands Way, off Postmans Lane, Little Baddow. It was a tiny girls school run single handedly by the late Dorothy Bromley, the classrooms being two white wooden sheds in the garden. There was no playground but there was a grass tennis court that we the pupils had to maintain.

There... [more]

Elijah Mecklenburgh of the Old Rodney Pleasure Grounds

Not a memory, but a mention of my ancestor great great great uncle Elijah Mecklenburgh, born 1837 at Bradfield and died 1913 in Maldon. All I know about him was that he lived at Ravens Farmhouse in Woodham Walter in 1871, and that he had connections to the Old Rodney Pleasure grounds. I have no idea what the... [more]

Another ghostly experience on Grace's Walk

The year is approximate as I was in my teens, so it was somewhere between 1972 and 1974. I had a horse called Shamrock, that I kept in Sandon and I used to ride him through Danbury and Little Baddow all the time. I went down Grace's Walk one day, from the Little Baddow end, alone with the horse, and when... [more]

Growing Up 1950s

During the late 1950s my parents moved to live on Bremner's Farm - an apple farm at that time, in Little Baddow.

On getting my first bicycle - a black, woman's bike, I use to cycle all over this area - Riffam's lane, Graces Walk and around Coleman's lane. My brother married a girl from Coleman's lane.

I... [more]

Midnight ghost hunt

I was born in Little Baddow and was familiar with the story of Alice Mildmay and Jesse Berridge's book. One summer night three of us rode ponies down Riffhams Chase to Great Graces and down Grace's Walk, arriving at midnight. We crossed the bridge (the one in the photo) and all I can remember after that is that all three... [more]

Borham Airfeild

We used to live on Borham Airfield when I was four until eight. They were nissan huts made of corugated iron, they had no baths but they had  electric. We had to have a tin bath hanging outside.
T think Robert Mitchum the actor's family lived there. They were called Miches.
There was an old man who used to invite us... [more]

Childhood in the village

I moved to Hatfield Peverel in late 1941, after my family was bombed out in London. My father took the Duke of Wellington pub over, where we lived until 1949. Yes they were good years in the village, but at the beginning we were outcasts as we were Cockneys, but after three months it got really good. ONly my dialect was... [more]

Happy memories

I remember the Griffin Hotel as the Griffin PH, when as a student nurse I visited it with my elderly grandmother Minnie Grainge on days away from London. She was so proud to be escorted by her eldest granddaughter and as a local woman whose family had come from Woodham Walter was acknowleged by so many as she walked through the... [more]