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Chadwell Heath
Chadwell Heath photos
Displaying the first of 4 old photos of Chadwell Heath. View all Chadwell Heath photos
Chadwell Heath maps
Historic maps of Chadwell Heath and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Chadwell Heath maps
Chadwell Heath area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Chadwell Heath and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Chadwell Heath
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Chadwell Heath.
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Early Working Years
As there are no memories of Chadwell Heath I thought I would add one. I started my first job at Teleflex Products that was situated in Wangy Works. I use to cycle from where I lived at Grange Hill Chigwell. After I did my National Service I then worked for Motor Gear Engineering across the road from Wangy Works, The last time I visited England I found that Wangy Works and Motor Gear Engineering were no longer there. On the site of Motor Gear there was a DIYS store. When I worked for Motor Gear, at the back, there was a soft drink company that made a drink called Kiaora. The owner of this must have come from NZ as Kia ora is a Maori greeting. One of my strongest memories at Wangy Works was sitting on the railway embankment at the back watching the trains and also cycling from there to Beal Grammar school in (I think) Little Ilford Lane to attend evening classes. Fond memories of my early... Read more
Essex memories
Downshall School.
I went to Downshall school as it was then. It is vastly altered now. On the left of picture was a row of shops. First on the left was a greengrocers. Then the fish andd chips shop. Then Alberts Cafe, Balls the chemist. Then Leslie W Hubbard the hardware shop. Correct me if I'm wrong but that's not a bad memory going back to 1955. I lived round the corner in Norfolk Road at 128 and was late for school most days. Mr Tucker and Mr Crisp were very good teachers. I remember St John's Church with that rotten bell that used to wake us up every Sunday at 8 am. The Irish Padre was quite a character.
Downhall School
I arrived at the Infants School aged 6, fresh from a tiny village school in rural Somerset. My abiding memory was of the outside communal toilets with a trough at the base of a wall which used to back on to the pavement of Aldborough Rd. We would compete to see who could reach the highest up the wall (if you know what I mean) and attempt to score a bullseye by actually aiming right over the wall onto the pavement.
A more respectable past-time was playing with our Dinky racing cars in the playground, I recall they always went faster backwards! As I write this I'm looking at my No.6 racing car, a Cooper-Bristol, on the dresser; it has weathered the 55 years since then a bit better than I have.
Walking to School
I went to Downshall Infants and Primary up to the age of 12 when I then went to Ilford Country High in Gants Hill. I remember the daily walk along Meads Lane calling for a sour grapes gob stopper that would dye our mouths dark purple.
The school seemed so big and when I look at this photo it looks like something out of Dickens! Miss Backhouse was my infants teacher and in the primary I had a wonderful teacher Mr Richards who was so supportive of me - he gave me faith in myself - thank you always Mr Richards!
From Downshall I remember we were all walked over to Seven Kings Park to play sport because there was no oval at the school.
I now live in Sydney and have done since 1972 - I'm now 57 and wanting to return and pick up some of those memories.
Please leave me a message if you have any memories of being at Downshall!
Hummed to Sleep by A Factory
We used to live on what was called The Avenues on the Rylands estate. This was situated behind the Princess shopping parade, so called after the name of the local flea pit where all the kids went to Saturday morning pictures. It later became the Princess bowling alley. It was located on the old A13 New Rd opposite the road that led to the main entrances to Fords. The estate was originally built for the white-collared Ford workers plus foremen and was one of the few private estates in Dagenham. It sounds almost posh now, but believe me it wasn't. The blue-collared workers tended to live on the massive council Becontree estate that Dagenham was also famous for (that and the Dagenham Girl Pipers of course). My dad must have been one of the few dads who wasn't an Irish Catholic (although my mum was) and who didn't work in Fords. But the majority of my mate's dads were and did. During the weekdays at 12 noon the factory would... Read more
Valence Swimming Pool
I remember Valence swimming pool from the late fifties. I lived in Bushgrove Road and went to Valence School and used to go early on a Saturday morning with my mates to be first in there before the crowds. I couldn't swim, but that didn't matter 'cos I had an old van tyre to keep me afloat (I've still got the damn valve marks in my ribs now). I remember jumping in and not being able to breathe for about a minute due to the temperature (normally about 55 degrees Farenheit, if I remember rightly). It used to be posted on the board outside to let you know what misery you were about to go through. A cup of Oxo and a penny biscuit afterwards soon warmed you up (if you could hold the cup still). I went over the park recently (Aug 2007) and you can still see the outline of the pool in the grass where it's been filled in!! Good memories.
Not Much Money But Plenty of Happy Memories.
I moved to Dagenham with my family in 1949. We lived in Cartwright Road off Hedgemans Road. I have memories of long hot summer holidays off from Finneymore Road School. The days were filled with trips to Leys swimming pool, where we would spend most of the day. We would bag of crisps and a hot Oxo drink if we had enough money.
Parsloes Park was another full day out. The large sandpit was the favourite haunt, there were large square concrete blocks built into the pit, we would play 'King of the castle' games, where one would climb onto the block and announce they were king of the castle, only to be pushed off into the soft sand by the new king, this would amuse us for ages. We would eat packed sandwiches, and there was plenty of water to quench our thirst from the water fountain spout. The park wardens wore brown suits, trilby hats, brown leather boots up to their knees, and rode around the park on... Read more
