Chadwell Heath memories
Here are memories of Chadwell Heath and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Chadwell Heath or a Chadwell Heath photo.
Reynolds Bros. Grocers
My mother worked for Reynolds Bros. Grocers in Chadwell Heath just before going to live in New Zealand. This was in 1950. Her name was Connie Fynn, nee Cocklin, of Becontree Av.
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
Memories of Essex
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!
Looking at The Old Downshall Senior School.
I went to Downshall School in 1957 after moving from Downshall Juniors. The big tree on the right covers St John the Evangelist Church and Downshall Junior School. To the back of the shops on the right used to be the 2nd Seven Kings scout hall and Sunday school. On the left 50 metres on from the 105E Anglia were a group of shops that were suppliers of goods to the local community.
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
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