Crays Hill memories
Here are memories of Crays Hill and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Crays Hill or a Crays Hill photo.
Buses in The Snow
I remember the green double decker buses revving up Crays Hill in the snow and jamming their tyres against the curb to try and get up. We lived in Elm Bank on the hill and sometimes witnessed the buses sliding side-ways back down again. Time to retire to The Shepherd and Harold and Elsie for a beer.
Memories of Essex
First Families
We moved to The Gore, in about 1962. My brother was born here. Our family lived at number 83, and up until 2000, no other family had ever lived there. We moved in when the other end of the road was still being finished. I went to Gyhllgrove School, and can remember my first teacher, 1965, being a Miss Mehtha, an Asian lady. On special occasions she would bring in saris for us to try on and teach us dancing, all back in 1965! One of my favourite teachers ever was in the junior school. His name was Mr Wrankmore, a South African man. He had beautiful skin, and we all used to wonder if he ever changed tone! We were such innocent little 9-year-olds then!
Before The Town Centre Was Built ...
My family came to Basildon in 1957 as part of the overspill from London. My late father was a toolmaker and was offered a job and a house.
Money was tight and we made out own entertainment. Collecting wood from the fields where the town centre now stands, fruit picking from the cleared lots waiting for development.
When the shops started being built (my memory is that Woolworth was the first opened in that first block) we would go down there to watch them being constructed.
My mother had to use the only shops available which was Staceys Corner (I think) and all the different vans that would visit individual streets.
Both my parents became teachers - Mrs White at Manor and Bryn schools and Mr White at Nicholas.
I am proud to have been involved with Basildon since the very beginning of its development and to watch its growth into a vibrant town.
I Still Live Here
My mum and dad came from Tottenham and Edmonton, they moved to Danbury Down, my mum and dad were offered the house because my dad worked for Mobil Oil. The nearest shops were Staceys Corner, the 16 shops. Then on a bike ride my dad found Little Bentley, he asked the foreman who was building a 4 bed house if he could have one and he said yes (that would be nice these days). Then my brother and my sister were born at the house... then I came along in 1972. We all went to Springfield, my sister and brother went to Fryens and I went to Woodlands in 1984, it was a girls school for a year or two then it was mixed. There have many changes in Basildon, some quite bad..... My dad died in 1998 and my mum in 2010 and we sold the house this 2011, it was a very sad time as it's been a lot of memories, 50 in total.. I still live here,... Read more
Band Meeting Place
I can remember in my youth, meeting here as a member of the Basildon drum and trumpet corp, we used to march up the slope and into the town square where we did our display. That was in the 1970s.
All Countryside
When I was born, Basildon was not built. I was born in Pitsea, when it was all country side. Although my mum took me back to London after the war, I returned to Pitsea often to stay with my grandparents. It was the happiest time of my life, the freedom of walking across the fields and buying fresh eggs and getting the old noisy bus to Pitsea market on a Wednesday. We got the water from the well outside the back door, no flush lavvy, no electric light, just oil lamps. But I was far happier than the kids nowadays.
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Places this week
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- South Godstone, Surrey
- Fyfield, Essex
- Amble, Northumberland
- Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire
- Neath, West Glamorgan
- Southgate, Greater London
- Heywood, Lancashire
- Brentford, Middlesex
- Kings Sutton, Oxfordshire
- Salford, Lancashire
- Tredington, Warwickshire
- Barnehurst, Kent
- Blaenavon, Gwent
- Hampton Wick, Surrey
- Banstead, Surrey
- Rochdale, Lancashire
- Raby, Merseyside
- Blaenllechau, Mid Glamorgan
- Southend Airport, Essex
- Cononley, West Yorkshire
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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I Remember When...
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Frith website. The result is an absorbing chronicle of British life from the Second World War to the mid 1960s.
A colourful treasure trove of memories, "I Remember When" is an
irresistible mix of personal stories and recollections that affectionately reveal the detail of everyday life in Britain.
