Dagenham, Civic Centre, Becontree Heath c1950

Dagenham Civic Centre at Bull Lane

This is the view from the other side of Central Park, the main road ran alongside and Heath Park estate where we lived was opposite. I remember my dad and me waiting for a 103 bus to take us to Romford Market and me wondering why he had to ask me the number on the front of the bus. My dad picked up the keys from the Civic Centre for our brand new house on the Heath Park estate and we lived next door to the Hurleys and Jean and Richard on the other side. They were semi-professional ballroom dancers and fostered many children. A short distance from the 'civic' was the fire station and Beacontree Heath School where I was a pupil. Does anyone remember the school, and that teacher Mr Richards who was very handy with the cane? There were some prefabs close by and my mum was a barmaid in the local Ship and Anchor pub. Happy days.

Moving to Dagenham

My family moved to Dagenham from Northampton in December 1953. My first real memory of the borough was being lost on the day we moved in, after being sent to get some milk and sugar from the local shops, which would have been in Oxlow Lane. After our new neighbours gave me directions, I somehow ended up in Reede Road, managed to get the milk and sugar, and then spent the next hour or so getting back to my new home. My mum was frantic with worry, because I was only thirteen then. She asked me what had happened and I replied that all the roads looked the same to me, which was the case with Dagenham then. Most roads appeared identical to me. I came from a town where shops were on the corner of most  streets, and the buildings were very diverse, and I found it confusing at first to find my way around Dagenham. However I soon got used to Dagenham, and the places like the Heathway, Oxlow lane, and the Chequers soon became familiar. I found Dagenham to be very different to my home town, we had ten cinemas and two theatres plus many clubs and venues to entertain us, and it took a bit of getting used to the fact that Dagenham only had four cinemas and a couple of working men's clubs. Still I used to go to the cinema quite often, although the Heathway Odeon used to usually show the same film as the Odeon at the Fiddlers. But, if you went to the Heathway pictures, Pesci's fish and chip shop was on the way back, and you could get lovely roe and chips for 1s 6d. The Grange used to be worth a visit, and until it became a bowling alley the old Princess was a favourite venue with my mates and I. When I left school a couple of years later, the delights of London beckoned, and a whole new world was open to me. That, was a whole lot different to Northampton. When first I lived in Dagenham, I lived near Alibon School, and then when I got married, moved down to the Rylands estate, where I lived until the seventies, and then moved on to Stanford-le-Hope. I notice that a few people have mentioned their experiences with Valance swimming pool, that was the first pool I ever swam in on coming to live in Dagenham, and by god it was cold. I think that put me off swimming until Hornchurch opened their indoor pool in 1956. Anyway, I really have a soft spot for old Dagenham, and look back on my time living there with great fondness

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 sound a really loud air raid siren (the war had been over 15 years by now) which would signal the start of the day shift's lunch break and then again at 1 o'clock to signal its end. The factory was massive, going back from the A13 nearly a mile deep till it reached the Thames. It's length was even more impressive starting just after Dagenham meets Barking and running the entire width of what was a really large town. At the time it had more or less the same population as Newcastle.  It actually ran out of Dagenham and just into Rainham. At either end of the factory is where they stored all the new cars waiting to be transported to dealers up and down the country. Row after row after row of gleaming new Ford Anglias, Cortinas, Corsairs etc. The factory was so big and output so massive, it even had its own foundry for smelting the steel it needed for production.  Ships trawled down the length of England from the North East to the docks on the Thames behind Fords, carrying the coal needed to help run the furnaces. This was later supplemented by gas, with the factory having its very own and massive gasometer. Even today I remember the bang it made when they finally had no use for it anymore and blew it up. Although Fords was confined to what was the whole southern boundary of Dagenham, it was very much the at the centre of everything about the town. So many people worked there. The majority of boys in my old primary school class ended up on the production line or taking up apprenticeships. So many other businesses relied on Fords to make a living supplying component parts etc.  And now it's virtually all gone. Killed by almost annual worker strikes and the harsh realities of the modern world and globalisation. Viewed from the new A13 which now runs through what used to be the middle of its throbbing industrial heart, it's become like a ghost town. Funny simile to use for me really, as it was the very gentle throb the factory used to make at night that soothed this young boy's imagination after lights went out at home and my young mind turned to all things ghoulish coming to get me in my bed. "Listen to the sound of Fords", my dad used to say, when I couldn't get  to sleep. "If you're very quiet you can hear it." And you could. Like the sound of a retreating aeroplane way off in the distance, it would sing this little boy off to sleep with its gentle lullaby.

Childhood Memories

I remember this scene very well, my two sisters and I spent many freezing hours (even in the summer) in the cold water of Valence swimming pool. We could buy a ticket in the morning and get a pass to go home for some lunch and then come back in for the afternoon at no extra cost. We lived just across the road to the park entrance in Becontree Avenue, my brother still lives in the same house we grew up in. I can remember the far end of the pool having diving boards and taking part in the school swimming gala when I was about 10 years old so that would be about 1969/70, I went to Grafton Juniors at the time. The pool was demolished some time ago and there are offices there now which are part of the council.
Debbie Metcalfe, nee Jack