Stockdale Road

A Memory of Dagenham.

My mum and her sisters and brother moved with my nan to Stockdale Road from the Kings Cross area. She told me that when the rent collector came round on his bike, if he saw a group of women talking by their gate, he would tell them off and say "you are not in London now", plus if he thought your garden was not tidy or your nets not straight, he would put a cross in the rent book. Three crosses and you had to go to the civic centre to explain why! Although I can't see him risking that with my nan.
They eventually moved to 638 Becontree Avenue where I was born in 1943. I remember the conker trees along the avenue and the winkle seller (winkle sandwiches! bliss) coming round on a Sunday. We moved to a prefab in South Ockendon in 1946 and my nan was so worried we would not be able to get anything to eat, being far away from the shops at Becontree Heath (Nappers,pie mash,chip shop), she made my mum and dad a food parcel. We went back every Saturday to see her and if we had some money I went to the Saturday morning pictures at the cinema with a 1000 other kids. We moved back to Dagenham in 1960 and my mum and dad were offered 14 Stockdale Road, right opposite where she lived as a child. They accepted and lived there for the next 46 years. I wonder what the rent collector and his little red book would make of it now, or even if he would get his bike past the vans blocking the pavement.