The Sea Front c1955, Dovercourt
The Sea Front c1955, Dovercourt Ref: D51003
Memories of The Sea Front c1955, Dovercourt
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Dovercourt & local memories
Read and share memories of Dovercourt and Essex inspired by Frith photos.
One Child's Memory of Living in The Covent in Doverourt
I have just been reading on the times of the floods in Dovercourt. My sister Rita and myself, known as (Rita and Mary Kelly), were brought up by the Salesian Sisters at the convent from babies until the time of the floods. The convent had to close, and we were then moved to another convent in Hastings called Sandrock Hall.I believe sixteen children made this move. It was really a lovely place to be, all the children there were so happy. We had our own 'Sea Garden' - when you looked over the wall, you were looking down into the sea. We had a pathway down to the sea where we could go swimming and fill our swim caps up with water, so the nuns could wash their face and hands. Also in the garden, the nuns taught us how to do a bit of gardening, we had little plots, sowed seeds and watched them grow, it was great when our flowers came up. I also remember when walking to... Read more
Bathside Boys
I was brought up at 14,Ingestre Street,and always consider myself a bathside boy.I was very lucky to have my school opposite my front door.Just up the street was Mr.Barneys shop where you could buy 4 black jacks for a halfpenny.There were sherbert flying saucers,rainbow drops lots of sweets to keep lids happy.One end of bathside was the railway bridge where if you heard a train coming you'd run to the top to disappear in clouds of smoke and steam.At the other end of bathside was the coke factory.Through the dirty windows men were stripped to the waist toiling away in the heat and grime.One street housed a crisp factory.Up by the park was kettles soft drinks my brother and I favourite was called kings cup.Along the sea wall was a scrap metal yard called skinners.Clothes could be taken there for money by weight.wool had to be separated as you got a better price.In the summer for a highlight of their holiday,campers at Warners in dovercourt would walk all the way... (Awaiting moderation, read more soon)
Palm Court
I remember walking along the promenade to the Pavilion. To continue our walk we had to go through the Pavilion. If my memory is correct it had a glass roof and front window and there were some palms and what seemed to a six-year-old huge greenhouse plants. I thought it was a most glamorous place. I remember the words Palm Court. Was it ever called Palm Court?
Ruth Wright (nee Ashman)
How Times Have Changed.
Looking back at old photographs Harwich & Dovercourt has certainly changed, the Phoenix Hotel is no longer, it has been replaced by luxury flats, the train ferry service has closed, the High Street seems like a ghost town at times, a lot of our pubs aave now closed. Even the ports have seen better times... What's going on? We have a wonderful seaside with so much to offer. I know a lot comes down to money but so much has changed in my lifetime, let alone since the early 1950s.. I hope that the towns will one day thrive again and employment is brought back to the town and the High Street will be busy again...
The Day The Sea Wall Broke
I remember walking to school one morning in a 'crocodile' with the girls from the convent in Dovercourt. We were stopped at the Police Station and told we could go no further. I could see the water lapping not far from the the police Staition. When the water receeded we walked into Harwich to see the damage, there was a boat in the school playground. The school and the catholic church were never used again and later demolished. There is a garage now where the school and church once stood.
Dovercourt Convent
I went to Dovercourt Convent in 1953, I can remember it very clearly my first day there. My dad took me and I was very sad when he left. There was a very big tree in the garden and a wall we used to run up to have a look over the wall to see what was on the other side. When we went back to England in 1979 we managed to find the convent and the wall was not very high at all. I wish I could remember the name of the convent. I made some very good friends there and I did feel rather sad to leave. I remember doing the nativity play at Christmas. We used to help in the kitchen and afterwards the nuns used to let us have a lucky dip as a reward. There were older children there and I am sure younger ones than me. I was there until the very bad floods of1954 when they closed the convent down. I think... Read more
My Childhood Home.
Dovercourt was my childhood/boyhood home from my birth (well, almost - that momentous event actually took place in an Ipswich nursing home!) in 1937, until we moved as a family to Worthing around 1952. I attended the Hill School (I remember Miss Best, the infants' headmistress, and my class teacher Miss Rowntree) until I went to boarding school (Culford, near Bury St. Edmunds) in 1945. My father, the late Percy Edward Newton, ran the family building business (originally founded by my grandfather E.E. Newton) of Newton Bros. ["NB"]; at first jointly with my uncle and subsequently on his own, from the premises in Harwich then known as Victory Works - now I believe the Ark project of the Save the Children Fund. This period is quietly commemorated in the naming of Newton Road, Upper Dovercourt, which was developed by the family firm. Dad was also a Borough Councillor, and served during the second world war - when Harwich was a prominent naval... Read more
Greenacres Caravan Site
I used to stay at Greenacres site with my partner who unfortunatly is now dead, and had many happy holidays there. We stayed in our friends caravan who sometimes came on holiday with us. Is the site still there. We also went on a tour of the Warners camp where they filmed Hi De Hi.
The Flood
Teresa Clarke's memory reminded me of the flooding of Jan. 1953. I was 9 years old and living in Gwynne Road with my folks. We were boarding at No 44, owned by Mr and Mrs. Carr. They played Crib and he polished the brass in the house every Saturday morning. (A memory from a 9 year old - I also remember having baths in a tin bath in front of the coal range in the kitchen, filled with hot water in a kettle from the coal range). Anyway, my friend Geoff banged on the door, asked for me, and said "Come see the Flood". We ran to the corner and looked right, and saw the water which seemed to be about 50 yards away. We could see the two-storey houses beyond the waterline had their bottom storey under water. The next day, I think it was, the water had receded enough to make a trip down to the school - Harwich County Primary... Read more
Floods!
I was 5 years old when I remember looking out of the large window of my mother and father's bedroom in Waddesdon Road and seeing the old schoolyard under water. I remember not being able to go downstairs as the threat of water was too great. I remember two people being taken in by my parents as they had been flooded out on the Bathside which if you know the area was the worst affected place. I remember not having to go to school for quite a time. I learned in later life just how serious an event it was and how the water rose up and came through the drains. The people who came to stay with us were my godparents and I remember that the man used to give me Owbridges Pastilles to suck to keep me warm. I later went on to attend the Mayflower school which went on to be the Harwich County Primary when the old Esplanade school was closed. I then attended the Sir Anthony Deane school... Read more
More Growing up in Dovercourt
I was born in Dovercourt in 1946, and lived there until 1957. My father, too, worked on Parkeston Quay, but moved to New England depot in Peterborough in 1956 - mother and I followed once I had taken my 11-Plus exam. My mother was from Waddesdon Road, opposite the old school which had by then become the library. My father met my mother during the war when he was posted to Dovercourt. Although we moved away, and I now live in Shropshire, I still have two aunts who live in Dovercourt, so I return from time to time.
One of my best friends was Phillip Cone, who lived a few doors away on Main Road. I see that he has now written at least one book about the town.
We used to go to the Regent cinema on Friday evenings, as it was just over the road. I seem to remember that nearly all the films were Westerns!
Growing up in Dovercourt
I have been trying to remember the exact dates when we lived in Dovercourt but I think it was something like 1953-57, while my father worked for the railway at Parkeston Quay. We first rented a place in Shaftesbury Avenue and then bought a house in Main Road. I was interested to see Martin Johnson's post because I was a pupil at the nursery school that his mother used to run at the vicarage. It seemed like a very big place to a small child, with a huge garden that had lots of corners to hide in during break. I also had one term at the primary school in Main Road. I was briefly in the Sea Cubs and can still tie a round turn and two half hitches correctly. My best friends were the sons from Sutherland's pharmacy - they lived in a big house on Fronks Road with a solarium on top. I don't remember a great deal about the shopping... Read more
New Vicar For Dovercourt
My father was inducted as the new vicar on 31st December 1949 at All Saints Church. I was just nine at the time but I retain some dim memories of a packed church! My dad stayed at Dovercourt until his retirement in 1976. I have many memories of Dovercourt for that period. I loved the West beach where I often used to take the dog on long muddy walks. Often as kids we would walk 'down town' to Woolworths or Candy Corner, usually in search of roughly the same things. Beach Stores though was the place where you could get something 'off coupons': a sort of Crunchy Bar without the chocolate. We were away at school and I was terrified of girls, but used to gaze soulfully at Jennifer in the choir in the hope she would notice me. She never did.
We had three cinemas in those days. I remember my dad taking us to The Quatermass Experiment, rated X, at the Regent, and telling them I was... Read more
The Convent in Orwell Road
I was brought up in a Convent in Orwell Road between the years 1947 and 1954. The Convent was vacated in the summer of 1954 and moved to Hastings a year after the sea wall broke which demolished the old school in Harwich.
When I visited the convent again in 1980 it was still there, only standing derelict. I wondered if the building was still standing.
Ruth Wright
