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Epping memories

Here are memories of Epping and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Epping or a Epping photo.

Shopping in Epping

High Street c1955
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I love this photo - those old cars ! I don't remember the old building with the wooden balconies. It must have disappeared between 1955 and the first half of the 1960s. Monday has always been market day in Epping. Years ago there was a bit of a cattle market at the top end near the church, but I can't recall whether I ever actually saw it. I remember the first supermarket I ever went to was in Epping - Tescos - they sold clothing (Delamare or Delaware) as well as groceries. The bright coloured dyes on their clothes ran so it was safer to buy white. The first Tescos in Epping would have been more or less opposite the church towards the cross roads junction.

There was also a small old style Woolworths with the old wooden counters and the dusty floors. I remember we always went to Ellens for our shoes as they sold the reliable Clarkes brand of... Read more

The Cattle Market

High Street c1955
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The wooden railings to be seen in this photo is the old Epping cattle market where the animals were sold on market days. There is a memorial/water fountain still standing which would have originally been in the middle of the cattle market at the church end of Epping High Street.

My Next Door Neighbours Memories of Epping in WW1

High Street 1921
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I grew up in Epping, living next door to an old lady, Ann Young (nee Shakespeare), who lived in a bungalow her husband built on Bower Hill crica the 1920/30s. She had lived in Epping all her life. Her father, a builder, even named a house in Allnutts Road after her when she was very young (it still has the stone with her name in it today). She was a child living in Epping during the First World War. She would tell me that living in the Allnutts Road/Ivy Chimneys area of Epping, she would know when she was late for school, because she could hear the bells of church ringing. She even told me that on a clear day you could hear the fighting in France. I don't know if her point about hearing the war is true or not, but it's interesting that there was so little sound pollution that they could hear the bells all over Epping!

Old Times Gone by

St John The Baptist Church c1960
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That looks a little like my dad's old car. I have happy memories of Epping. I was born there over 50 years ago in Ivy Chimneys and remember walking across the roads in town with my dad hand in hand, and after school going up in the woods playing around the old fish ponds and often going and helping my dad at work in the cemetery in Bury Lane.

Disco

The Wake Arms Inn c1955
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My memories of the Wake Arms pub are, travelling from Harold Hill every Friday night, me, my mates and girlfriends too, to the heavy metal disco they held at the Wake Arms, drinking more than I should have then driving home, but what a brilliant night, never no aggro. A great memory.

Burned Down

The Wake Arms Inn c1955
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I worked in the pub, restaurant, whatever, after it had replaced the pub, what a crying shame that the pub had gone. Anyroad, there was a massive fire which started in the kitchens, and I had to go on site to try to watertight what was left of the roof after the fire, I actually have a load of photos of this.

We Used to go to Epping Somedays to Shop

High Street c1955
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While we lived in Old Harlow we used to go shopping in Epping.  

Memories of Essex

Marconi Bunglaows

The Talbot Hotel c1960
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We moved to North Weald when I was three. Lived across the street from The Talbot in Marconi Bungalows. Dad worked at the Marconi Radio Station. I used to catch the bus for school at The Talbot. I had a friend who lived in the house next to it. I lived there until I emigrated to the US in 1961. The mother of my friend whom I've known since I was three still lives there. We keep in touch. Such fond memories.

Aiden's Bike.

I remember this picture well, back in 1955, i was a nipper, and my good friend Aiden, he was a bit of a petrol head, he loved bikes more then anything in the world, that bike in the picture was his one, he was my best friend untill he had a major bike crash, and lost his head, the bike was saved though.. but the rider was gone forever... sad times....

Chef of The Year 2010

The Talbot Hotel c1960
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RIP Mike Rock

Family Lived in Tylors Green Between 1939 Untill 1970s

My family moved from Moreton to North Weald in 1939, I was 9 year old at the time. My father was called Thomas Yeldham and became the local cobbler, my mother was called Maud. While still at school I had a Saturday job at Churches Butchers, then when i left school at 14 I went to Churches as an apprentice butcher.

While there, in 1948 I was called up for my National Service. Sadly I never came back to live in North Weald, as I settled in Devon, but my parents lived in North Weald untill the 1970s. My father is buried in North Weald church yard, after his death my mother moved to Ongar.

I can remember playing football on Saturdays against the Belgium Air Force boys, as I lived near the bottom of the Air Field, and I would regularly try and climb the Marconi pylons.

Happy Summers in North Weald

My mother Pamela Joan Jackson moved to North Weald from Leytonstone during the war with her parents John Arthur Jackson and Rose Lucy Jackson and her sister Rose. They lived at 23 Bassett Gardens. My aunt Rose married Pat Barry, had a son, John, born in 1939 and lived at 39 High Road, North Weald.
I spent all my summer holidays visiting my grandparents and aunt and uncle, we lived in Scotland and it was always an exciting trip going from Aberdeen on the sleeper to London. I remember going to the bakers and buying gorgeous hot bread (Cottage Loaf) and to the butchers to buy ham and we would have a lovely picnic in my grandparents' garden where my grandfather grew masses of lovely fruit and veg. It seemed as if the sun always shone in North Weald.
I also remember the trips to Epping to the market and to buy Granny a new corset!!! in a department store, don't recall the name.
I visited North Weald last... Read more

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