Great Braxted memories
Here are memories of Great Braxted and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Great Braxted or a Great Braxted photo.
My Granddad Stevens
Years ago my grandad had a small garage and workshop at the side of the Du-Cane Arms. My dad was born there and went to scool at Great Tottom. My grandad is buried in Great Braxted Church and my nanna is there too. In the last few years dad (Anthony Percy Stevens who died in 2005) was buried also in Great Braxted Church, and in 2008 my mum Alfreda Emily Stevens died and she also is burried with my dad in Great Braxted Church. My dad told me that him and his little brother would go into Braxted Park and get mistletoe and sell it on to get themselves a few pennies for Christmas. My eldest sister was christened in Braxted Church. My Aunty Dot and Uncle Cecil Raner lived in Braxted village for years a few doors away from the Du-Cane Arms and they had a green monkey that lived in a large cage in their garden. I would go and stay at my auntie's with one of my... Read more
Memories of Essex
Freddie Holmes' Garage
I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes. The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids! Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop". He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers held together with elastic-bands; when applied to the backside they made you sit up in both ways! But he was a good teacher, joined in with our games and was liked and respected. His wife, Hilda, a formidable lady from Yorkshire, was his deputy.
Then, Arthur Green ran the village post-office from the front room of his house on Staplers Heath, and he delivered on an old, smoky motor-bike. Great Totham Hall farm was owned by Tom Martin, a shrewd man if ever there was one. We actually lived in Great Totham north, in Mountains Cottage, Mountains Road, next to Lt Mountains farm which is still in the ownership... Read more
A Real English Village
My parents moved to Wickham Bishops in 1948 to help friends run the village Post Office Stores which sold everything - stamps, paraffin (you brought your own can and it was filled from a barrel at the back), vinegar (as for the parafin, it came from a barrel out back), cheese portions cut from huge cheeses wrapped in linen, and loose flour and pulses which even as a five year old I was allowed to put into blue sugar-paper bags to be weighed. Sweets where still rationed and broken biscuits were popular. My mother and her friend went once a year to order skirts, blouses, frocks and underwear from the London warehouses. Toys that came in for Christmas were not in plastic so I got the first go with them! There was a village pantomime every year in which all the local characters took part, glamorous in fish-net tights as Dandini or hideous in wigs and false chests as the ugly sisters. There was also a Christmas party for everyone... Read more
Wickham Bishops Born And Bred
In 1950 I was born on a cold winter's night to my mother Rosemary Jesse, at 'The Black Houses', Kelvedon Road, Wickham Bishops, built by architect, designer and socio-economic theorist Arthur Heygate Macmurdo. I had an older brother Neil and a sister, Christine. My mother had lived her childhood at Goldhanger, another delightfully unique part of Essex, bringing forth many joyful memories of childhood. My father Chris like me was born in Wickham Bishops, his father Joe walked into the village at the tender age of 11 with another lad from who knows where and were taken in and raised by a couple of families in the village, hence no record of our ancestry on that that side of the family.
My mother worked at the local primary school for endless years, firstly as the dinner lady then the dinner and lunchtime playground lady. Luckily for us kids my mum had a wonderful sense of play, the only downfall for me was that from the moment I could sit... Read more
Witham Times
I believe that my Grandfather, Arthur Arnold, was the editor of the Witham Times before and during the second world war and lived in Silver End with his wife Molly, sons Frank and Peter and daughter Elizabeth (Betty). I would appreciate any information that would confirm or deny this well worn family history.
Help Required
Does anyone know of Sylvia Eileen Newman, who was living in Witham around 1965? She became Sylvia Eileen Brewer. Any help would be appreciated.
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- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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