You are here:
Great Tarpots
Great Tarpots photos
Displaying the first of 2 old photos of Great Tarpots. View all Great Tarpots photos
Great Tarpots maps
Historic maps of Great Tarpots and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Great Tarpots maps
Great Tarpots area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Great Tarpots and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Great Tarpots
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Great Tarpots.
Add your memory of Great Tarpots
or of a photo of Great Tarpots.
War Years
I remember, in what must have been June 1944, when myself and our neighbours the Brays were watching what seemed like an endless stream of lorries loaded with soldiers coming down the hill (High Road) and on to somewhere, with hindsight probably Tilbury or some other port, for embarkation to the D Day landing beaches.
We kids were jumping up and down and shouting and waving and the soldiers were waving and shouting back and to our delight throwing sweets, except one who threw one of those hard tack biscuits which hit Austin on the head and felled him like a pole-axed ox, which brought the cheering to an abrupt halt as we were all convinced he was dead, which he wasn't, merely unconscious. It wasn't long before he recovered but it made us a bit wary about cheering them on.
I was in Hockley one day where my grandparents lived, Uncle Lou was away fighting in Burma and Auntie Rae was some where with the ATS. Julien and... Read more
Tarpots
I remember the north side of the London road much as has been described by others with some differences, the last shop before the garage was Jones the butchers, owned by Mr Jones and run by his three sons, Roy, Owen and the third one whose name escapes me, Owen is still living in Paignton.
On the other side on the east side of Hatley Gardens was a cafe known as the Busy Bee, owned or run by an Indian family. Next to Aldersons was a grocery shop which I think was called Maypole, it had two half-size doors with wooden and brass handles to open the doors. As you went in there was a counter straight in front of you with a rack of glass-lidded biscuit tins from which you could make up your own selection. Then I think it was the cafe owned by Mr Ben Matthews and his wife. One more, then Mr Gamage the greengrocer's, with its alleyway at the side, then the lady with the... Read more
Saturday Mornings
Saturday mornings was when my mother and I would join the family next door for our day out, down to the Tarpots Corner and a bus into Wescliff by the playing fields and then a dancing lesson at Mimi Greens School of Dancing for Austin and I, tap dancing in our case while Chrissie and Josie went on to the ballet class, very successfully as far as Chrissie as she went on to join some ballet group called the Marquis de Quaver where it was talent that got her into the Corps and later on their return to England she joined the Saddlers Wells Ballet despite been over height.
After class it was a walk into Southend Victoria and looking into the shops along the way.
I don't think I will ever forget Austin dashing across the road at Hamlet Court Road and very nearly being hit by a car, no disc brakes in those days, but he survived but was rather shaken for the rest of that day, possibly... Read more
Buses
I too remember our bus service in and around Tarpots, as I recall one that ran out of the bus station on the left going in to Hadleigh just after the turn off to Dawes Heath and Rayleigh, was it called the Benfleet bus company,they seemed to concentrate on that area and into Benfleet but not Canvey which seemed to have another service, you had to walk from the War Memorial to the station and over the crossing and along to the bus stand close to the bridge for service to Canvey.
At the junction of High Road and London Road one was able to get a National Bus to Grays, I think they were in green and the bus station was almost into Southend, and if my memory is right a second service though I don't remember who ran it but the buses were red, used to take that one to Grays and it always stopped in Stanford Le Hope before going on into Grays.
If one... Read more
Rebuilding The Church
in the event that God wants the church to be re-established in the area, is there anyone that would be able to offer assistance?
The Village Shops Etc.
Born & bred 'Tarpotion'. The shops? The best I can remember, starting (1) Junc/Rushbottom Lane/London Rd - NAT, parcels & goods service (later Essex Carriers, Atlas Express), now the bank, cycle shop. (2) - Pie shop (Mrs Copphing). (3) - Fish Shop (Mr Davy) (3) Green grocer (Mr Roberts, later his son-in-law Mr Stovel). (4) - ?Tarpots Hall, Dance to Les Allen and his Band, and HQ of our brave Air Cadets, I think the only thing they flew were kites. (5) - I think this was a bakers and posh caff. (6) - The alley way down to the rear of the hall, this was the billiard hall, the dark underworld of Tarpots, local shopkeepers and others? would meet and wheel and deal. Now the Co-op, (7, the next block of shops) - Tobac/sweets (Mr Tom Prior was Alf's market man) (8) - not sure 2/hand goods? (9) - Gen grocers (Mr Clarke) (10) - chemist (Mr Cross) (11) - small corner shop, menswear etc, was electrical shop. (12)... Read more
When Tarpots Had Real Shops.
I remember when I first moved to Tarpots that we had proper shops. We had a butchers, greengrocer, baker, newsagent, and post office. You could get all you wanted without having to catch a bus to another town. Now most of the shops have gone only to be replaced by fast food outlets. There is fish and chips, KFC, Wimpy, in fact any hot food outlet you can think of. I also learn that another shop at Tarpots has applied to be another hot food shop. How many more of these shops do Tarpots need. It is such a shame as the area used to be great.
