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Herongate

Herongate maps

Historic maps of Herongate and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Herongate maps

Herongate area books

Displaying 1 of 18 books about Herongate and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Herongate

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Essex memories

52, The Meadows

My sister, Joan, lives at No.52, and several years ago she gave me a copy of a book prepared and published by one of her (recently deceased) neighbours. This man, with friends and acquaintances all suffering from the postwar housing shortage, formed an informal group committed to developing a new neighbourhood for themselves and their families. As masters of their own destiny they didn't have to wait interminably for their "number to come up" on some official housing project list.
The book records the extra-ordinary talents and dedication shared by a now formally organized "co-operative" that, with its members holding down jobs and pursuing careers, developed everything below and above ground to create a neighbourhhood for themselves, designing and building not only desirable homes, well in the forefront of amenably-designed houses of that time, but the roads, curbs, side-walks, street lighting, and all other features of a practical and picturesque infrastructure that still stands today.
What a legacy, what an example!
From my Canadian vantage point, and having... Read more

54 The Meadows!

Well, I was born at no 54. My godparents lived at no 56. Mum taught at the village school (Ingrave Johnstone Primary) and I was a May Queen's Attendant in 1970. And I remember we had a float for the Brentwood Carnival, it must have been a nursery rhyme theme as my brother and I were Jack and Jill!

My Childhood in West Horndon

I lived in West Horndon at 22 Cadogan Avenue when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I can remember it was such a lovely time, all the kids knew each other, we were always over the rec or in the bluebell woods( are they still there?).  We had a big newt pond at the bottom of our garden, us kids used to love it fishing for newts. I can also remember the old village hall which was also a library, it really was an old wooden building, but us kids had great times there. The village was full of children and I can remember most of them. We didn't have many material possesions but that didn't seem to bother us. There used to be a lady at the bottom of our road who always asked me to go to Hays shop to buy her a packet of fags (remember my age, I couldn't do that now), any way she always gave me threepence so I couldn't wait for... Read more

West Horndon, Essex

I lived in Cadogan Avenue with my Nan & Grandad Mizen, Mum and Dad until we moved to Hutton when I was about 4. My Nan lived there until she died in 2001, God bless her. I have so many happy childhood memories with her in the garden. My Mum Barbara Anne worked at the foundry, I think it was called Rotary Hoes. I believe my Dad, Colin Moore, moved to West Horndon with my Nan and Grandad when he was about 4, when the war broke out, but sadly my Dad's Dad died in 1949, his name was Harry Moore, and then later on my Nan remarried Victor Mizen, whose mum and brothers lived over the railway bridge in a little cottage on the right hand side. My Grandad would tie a piece of string onto my little three wheeler and pull me along to see my Great Nan. I always loved the village and when I was old enough would catch the bus from Brentwood High Street to... Read more

The Bruntons of Dunton

I was born in 1933 at Oak Cottage, Victory Avenue, Dunton. Dad worked as a cook in a nearby "Work house", this was during the great depression and times were hard. I have vague memories of the school there though on a rare visit back I went there and everything had been replaced by factories or so it seemed. At the age of 5 we moved to Pitsea (around the corner) where we remained till the end of the war, then on to Southend. After school and a job I went into the Royal Navy in 1948-60. Got married and with 2 daughters 14 years later in 1974 came to Australia. Still miss England, Essex, Southend, Pitsea and yes Dunton.

The Wheatsheaf Pub at Little Burstead

It seems this is the first memory to be posted. My grandparents (Florence and Max Vetterlein) had the Wheatsheaf pub for about six years to 1957. They were tenants of the brewers Charringtons. There was the saloon bar and the public (known as the spit & sawdust bar). An extra penny was charged on a pint in the saloon. There was a very large garden at the back and so overun with nettles that a goat was borrowed to devour them. My brother and me were given our first Levis and we were thrilled that we could kneel in stinging nettles and not be stung. The customers' loo flushed but the living quarters was a bucket type with Jeyes fluid poured in, then emptied into a hole in the garden. Mrs Scroggins in the next door cottage called it the bumbee hole. Once we heard a dog whining all night. Next day we found it had been standing in the sewage and died when its strength gave out, unable to... Read more

Wheatsheaf Cottages.

Lovely to see the mention of Wheatsheaf Cottages. My grandparents lived in the opposite end cottage to Mrs Scroggins. Their surname was Pond. I remember the name of Mrs Scroggin very well as I believe she helped look after my Nana Pond who suffered with diabetes and was blind. My Nana died in 1953 and Granddad died in 1954 both died in St Andrews Hospital Billericay. I remember as a small child visiting every other Sunday. We caught the bus from outside the Wheatsheaf Pub back into Billericay and then another into Brentwood. Quite a journey for a couple of hours visit. Do you remember the Dell? Bluebells galore! My dad was brought up in the Wheatsheaf Cottage. Sadly he died before his parents. I remember the hole in the ground only too well. I have just written an article about Wheatsheaf Cottage for a couse I'm doing and was telling my husband only this morning about the stench from the hole in the ground. The cottages had no... Read more

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