High Beech memories
Here are memories of High Beech and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of High Beech or a High Beech photo.
Suntrap Nature Reserve
Does anyone recall the education reserve at Suntrap? I wonder if it's still going today? I visited it on Wednesdays whilst still at primary school, in approximately 1975-1978. The class would be split into 2 groups, one group would be led by Miss Beaver and the other by Mr Britain-Dodd (?). There were lots of wild animals in their natural habitat. Still teaching today? Kids - you don't know how good you've got it!
CINDER TRACK RACING AT HIGH BEECH
My home was in Buckhurst Hill but on saturdays in the summertime my Dad would sometimes take my Mum and I to the cinder racing track at High Beech. My memories of those saturday aftrenoons come back as clear and a photograph. Each one enhanced by the smell of Castrol Oil, the lubricant of choice for the motorcycle Dare Devils. The grandstands would be full, the men selling choc-ices would wander the stands trying to earn a few shillings while getting to watch varoius racing heats. The 'gate' would fly upward and as many as ten young men , and sometimes a young woman, on brakless motorcycles would dive for the first turn. In unison they would lay their bikes down, almost touching the ground. The rider's left knee had a steel plate strapped on it, and their left shoe had a steel toe protector. Races of five, ten or more laps would detrmine who would be in the final. The din from these finely tuned machines was as deafening... Read more
Memories of Essex
September Wedding
St John's Church, Loughton is a lovely church much loved in our town. I was married there in 1963.
One Lost Cinema
I love this photo of Loughton High Road as it shows just on the edge
the cinema we used to have. Kids could go to Saturday morning pictures.
We could see locally all the latest films. To depart this asset from our town
was not really progress I think.
Saturday Morning Pictures
I went to Saturday morning pictures here every week. We had a club with a badge that said "Grenadier" as it was a Grenada cinema, though the actual building said Century above it.
There was a confectionery shop next door that sold packets of fake cigarettes - they were hollow tubes with foil at one end to look like glowing ash. We filled them with talcum powder and blew it over the kids in front of us. The seats must have been very dusty!
At Christmas we had a competition to make the best decoration. I won it one year but for some reason they thought I was a boy and my prize was a kit to make a toy tank!
I don't really remember any films, It was a social thing as much as anything else, but there was always a serial and I never quite worked out that if the hero dies there wouldn't be anything on next week - was I daft, or what?
The New Arcade
This parade of shops always seemed very modern to me - flat glass fronts instead of the curved windows with recessed doors, and flats above the shops. It was the Traps Hill end of the town and so was the first place we reached when we walked from home. Luckily there was a sweet shop at the beginning of the parade so we could refresh ourselves.
Shopping After 1956
We moved to Loughton from Preston, Lancashire in Easter 1956, and during the summer holidays that year I got to know the town. On the left can be seen the Century Cinema, where I often went to films and which was demolished at the end of the 60's. In the centre of the picture can be seen the handsome post office, which was purpose built. As I've not been to Loughton for many years, I don't know whether the building is still being used as a post office.
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Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Glasson, Cumbria
- Figheldean, Wiltshire
- Rochdale, Lancashire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Cononley, West Yorkshire
- Ewell, Surrey
- Stadhampton, Oxfordshire
- Lundin Links, Fife
- Eastleigh, Hampshire
- Knypersley, Staffordshire
- Halton East, North Yorkshire
- Banstead, Surrey
- Boston, Lincolnshire
- Parkgate, Merseyside
- Bridge Of Gairn, Aberdeenshire
- Neath, West Glamorgan
- Raby, Merseyside
- Ealing, Greater London
- Draycott-In-The-Clay, Derbyshire
- Bath, Avon
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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