Clements Hall, Children's Home
My memory of Hockley is staying in a children's home called Clements Hall in 1960/5. It was near a few orchards where we would go scrumping for our midnight feasts. It really was a great place to stay as a kiddy. We had geese running loose in the grounds and each Christmas we had geese for Christmas dinner. In the second part of the gardens was an old tram we use to play on, great fun again. We went to Hawkwell Holt Junior School and Rochford Senior School, we had to walk through two Spinneys before we got to the bus stop, to go to school. The picture shown as Rochford school does not strike accord with me, so maybe there is another school in Rochford? It would be super if somebody read this, and knew all about what I have written.
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RE: RE: Clements Hall, Children's Home
I too was in Clements Hall children's home but much earlier ,in 1955/6. I remember the tram and the school. My brother has just come home from Canada and we are going for a nostalgic visit to try and find it.
Comment from Margaret Gurney on Wednesday, 29th December 2010.
RE: RE: Clements Hall, Children's Home
A Message for Margaret Gurney, Please contact me annetterixon@hotmail.co.uk re Clements Hall also Teresa at Broadway Caravan Park BROADWAY Laugharne CAMARTHENSHIRE WEST WALES SA334NW
both our mums worked at Clements Hall
I remember Clements Hall as my mum used to work there. 'Nanny Cantwell' & her son Michael also mums friend Gertie. I think Miss Fox was the cook. I am talking about the late 50s. Mimi's twin grandaughters had a wooden playhouse in the back garden that was fully fitted out with furniture & everything & a white picket fence around it.
I also remember Sadie, she always carried a doll around with her. Also the geese & the tram that we all played in.
I remember when the hairdresser used to come & we all had to take our turn & go into Mimis office for the haircut.
Some years later I took my mum to find Clements Hall & it had been bought by a couple that kept birds. We were told that the birds were kept in the building....
More recently still I took my daughter & her children to find it, we did eventually hidden behind trees with just the chimney stack on view. I think the date on it was in the 1600s
Comment from Annette Rixon on Sunday, 9th January 2011.
RE: RE: Clements Hall, Children's Home
My mum worked there, her name was Queenie. She died when I was 14 however, I continued to live in the house next door but one to Clements Hall until I was about 22. I have lots of memories of the children and the people who lived and worked there over the years. Reading your comments brings it all flooding back to me.
Comment from Edward Cocks on Sunday, 12th June 2011.
RE: RE: Clements Hall, Children's Home
I was at Clements Hall around 1950 on two occasions, when I was around 5 years old and when I was about 6. I went to the local school for a while and recall playing the part of a cockerel in a play! Mimi was the lady in charge assisted by a Sister Gertrude, who I recall syringing my ears with a glass syringe. I have warm memories of Mimi and Gertie. There was an old tram in the grounds we used to play on and I cut my finger on one of the broken glass windows of the tram. I still have the scar. There was also a tall Yew tree, I think, at the front of the house that was so good for climbing. The geese there were so noisy and frightening. On sundays I recall sitting in a nearby field watching the trains go by on a raised embankment. There was a boy in my dormitory named Terry who used to wet the bed. There was also an open lean-to part to the house where in the summer we would have meals sitting on long wooden benches. I found a website that has a photo of what is claimed to be Clements Hall so I hope others can confirm it is correct. It certainly looks as I recall it. The website address is http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/no-title/Memory/0a475284-d132-493a-9110-efdcf66fe9cb The concervatory looks like where we had meals in the summer. Can any other folk verify that this is indeed Clements Hall.
Comment from Tony MacCulloch on Friday, 25th May 2012.