Laindon memories
Here are memories of Laindon and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Laindon or a Laindon photo.
Laindon School
I was 14 years old and I worked for Matthew & Sons Corn Merchants of Brentwood. My job was to go round the local villages with a horse and cart selling our produce to the local people, which mainly consisted of chocolate biscuits, plain & self raising flour & animal feedstuffs. This particular day I had a horse that had not been broken in properly and was rather skittish, he also had a sore mouth where the straight bit went in. We were just approaching the Fortune of War pub when a v.2 rocket went off further up the southend road near Childerditch. Well it frightens the life out of the horse and it bolted. I tried my hardest to stop it, I put the foot brake on as hard as I could and pulled on the rains hard but to no avail. We shot over the Southend Road & started to head towards Laindon School all the kids were coming down the road... Read more
Ghost Bride
There is a story about a ghost that haunts St Nicholas, Laindon. The story goes that centuries ago, a young woman on leaving the church on the arm of her new husband, tripped and fell down the steps outside the church. She broke her neck and died. Legend goes that her ghost watches every wedding and she tries to trip up every bride. True or not? I don't know, but doesn't it sound good!
Church Road
To the left of the picture just out of sight was a bungalow converted into a shop ran by a Mrs.Cooper. The slim white line you see on the right of the picture was a concrete drive over a ditch leading to a butchers, who would sell the lard for cooking and the dripping separately for putting on bread. There is a gap betwen the semi-detached bungalows showing a gable end, this was lived in by Mr. & Mrs Braithwaite, attached to one lived in by Mr. & Mrs. Mason. The next one away from the view down the road, was called "Sylvane", we did not have numbers, only names, and I was born in the front bedroom 28/05/48 at about midday.The house this side of the gap was lived in by a family called Travis. The local single decker bus would drive up Church Road, at the end of its run, turn around in the foreground space and wait at the bus stop outside "Coopers"... Read more
Plotlands
We had an idylic little house with two rooms and a small kitchen where we spent Summer holidays, running in the lanes and dreaming in the fields of corn and poppies.
A Long Walk
I was born in Devonshire Road in 1961. I remember walking with my mum down Powell Road, through Pellhams Alley, past the North Parade post office, past the police station and along the High Road towards Langdon Hills. My mum had friends in Lee Chapel Lane and the walk seemed to go on forever. Happy days.
Coach House
In the late 1950s my mum and dad moved to the Fortune of War and ran it for a few years. Bob and Betty worked for the brewery and this was the first house since Bob had left the navy. I went to Laindon Hill primary school and had the time of my life growing up in the vast rooms and yard of the pub with my older brouther Steve.
Flower Seller at The Fortune of War
My dad sold his flowers outside the Fortune of War hotel. He had a plot of ground opposite our bungalow in Florence Road, Langdon Hills (now Florence Way). He picked them, put them in boxes at the front and back of his bicycle, then cycled down Laindon High Road each night in the summer months. He sold them to the people on the coaches going to and coming from Southend, sometimes I would go with him and sell blackberries or mushrooms I had picked.
The Brook
Memories of Laindon High Road School, Enifors Cafe, 3 Walton Court. I remember being picked on by Paul Fletcher, Robert and brother. And my dad used to work at Pitsea refuse dump. Then for a while I was living off the High Road.
Houses in St. Nicholas Lane
These houses are in St. Nicholas Lane. I lived in the house on the left of the photo. It was named Neasden. We lived there until 1950 when we moved to London. The hill was a very good winter sports attraction with some very fast toboggan runs.
Family History
It was a very sad day when Laindon School closed and even worse when it was demolished. I have fond memories of my days at Laindon, I joined when Mr Chadband was head, and made many friends there. Apart from attending myself I was part of the PTA group that tried to keep it from closing, as my daughter was one of the last to be taught there. My son also attended, or so I thought at the time, I have since learnt his schooling was more in the field!
But it doesn't end there, as both my parents were students as well as other members of our family. My dad Leslie Hymas was there the same time as Sylvia Simms. He thought himself a bit of a stud and was a local football hero, having scored many goals for local teams.
Guy Fawkes!
This is another part of Laindon that is no more. I can remember waiting outside the Fortune of War with a Guy leading up to Firework Night, I always collected lots of change from the kind patrons of this local drinking establishment. I don't think anyone noticed that it was really my sister dressed up in the wagon, if they did they kindly didn't say. Other times of the year we would return beer bottles to the off-licence for a few pennies, they didn't know we were collecting them from the forecourt. And if we were lucky Daddy would be inside and buy us a bag of crisps and some pop. Oh happy days.
Bonnie
This is a part of Laindon we must preserve, there's not many left, but it should be safe on top of the hill. Many happy days were spent in the fields behind, flying kites and playing football, when I was a child and with my grandchildren in recent years.
The Crown was a favourite lunchtime haunt when the children were little and more recently for family gatherings.
1950
This was taken five years before I was born, but I remember the High Road very well and loved walking along it, looking in the shop windows, it seemed to go on forever.
St Nics
this is looking towards St Nicholas Lane, isn't it?
Margaret Pearman
As Sheila mentions, the above photo shows my grandfather Arthur Pearman collecting my grandmother Margaret Pearman (whom I never met unfortunately). He didn't even realise someone had taken this photo.
My Fathers Workplace
This memory of the Fortune of War, was a photograph that my mother has. This is of my father Reginald Waddingham who was a barman at the hotel. They all wore white jackets. The photo showed all of the employees and the boss standing outside. It was amazing that a lot of people worked there. I can remember catching a no 14 Eastern National bus outside the Fortune of War to Southend and watching all the coaches coming into the public house on their way to Southend on Sea for the day. It is now a shame that the Fortune of War is no longer there, only houses, but what a lot of memories that the hotel holds.
Laindon High Road
This photograph shows a car with a lady coming out of a shop.This car belonged to my neighbour Arthur Pearman who now lives in Billericay. The lady was his wife who is now no longer with us. Arthur had bought this car as a wreck and rebuilt it.Obviously he was and still is proud of it because few people had cars in those days it was indeed a luxury.He is also sad about the High Road no longer being there,it was over a mile long with shops all along both sides. It was compulsory purchased by the then Basildon Corporation so he says.Evidently his family owned much of the land in Laindon.On the other side of the road there is a white van from which goods are being sold. this man is the same man who kept lions along the Crays Hill Road for many years and became very famous because of that.
Life Around St Nicholas Church
When we were children we used to toboggan down St Nicholas Hill in snowy weather, which was wonderfully exciting as it is so steep. I was married in St Nicholas Church on 25th July 1959 which was an exceptionally hot day, temperature about 90F. My husband's grandmother lived in one of the council houses at the bottom of the hill, just over the road in Markham's Chase. His mother and father lived in a bungalow in Church Drive, at the foot of the hill. This was an unmade road and they were not connected to the sewer but had to have a chemical toilet which was emptied regularly into pits in their quite large garden. They did not have a bathroom and weekly baths were held in front of the fire in the living room in a large tin bath, which involved much work in boiling the water and filling the bath, not to mention the trouble of emptying it! Their bungalow had been... Read more
Memories of Essex
Joan's Nostalgia Trip
I was born in Berry Lane Langdon Hills in 1948. I went to the primary school in the High Road and later to Laindon High Road Secondary School. I rmember so much about the town of Laindon - the shop names - Jack Lagdon the butcher, Tommy Cole the Fishmonger, Cisters corner for fruit and veg, Careys the builders, Morrisses the outfitters with the mmoney thing that went all round the store, Parkinsons the garage, the old Radion Cinema, the wonderful steam trains at Laindon Station where I used to meet my dad of the train every evening. My friend Yvonne Heather who was secretary of the Dave Clark Five Fan Club - so many memories but all good. I used to do a paperround and worked for Pepperills in the High Road which was next to Cottis the bakers - the names just keep flooding back
Well Green Cottage
My husbands family were in Langdon Hills as early as 1797 when John Bacon married Sarah Graylin at the old church Langdon Hills. The family had many occupations, thatcher, bailiff, agricultural labourer etc. They eventually settled in Well Green Cottage as was in the family up to 1950s.
Thanks. Alma Bacon
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.
First Families
We moved to The Gore, in about 1962. My brother was born here. Our family lived at number 83, and up until 2000, no other family had ever lived there. We moved in when the other end of the road was still being finished. I went to Gyhllgrove School, and can remember my first teacher, 1965, being a Miss Mehtha, an Asian lady. On special occasions she would bring in saris for us to try on and teach us dancing, all back in 1965! One of my favourite teachers ever was in the junior school. His name was Mr Wrankmore, a South African man. He had beautiful skin, and we all used to wonder if he ever changed tone! We were such innocent little 9-year-olds then!
Before The Town Centre Was Built ...
My family came to Basildon in 1957 as part of the overspill from London. My late father was a toolmaker and was offered a job and a house.
Money was tight and we made out own entertainment. Collecting wood from the fields where the town centre now stands, fruit picking from the cleared lots waiting for development.
When the shops started being built (my memory is that Woolworth was the first opened in that first block) we would go down there to watch them being constructed.
My mother had to use the only shops available which was Staceys Corner (I think) and all the different vans that would visit individual streets.
Both my parents became teachers - Mrs White at Manor and Bryn schools and Mr White at Nicholas.
I am proud to have been involved with Basildon since the very beginning of its development and to watch its growth into a vibrant town.
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