Langford, Essex

Sailing with my dad

The best memories of sailing with my dad most weekends and baleing water out of the dingy.  It leaked.

Wickham Bishops Born and Bred

In 1950 I was born on a cold winter's night to my mother Rosemary Jesse, at 'The Black Houses', Kelvedon Road, Wickham Bishops, built by architect, designer and socio-economic theorist Arthur Heygate Macmurdo. I had an older brother Neil and a sister, Christine. My mother had lived her childhood at Goldhanger, another delightfully unique part of Essex, bringing forth many joyful... [more]

A real English village

My parents moved to Wickham Bishops in 1948 to help friends run the village Post Office Stores which sold everything - stamps, paraffin (you brought your own can and it was filled from a barrel at the back), vinegar (as for the parafin, it came from a barrel out back), cheese portions cut from huge cheeses wrapped in linen, and loose... [more]

Happy times in Maldon

My family and I moved from London in 1955 to Maldon, following a visit the year before with our Sunday School outing, and we moved near to the Prom. We had such happy times living there and as children my friends and I used to roam the Prom, the nearby sea-wall, fields, woods, and country lanes, in fact everywhere, in... [more]

Happy Childhood Days

Many happy childhood weekends were spent on the River Blackwater at the Mill Beach Camp Site with my parents and brother. We often visited Maldon for provisions and I can remember a large "cake shop" on the corner by the bus station? As we came up the hill (what a hill!) a lady on the left always had a... [more]

Freddie Holmes' garage

I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes.  The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids!  Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop".  He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers... [more]

Childhood in the village

I moved to Hatfield Peverel in late 1941, after my family was bombed out in London. My father took the Duke of Wellington pub over, where we lived until 1949. Yes they were good years in the village, but at the beginning we were outcasts as we were Cockneys, but after three months it got really good. ONly my dialect was... [more]

Does anyone remember the 1950 shooting in post office road

Hi I would love to hear from anyone who knew of Ronald Buckley. He built a home on Post Office Road in Woodham Mortimer. My mum was just 2 years old when my grandad Ronald got shot dead by my uncle David in 1950 (David was 16 at the time). The bungalow my grandad built is no longer there. I would... [more]