Little Burstead memories
Here are memories of Little Burstead and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Little Burstead or a Little Burstead photo.
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
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
Memories of Essex
The Races
HENRY I REMEMBER. Billericay to Galleywood was a nice pony & trap ride, from where we lived in Goosberry Green - it took a bout an hour. No rush a long days, even a stop because good clean grass grew on the verges, & the tubs, or trap as it was called, had a bucket hooked under it for drinking water for the pony - also the nose bag, oats were cheap in those days. Well, it meant a sort out of blankets to sit on the grass - & one as a table cloth. The hamper would be well filled up; we seemed to have a lot of cold cooked meat, with salt on it was a taste that disappeared - I am sure it's that old taste that makes my mouth water now, not what is called bread today, butter, well was also much nicer. We mannered along round back roads, crossing Buttsbury Wash. Up a hill, the church stood on the left, as... Read more
Memory Lane 1950 - 1957
I have wonderfull memories of Billericay, Church. As a child my Mother would take my Brothers Paul, Barry & Sisters Margaret & Angela & I to the Sunday Service. Father Alawyshes Roch was the priest at that time. He was a good family friend to the Gurnett's. I believe Father Roch wrote a couple of books. While listening to the Choir we would always sit & try to pick out my Grandmother Alice Gurnett & Aunt Agnes Lyons voices. If we heard them we knew we would get to visit with them after the service. We would also look around to see if Auntie Jo & Auntie Eileen were there. I recall the Processions & the Benediction Mass along with all the incense. I distincly remember the wrought iron staircase leading up to where the choir was. The Baptism font seemed so big. The people always seemed so sad clutching their Rosaries & many would have tears in their... Read more
Catholic Church, Laindon Road, Billericay
This old church was modernised, including an extension at the front, sometime in the 1980s (I believe). My cousin Marion got married here, early 1980s, and the modernisation work took place sometime later - need to find dates. Personally, I did not think the modernisation work was in keeping with the original architecture.
Chantry Cafe
I remember this old cafe very well - not too well lit inside, but friendly atmosphere - my Mum, her friend Joan Slaney and son Michael (who was the same age as me) used to have tea and cakes etc. in the cafe on some occasions after our Mum's had picked us up from school. The last time I went to Billericay (many years ago now) this cafe had become an Indian Restaurant.
Billericay
I used to work for Lord Rayleighs Dairies and my area of delivery was Billericay I used to deliver milk to the Chantry Cafe and most of the Town then out to Norsey Road and surrounding areas, happy days long gone.
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