Nostalgic memories of Hornchurch's local history
Share your own memories of Hornchurch and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 1 - 10 of 62 in total
Lived at 387 Elm Park Avenue. Benhurst Primary, then Suttons.
I too studied under Miss/Mrs Syrett, Mr Walsh (great guy) / Mr Crew/ and the formidable Mr Pike for the last two years! Was he a stern bully or just trying to toughen us up for life? I was in the first extended course and left at 16 as Head Boy. Other names ; Mr D’Arcy (Head), I then did an apprenticeship at a plastics factory in Wingletye Lane. In a ...see more
Opposite where the bus is located is a row of shops at the end of Glanville Drive. For the first part of my life from 1947 I lived at the far end of Glanville Drive. The large house in the background with the light-coloured flank wall is 'Dury Falls' a Grade II Listed Building. That is at the junction of Upminster Road and Wingletye Lane.
The Kings Head on the left of the photograph was one of the pubs I would regularly drink in when I was in my twenties. I remember it being 'tarted up' at one time with fake beams made of chicken wire covered in textured plaster painted dark brown. It was truly awful!
On the opposite side of the road from the pub in those days was a row of modern shops but as a child I remember there being a vacant site where a brewery had once stood and which was once used by a circus.
The church on the left hand side of the photograph was Hornchurch Baptist Church. I was, in the second half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, a member of the 6th Hornchurch Scout Group based at the church. A little further up North Street on the right was Westland Avenue where North Street Primary School was located. I attended the school from 1952 to 1958.
For the first part of my life from 1947 I lived in Glanville Drive which ran parallel to Wingletye Lane about 100 yards to the West of where the photograph was taken. The railings to the right of the photograph marked the boundary of the school field of Dury Falls Secondary School. In the background can be seen the bridge over the Romford-Upminster railway line.
I lived in Glanville Drive for the first part of my life from 1947. Out nearest post office was in Woodhall Parade, just over the railway bridge in Wingletye Lane, One thing that sticks in my mind is that the greengrocers kept a parrot in a cage in the shop. That would breach food hygiene and animal welfare standards nowadays. When I was old enough I used to buy beer and lager from the ...see more
I lived in Glanville Drive, a residential road off Upminster Road about 100 yards to the west of Wingletye Lane, for the first part of my life from 1947 so I knew the area well.
The building on the corner of Wingletye Lane and Upminster Road is 'Dury Falls', a Grade II Listed Building which I remember was being used as offices in the 1960s.
The strip of land planted with bushes on the ...see more
Reading some memories, I thought I would do, as spent a lot of my teenage years in the Elm Park area. I was one of the first pupils at the newly opened Abbs Cross Technical school in Abbs Cross Lane after passing my 11+ . Sadly I was not a model pupil by any means, after several detentions and truancy, spending days in Harrow Lodge Park, I was then expelled for setting off a firework in the maths teachers cupboard ...see more
As Gillian Ferguson as I was then I went to Maylands from 1965. I remember Mrs Parsons the music teacher, Miss Johannsen the Headmistress, Mr Carr/science and Mrs Walmsley. It was a great school to be at especially having to walk through the park every day twice. I actually walked all the way from near Bretons Scholl to Maylands "knocking for" Pat Mason, Linda Carvell Janice Ling and then finally met up with ...see more
I played in this group in the early 60s around Hornchurch and further afield.
I think I remember a group at that time called the DCs. They were well respected.