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Mucking
Mucking maps
Historic maps of Mucking and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Mucking maps
Mucking area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Mucking and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Mucking
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memories of Mucking.
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Secret Spot
Lived on Bata Estate 1954-1964, near railway crossing. Through crossing on left was sad row of shops, we knew as Mucking. Turning right down farm track (forbidden!) I could creep through undergrowth to an almost deserted settlement, very overgrown, with a wonderful pond and small church. Never saw a soul. Magical spot. This was Mucking village proper. Excavations had not begun in earnest, though Saxon (and Roman) stuff had been found. Old gravel quarries were great places for great crested newts and biking. We invented downhill racing! Exciting, and often impossible, on steep grave slopes. Safe enough though, as there was water at the bottom. Only danger was my mum when I returned wet and muddy. Again! Went back about 20 years ago to show my family my secret spot. It was just the same, with the spooky atmosphere, and sense of going back in time. Learnt then that the gravel extraction would wipe out the important Saxon settlements near the Stanford-le-Hope road. Appalled.
Essex memories
Vera Waites
My mother-in-law has just passed away and we found this in her papers. My years at Stanford-le-Hope Laundry. I lived in a village where my mum and family had lived for generations. A signpost at the top of our lane said '24 miles to London'. Our house was in the last road on one side of the village before farm land, and almost a mile from the River Thames. It was the last week of our school holidays and my dad told me, when he cam home from his work at the oil refinery, that the next day I was to go to our local laundry and ask for the manageress. I knew this laundry as one of my aunts lived close by, and our best Sunday School dresses had always been sent there because my mum didn't have an ironing table or sleeve board, just the kitchen table. Our dresses were always the same colour for the three of us, and had long sleeves. My young sister had to wear the... Read more
Blacksmith's Yard
My paternal grandmother Annie Cowell came from Stanford and I have always been led to believe that the space on the left of the house in the foreground, where the trees are, was the site of her father's blacksmith's premises. Her husband (or husband to be) Thomas J Mead was also a blacksmith and probably worked there as well, hence the connection, before they moved to Romford and then Wooburn Green in Buckinghamshire. I understand that Mr Cowell was well known in the then village and was also a pillar of the church community.
I spent many of my early years, in the 1940's and 50's, holidaying in Stanford and staying with my auntie Alice King at 14 Salisbury Avenue, and on these occasions joining her in the Mucking Church Choir (to be with my friend Sylvia Hipsey); and remember well the frequent treks down Wharf Road and over the Warren at the weekends. I had my first legal drink in the pub by the Green on Church Hill.
Stanford 1955- 1965
Hello George I lived in Stanford 1947-1971. The house opposite the church was where Dr. Morris lived, I believe. The surgery was round the corner in what felt like old stables. It was a fine house but was later purchased by a pub chain, I am not sure what it is now. I do not recall the site you mention prior to 1960 when Lloyds bank had a branch built there. I lived in King Edward Road down Wharf Road and used to enjoy playing and dog walking on the route to Mucking and the gravel pit area. Also watching the huge steam engines pulling large tanker trains from Shell Haven.
School Days
I grew up in Leigh-on- Sea but because my mother taught at Hassenbrook we drove to Standford every day from the time I was 4 1/2 till I was 9. I attended Standford-le-Hope Infants and then when I turned 7 went across the road to the Junior school. I remember there was a green wooden shack which we called the Tuck Shop which was just outside the back gate of the Junior School where we bought sweets. My best friend in the Junior School was Elaine Bradshaw and I hated living in Leigh because we couldn't play during the holidays. I also was friends with Jane Pierce. Her dad was the Vicar or Rector of the church (St. Margarets I think) and I have great memories of playing in the grounds around the church, they were beautiful and huge. Before I started school I was looked after by a lady I called Aunty Rose. She lived in a thatched cottage that stood between the road and the recreation/playground. There was... Read more
A Village to A Town
Born at Orsett hospital in 1950, I remember many things about Stanford. My father was from east London, my mother from rural Essex. They settled at no. 8 Central Road, just round the corner from Barclays bank. Stanford and Corringham were not adjoined then, as they were two villages with an expanse of fields between them, including the old army camp (disused).
I remember the cattle market where the Welcome Club is now and at the corner of Kings Street there used to be a real bakers with a flour mill run by the Kings bakers.
Just behind the cattle market was Thomas Allen, a petroleum delivery company which went on for many years. My brother worked from them after completing National Service.
Coryton and the Shell Houses were about 9 miles down the road, though the children and families were allowed free transport to Stanford via a bus to shuttle them back to the refinery areas as they came to school at either Stanford or... Read more
Memories of Stanford-Le-Hope
I too have many memories of Stanford-le-Hope.
I was born in Orsett hospital. My mother came from South Wales whilst my father came from Ashford in Middlesex. The reason they came to live here was my aunt and uncle already lived here. My uncle had lived here most of his 95 years. His mother used to teach at Stanford Primary School in Corringham Road and he went on to teach at St Chads in Tilbury.
I remember many things from all those years ago. The railway crossing and the man who used to turn the wheel to open and close the gates - I am sure to this day he took great pleasure in closing them early and opening them late. There was the old station kiosk which was at the bottom of a slope where the ticket office is now. My uncle used to run Stanford Photography Service and I can remember him collecting film and returning prints to this kiosk. There was the woods... Read more
