Great Warley
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Great Warley books (13 available)
Great Warley memories
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Essex memories
Auntie DID have TB
I have recently been doing some research into our family history. I was always told by my mother that her elder sister, Bessie Dubora, died from complications following a tonsilectomy but, having now obtained a copy of the Death Certificate, I have discovered that she died at High Wood Hospital in 1925 from TB at the age of 12 years.
My family originally came from the East End of London, so I was at a lost to understand why the Death Certificate originated in Billericay. Having studied some of the entries on this site, I can now see that High Wood must have been what used to be known as a "sanitorium" for children with TB.
Obviously ...read more here
A memory of Brentwood contributed by Sheila Foreman
I didn't have TB!
Just before Christmas in 1953 I was admitted to St Giles' Hospital in Camberwell, south London. It was thought that I had TB. I was allowed home for Christmas, although confined to bed.
After Christmas I was taken by ambulance to Highwood Hospital in Brentwood, which my parents told me was a 'convalescent home'. One of the boys on my Ward quickly disillusioned me, as of course all of the patients had varying degrees of TB.
During the first week of my stay, still confined to bed, I underwent a number of chest X-rays and tests. On the second Monday the Ward Sister came to my bedside and told me that I did not in fact have TB and that ...read more here
A memory of Brentwood contributed by Ken Cook
Grandmother's childhood home
Probably more years than just 1910. My Grandmother Rose Smith (nee Holloway) grew up here. She was one of 10 children to John and Alice Holloway. She met my Grandfather, Sidney Fraser Smith, who was a Sergeant Instructor in Small Arms at the Barracks nearby. When she lived here the Holloway family had a pet black sheep, a monkey, ducks and chickens, with many fruit trees in the orchard, which is sadly now a car park! John would send Rose down to the Thatchers Arms with a jug to bring back some of the opposition's beer for him to try out. I have a framed picture of the Headley with the Holloway pony and trap outside which ...read more here
A memory of Brentwood contributed by Zina Preston
Highwood Hospital. Ingrave Rd. Brentwood. Essex.
I was in a hospital called Highwood Hospital, in Ingrave Road. It was for children who had TB. I remember lots of friends there, the girls were separated from the boys. We had open air wards where we slept, unless it was very cold. Most of us were in our early teens. I was on a ward called Firs 5, I found out years later that it was the only hospital of this type in the country, as the chidren had adult type TB. I was there for about a year, and was completely cured. We did live quite near in a village called Hutton, we lived on a estate which was newly built, and we had moved from London to ...read more here
A memory of Brentwood contributed by Joan Saville
Extracts From Great Warley & Essex books
In the medieval manorial rolls there are
references to ancient roads and lanes
that carry the same names today. A field
known as Joiners Hill on the south corner
of St Nicholas Lane at the entrance
from High Road is shown on the 1839
Laindon Tithe Map, and it is thought
that the route via Laindon High Road
and St Nicholas Way was used by many
pilgrims on their way to Canterbury;
it was a busy trade route from the
1500s. In addition to the difficulty of
travelling over bad roads in the 18th and
19th centuries, murderers and thieves
abounded, and farmers coming home
from market would travel together for
protection. In 1815 two Laindon men
were robbed on their way home from
Rumford (now Romford) market.
An extract from from"Basildon - A History & Celebration".
In the medieval manorial rolls there are
references to ancient roads and lanes
that carry the same names today. A field
known as Joiners Hill on the south corner
of St Nicholas Lane at the entrance
from High Road is shown on the 1839
Laindon Tithe Map, and it is thought
that the route via Laindon High Road
and St Nicholas Way was used by many
pilgrims on their way to Canterbury;
it was a busy trade route from the
1500s. In addition to the difficulty of
travelling over bad roads in the 18th and
19th centuries, murderers and thieves
abounded, and farmers coming home
from market would travel together for
protection. In 1815 two Laindon men
were robbed on their way home from
Rumford (now Romford) market.
An extract from from"Basildon - A History & Celebration".
Laindon and Langdon Hills had always been
separate villages with long histories, and
even appeared as separate entries in the 1086
Domesday Book. Laindon took its name
from the River Lyge, a lost tributary of the
River Crouch, which rose from the hill on
which St Nicholas’s Church stands and is
responsible for the extreme dampness of the
graves dug in the churchyard. The Lynge, a
road in Laindon, was named after it, but no
longer exists. In 1777 Chapman and Andre
refer to Langdon clay, a clear indication of the
nature of the soil here. The first part of the
name Langdon Hills means ‘long hill’, which
it certainly is, and the highest point in Essex.
An extract from from"Basildon - A History & Celebration".
Built on the site of the Old Rectory, the Basildon tractor plant was finally completed on 20 February 1964. It
covered 60 acres of the 100-acre site, and had 1,360,000 square feet of buildings. Its most recognisable feature
was its distinctive 125ft-high water tower holding 200,000 gallons (right); nicknamed ‘the onion’, it is still
regarded as a local landmark.
An extract from from"Basildon - A History & Celebration".
Picturesquely perched on top of its steep
knoll and surrounded by a sea of 20th-
century housing, the church of St Nicholas,
Laindon, possibly dates from the 12th century.
It incorporates the stout original timbers of
its 14th-century belfry with broach spire,
weather-boarded outside in true Essex style.
The timber is about 700 years old, and the
bell turret rests on an arched frame of timber.
It is rumoured that the timbers supporting
the belfry came from ships of the Armada,
but they are more likely to have grown in the
nearby woods. The chancel and south aisle
were added later. From Saxo-Norman times
Basildon was closely associated with Laindon,
and Laindon parish was always described
as Laindon-cum-Basildon. St Nicholas’s and
Holy Cross, Basildon have similar curious
primitive 15th-century carvings on the
spandrels of their porches.
An extract from from"Basildon - A History & Celebration".