Leigh-On-Sea
Leigh-On-Sea photos (5 available)
Leigh-On-Sea maps (2 available)
Map of Essex
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Leigh-On-Sea books (13 available)
Leigh-On-Sea memories
Read and share memories of Leigh-On-Sea and Essex inspired by Frith photos
Days out by train
We used to visit Leigh-on-Sea by train from Dagenham on a Sunday. After a stop at the cockle sheds for refreshment and for us children to see the process of the boiling of the shellfish, we would then walk along the seafront as far as Southend East railway station because in those days the train home was as packed as most rush hour trains are today and we were assured of a seat on the train before it got to Southend Central station. Nowadays, my membership of Leigh-on-Sea Lions Club means I am often visiting the Old Town and still delight in sampling the produce of the seafood stalls. The view in the picture is very recognisable as it ...read more here
Contributed by Eileen Hammond
Essex memories
Days out by train
We used to visit Leigh-on-Sea by train from Dagenham on a Sunday. After a stop at the cockle sheds for refreshment and for us children to see the process of the boiling of the shellfish, we would then walk along the seafront as far as Southend East railway station because in those days the train home was as packed as most rush hour trains are today and we were assured of a seat on the train before it got to Southend Central station. Nowadays, my membership of Leigh-on-Sea Lions Club means I am often visiting the Old Town and still delight in sampling the produce of the seafood stalls. The view in the picture is very recognisable as it ...read more here
A memory of Leigh-On-Sea contributed by Eileen Hammond
Bus Shelter
Many is the time I have spent in that bus shelter, on a winters night, freezing, waiting for an Eastern National bus or a Campbell’s Flyer [1/2 penny cheaper in old money].
Having been to the Kingsway cinema and munching on a bag of chips from Tyson’s fish shop in the parade of shops opposite the cinema, or if I was “lucky" trying to have to have a kiss & cuddle in the back of the shelter where is was darker and often even colder.
The shelter was hexagonal in shape, also the seat inside was hexagonal which had many names & pledges of love carved over many years on it.
I do not remember the demise of that old friend, ...read more here
A memory of Hadleigh contributed by horace rogers
Bus Shelter
Living in Canada now I'm not sure if the bus shelter in this photograph is still there. In the early sixties I, my brother and sister caught the bus from this stop to our school, Holy Family RC Primary, in Benfleet. We'd have our pink bus passes at the ready and join a host of other kids on their way to their respective schools. A sign of the times in that I don't think anyone now lets their primary school aged kids travel by themselves on public transport. One winter the weather was really bad with lots of snow and some of the public buses didn't run. Happily, we had a couple of days off school and were ...read more here
A memory of Hadleigh contributed by Chris Gahan
Extracts From Leigh-On-Sea & 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".