Great Totham
Great Totham maps (2 available)
Map of Essex
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Great Totham books (16 available)
Braintree Town and City Memories
Hardback
Chigwell Photographic Memories
Paperback
Chigwell Photographic Memories
Hardback
Great Totham memories
Read and share memories of Great Totham and Essex inspired by Frith photos
Freddie Holmes' garage
I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes. The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids! Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop". He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers held together with elastic-bands; when applied to the backside they made you sit up in both ways! But he was a good teacher, joined in with our games and was liked and respected. His wife, Hilda, a formidable lady from Yorkshire, was his deputy.
Then, Arthur Green ran the village post-office from the front room of his house on Staplers ...read more here
Contributed by Peter Saunders
Essex memories
Freddie Holmes' garage
I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes. The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids! Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop". He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers held together with elastic-bands; when applied to the backside they made you sit up in both ways! But he was a good teacher, joined in with our games and was liked and respected. His wife, Hilda, a formidable lady from Yorkshire, was his deputy.
Then, Arthur Green ran the village post-office from the front room of his house on Staplers ...read more here
A memory of Great Totham contributed by Peter Saunders
A real English village
My parents moved to Wickham Bishops in 1948 to help friends run the village Post Office Stores which sold everything - stamps, paraffin (you brought your own can and it was filled from a barrel at the back), vinegar (as for the parafin, it came from a barrel out back), cheese portions cut from huge cheeses wrapped in linen, and loose flour and pulses which even as a five year old I was allowed to put into blue sugar-paper bags to be weighed. Sweets where still rationed and broken biscuits were popular. My mother and her friend went once a year to order skirts, blouses, frocks and underwear from the London warehouses. Toys that came in for Christmas were not in ...read more here
A memory of Wickham Bishops contributed by carol argyris
Sailing with my dad
The best memories of sailing with my dad most weekends and baleing water out of the dingy. It leaked.
A memory of Heybridge contributed by antony hammond
Extracts From Great Totham & Essex books
Prior to 1935, all that would have been seen from in front of
the church would have been the top of the church spire. In the
foreground would have been a collection of dilapidated shops, and
a large wooden maltings out of shot to the right. In 1935 the
buildings, including the maltings, were demolished as part of a
road improvement scheme.
An extract from from"Braintree Town and City Memories".
One of the features of the gardens is the way in which the visitor is met with different views and layouts, from open spaces to densely planted areas, or along wide pathways with narrow winding pathways off to the sides.
An extract from from"Braintree Town and City Memories".
Continuing the development of houses along the main Dunmow to Colchester Road, these
fine houses, dating from the turn of the 20th century, were also built for the growing middle
class. They were known locally as ‘The Villas’. Mr Leonard Alden, who ran a tailor and
outfitter’s business, had one of these houses.
An extract from from"Braintree Town and City Memories".
This road runs between Coggeshall Road and Bradford Street; it replaced the old road,
which ran 30 or 40 metres back from the left-hand side of this picture, when Sydney
Courtauld built Bocking Place in 1885. Houses started to be built on the right-hand side of
the road from the turn of the 20th century, and provided housing for the up-and-coming
professional and business people.
An extract from from"Braintree Town and City Memories".
The large weather-boarded buildings on the
left are the silk mills of Warner & Sons, who
had taken over the business of Walters & Co
in 1894. Daniel Walters came to the town
in 1822, and these mills were built in 1856.
Behind these is another range of buildings
constructed in 1869. Both firms produced
silk products for the royal family, and Warners
have woven velvet for every coronation since
that of Edward VII.
An extract from from"Braintree Town and City Memories".