Shared Memories of Rochford
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Year: 1967
Mill Lane
We lived at number 11 Mill Lane and later moved to number 7. My late father, Joe Clarke was the chemist at the Mill. I remember my early childhood lived in Rochford so very fondly. We were very happy carefree children with a wonderful countryside to play in. My sister, Samantha, narrowly escaped drowning when (at the age of 3) she fell off the wharf into the creek at high tide. She was pulled out by her arm by one of the 'big boys'. I think his name was Peter. We were the 'Clarke Family', two boys and three girls. We left Rochford when I was 11 and when I returned approximately 10 years later (all grown up) when walking through the mill, one of the workmen stopped and looked at me and said "I know you, your Joe Clarke's little 'un". I also recall at the age of about 8 I went to the Church jumble sale, bought 2 eggcups for sixpence and took them to the local antique dealer's shop and sold them for 8 shillings. How's that for enterprise at the age of 8!! I returned (again) two years ago, how sad to see the Cherry Tree so commercialised.
Posted: 15/06/2008 09:22 by Nicola Scott
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Year: 1944
Rochford fair
I remember Rochford very dearly. As a young child I often stayed with my great-grandmother, Sara Ann Simpson. I'd walk around the churchyard, the empty farm, climb the stile, visit the newsagent's shop, see the men at lunch standing outside the pub. I recall there was a vicarage, too. And every time I walked with my grandmother down the main road to the bus stop my legs would be stung by stinging nettles. My great-grandmother's home was called Ash Lea. It was a mud road with a grassy median lined on both sides by ditches. There was a similar mud road a bit closer to the pub. And my friends and I would play in the woods at the end of these two roads. And they held a fair, close to or at the farm in the summertime. I still hear "You are my sunshine" over a loudspeaker being sung there. It must have been around the time of the end of the war. There was a nurse, Miss Tracy, who lived next to my great-grandmother and rode a bicycle to work. Last time I was there must have been in '78 when I was on a trip back to England. I was flabbergasted. Nothing but houses after houses, streetlights everywhere, all built up. But....my great-grandmother's home was still there at that time as well as the ones on either side. My grandmother and I used to go to the market most weeks - I think on Thursdays. I loved to look at the animals. And one day we bought the very best greengages we had ever eaten - they were so good we went back for more because we would have gobbled them all up before getting home. I am 68 now and in the US. But all those memories of Rochford are so clear. I remember going there, too, with my grandmother when I was seven and my great-grandmother died. I think she is buried in Hawkwell Church.
Posted: 03/04/2008 21:36 by Ashlea Simpson
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