Rochford
Rochford 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!
Rochford books (16 available)
Braintree Town and City Memories
Hardback
Chigwell Photographic Memories
Paperback
Chigwell Photographic Memories
Hardback
Rochford memories
Read and share memories of Rochford and Essex inspired by Frith photos
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 ...read more here
Contributed by Nicola Scott
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 ...read more here
Contributed by Ashlea Simpson
Applegate Oxford Road Rochford
My father was demobbed during 1945 and gave his address as Applegates. Does anyone know who resided at the address who might be still alive. Regards Lilly.
Contributed by Lilly stark
Market Day
I remember Rochford Market Square for the market days held there when I was a child, if my memory serves me correctly it was held every Thursday. I used to love going to see the animals in their pens, calves and pigs mainly, the bigger beasts were auctioned in the afternoons. There was a place for smaller animals in the stables in Back Lane, which I used to love too.
Opposite the market square was a tearoom called Delph House, and they sold the best doughnuts I've ever tasted, mainly because my mother and I would share one of these during the school holidays while my Dad was at work, he didn't approve of his money being wasted on 'junk ...read more here
Contributed by Doreen Edwards
The Mill
When I was about 5 or 6 my dad worked at the mill, and we lived in one of the mill cottages in Mill Lane. I used to play around the mill and one day found strange washers in the old pond across from the blacksmith - later I discovered them to be Chinese coins - with square holes in them, they had been used as ballast for the grain barges.
I have many fond memories of this mill and the area - we moved later when I was about 7.
Contributed by Martin Bradley
when i was a girl
When I was about five years old my parents used to take us kids on a Sunday walk. Always remember it was to Stambridge mills. Back then the roads leading to the mill were not more then a country track. On the way to the mills dad would dig up horseradish to take home to mince up in mums mincer. I can smell the aroma of the place now. Corn fields wild flowers. When we got to the mills the smell of grinding corn hit you. Wonderful. We would walk through the mill and onto a place called Broom hills. After a good ramble around the place dad would take us to the Cherry Tree pub. Him and mum would go ...read more here
Contributed by MARY JONES
Visit
The early Rochford church next to Rochford Hall was our highlight. Continue to guard your priceless community.
Contributed by John Rochford
Extracts From Rochford & 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".