St Osyth memories
Here are memories of St Osyth and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of St Osyth or a St Osyth photo.
Memories of Point Clear Bay Near St Osyth in The Mid 1950s& 60s
My family and I used to spend our holidays at Point Clear almost every year during the late 1940s, 50s and 60s, and often met the same families each time we went down there. I remember one year in the mid 1950s when a neighbour's daughter and myself walked out to 'Anchor Island' (a sand island just offshore), it was a hot night so we decided to have a late night swim, but when we went to wade back, the tide had come in and had cut us both off. We made an ettempt to reach higher ground but the current swept us both along the island, reaching the firm ground we became marooned, it finished up with the Clacton lifeboat putting to sea to rescue us, it was very embarrassing. The young lady who was from Leicester was a nurse but there wasn't much for her to do on this ocasion. I moved down to Point Clear in 1963 and lived in my parents' place on the 'North Wall', I... Read more
Priory Lodge
My husband and I moved to Clacton on Sea year 2000 and soon afterwards we visited the Priory. We enjoyed the visit and recently 2011 I was doing more research on my family tree (May family) when I discovered an ancestor Edward Leverett on the 1841 census, who appears to be my 3 x Grandmother's brother (still have to be proved) who was Gamekeeper and address given as Priory Lodge. He was aged 50 and with him his wife Elizabth and their children Edward and daughter Elizabeth. Also Lucy Leverett aged 20 occ: Female Servant address also Priory Lodge. For all these Leveretts Res. district given as St. Osyth. I am very excited about this find as we used to own a holiday chalet in St. Osyth so the area means a great deal to me and my family. It is amazing to think that I was born in East London, then moved to Dagenham, Essex and on to other south east Essex... Read more
Brightlingsea Ferry
Back in the 1950s, as an extended family, we always went to Jaywick Sands for our summer holiday. A regular walk undertaken was along the beach to Point Clear then across the ferry to Brightlingsea. It seemed like a real adventure at the time!
Happy Days at St Osyth
I lived with my family in Kingsbury NW9 and we used to holiday at St Osyth from 1960 -1965. Mum, Dad six children, plus Nan, Grandad and Auntie! The first year we had a caravan on the then magnificent beach, then a caravan per family on the only site at the time. Nan particularly enjoyed our evenings up at The Monks Head clubhouse - plenty of Guiness! We also enjoyed searching for cockles and winkles when the tide had gone out!
The beach front had shops selling all sorts of goodies from buckets, spades, gifts, sweets, etc to bakery, butchers, paper shop, beach cafe. The sea has now claimed all of this.
Family walks into St Osyth village, Point Clear in one direction and Jaywick Sands in the other, provided us all with plenty of interest and amusement. Sadly, Jaywick Sands is not the place it was...
Happy days indeed. I would like to go back but part of me prefers to remember it as it was...... Read more
Wonderful Holidays in St Osyth
I remember St Osyth with great fondness, holidayed there with Mum and Dad for quite a few years, always the first 2 weeks of September for some reason. We stayed in a bungalow called The Retreat in Oakmead Road. I believe it was demolished some years ago and a new 'Retreat' was built ? I remember the Elsan loo and the big spiders and daddy long legs which always seemed to be in there!
I intend to go back and see if I still get a good feeling about the place. Hopefully my wife and kids will too!
My Mum
Martins Gate, a quaint cottage on the old Colchester road, is where my mum was born. There was no water, electricity, no inside toilet. I spent many happy hours there with my grandparents, playing in the fields at the back of the house. I was bathed in a tin bath in front of a roaring fire, the water was from a water butt and heated up on the Aga. The toilet was a shed at the bottom of the garden.
I spent many hours running acroos the field to the priory, playing with the deer in the woods and picking the bluebells to take home for my grandmother. The lighting was oil lamps, with the beams on the ceiling it was so cosy. Every bonfire night my brother and I along with our cousins would congregrate at Martins Gate for many a memorable Guy Fawkes. My nan would make toffee apples and lots of other goodies for us children. I remember my cousin Geoff having a dog called Shep and... Read more
The Village Bakery Shop
I was born in the village in 1965 and lived in St. Osyth Bakery, Spring Road for 20 years with my family. I can remember going to Bretts hardware and sweet shop with my 5p to get some sweets. I can remember Mr and Mrs Ayers who ran the vegetable and toy shop in Spring Road. We used to take part in the village carnivals every year with the WI. We were christened and my sister was married in the village church. I used to love singing around the big Christmas tree in the churchyard at Christmas time. I have now moved to North Wales but I will always remember St. Osyth as home.
Memories of Essex
Happy Days at Jaywick!
My family had a holiday in Jaywick every summer, from when I was 5 up until I was about 15 years old. We would stay in bungalows on stilts!! My brothers and me thought this was wonderful,and would run and play under these bungalows.
The weather always seemed to be baking hot, and I remember the sand burning my feet!
At night, my family and all the other relations who were on holiday with us, would go to the Morocco Club, and stay there till closing time. I vaguely remember me and my brothers going upstairs where there were lots of slot machines.
My mum used to hire a bright orange pushchair for my younger brothers, and we would walk to Clacton Pier,and I went on Steel Stellar!!! I remember being so scared as I was only about 7 or 8 at the time!!
The only thing I didn't like about these holidays was the awful smell when the
lorries came round to empty the outside toilets!
We went back... Read more
Happiest Holidays of my Life
Year after year my family had our summer holidays in Jaywick Sands, we used to stay in the same small chalet in Meadow Way, Jaywick Sands. How we all used to fit in there I'll never know. It had tiny windows, an outside toilet, a small front garden with double gates at the front leading out to the long road, Meadow Way. Across the road about 300 yards away was the sea and the beach, and just about 100 yards from our chalet was the Las Vegas amusement arcade, directly across the road from the Las Vegas was The Mermaid pub. The very first time my family took me to Jaywick Sands was so very exciting for me. I will always remember my wonderful grandmother handing me a little bag full of pennies which she had put away for my brother and I to spend in the amusement arcade while she would sit and play bingo, she would always get there early so she could save seats for my mother... Read more
Tanker in The Mud
Around that time we had 3 or 4 holidays at Jaywick Sands and St.Osyth's. Although I think we nearly didn't go back after this adventure! 'The Sands' at Jaywick opened at low tide to miles of shifting mud! Well very waterlogged sandy silt. One year a huge tanker was caught on the bar around 2-3miles out. Waiting for high tide.
My cousin, 12yrs, and not nearly as good a swimmer as me at 10yrs of age, was persuaded that we could make it out to the tanker. We almost did. The sailors were close enough to make out clearly and wave. However, their waving had more to do with the fast rising channel, behind us. Once near enough to the tanker we saw how vast it was and how small were we.
We bogged and ploughed our way back, the water was a fast rising, rippling current of warm water. Very pleasant to feel but very scary to sense how fast it was rising.
Tower Caravan Park Jaywick Sands
I remember going to Tower Caravan Park, Jaywick Sands, every year with my mom, dad, two brothers and sister, from very young till about 15 or 16 years old. I have wonderful memories like going to the Raven Club every evening and not being allowed in the 'adults room' but being able to see them through the glass partition between us and them. The arcade next to the bingo and the cafe right on the end. I also remember mom still in her dressing gown going over to the toilets and showers in the mornings, with her toiletry bag and towel, and my older brother going to fill the water thing up at the outside tap. And on one of the days we would go to Clacton Pier. The week (cos we only went for a week but it felt like we were there for a month) was always scorching hot. I remember the little shop & reception area and the beach just up a small hill. My sister and... Read more
Memories
I can remember as a child staying in Tower caravan park, and also in the little roads leading up to the park which were all named after cars. The big old carts coming round couple of times a week to empty the toilets as at the time there was no plumbing at all, hahahah, and the smell, omg, we used to gag, hahahaha. My children now have memories of it too as we took them there when they were small, they now have children and hopefully will take theirs as well. Remember the Ravens club, through the years, also remember they had an entertainments man there in the late 1980s and early 1990s called Jerry, coz I can remember my kids doing treasure hunts etc. So many memories dating from the early 1960s up until few years ago :) Good times.
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