A Village To A Town

A Memory of Stanford-le-Hope.

Born at Orsett hospital in 1950, I remember many things about Stanford. My father was from east London, my mother from rural Essex. They settled at no. 8 Central Road, just round the corner from Barclays bank. Stanford and Corringham were not adjoined then, as they were two villages with an expanse of fields between them, including the old army camp (disused).  

I remember the cattle market where the Welcome Club is now and at the corner of Kings Street there used to be a real bakers with a flour mill run by the Kings bakers.

Just behind the cattle market was Thomas Allen, a petroleum delivery company which went on for many years. My brother worked from them after completing National Service.

Coryton and the Shell Houses were about 9 miles down the road, though the children and families were allowed free transport to Stanford via a bus to shuttle them back to the refinery areas as they came to school at either Stanford or Corringham.

The main shops in Stanford were the Co-op which my parents rented their house from as it was next door, the banks, which originally were the Barclays, then the one between Barclays and the doctor's house and the original surgery. Agers were a renowned  man's shop. There was the flea pit, our own cinema, a chance to catch up on the Hammer movie trail. A terrible thing to say that you were 16 when you were only 14. But sometimes you got in.

At 11 I joined the choir at St Margaret's. Stayed there for 3 to 4 years and thoroughly enjoyed it. My choir master was Bank Taylor, a superb gentleman who got the best out of me to become a soloist which I really enjoyed.

On Ascension Day at 6 in the morning, the choristers were led up to the church top, to firstly sing praise and then to chuck pine cones onto the roof of the Rising Sun pub below to wake the inn keeper - why? I never knew.

At around 1960 the distance between Stanford and Corringham was filled with housing development at the homestead side, it was called the East Ham and West Ham estates, where people from those areas were encouraged to resettle, and the southern side was predominately a new private estate. That's where the 'Cat-cracker' pub was built. The Catcracker was a term for a unit to produce oil of sorts, it's a metal cone steel thing which doesn't look too nice. That led you too the new Corringham town centre.

Getting back, down to Wharf Road, there was an OLD house, with a magnificent pond of considerable size. We called it the old priory, an oasis surrounded by woodlands. You caught toads, and newts galore there.

I remember Pigots fruit and veg on the corner of Wharf Road, opposite the NEW doctor's surgery.

Opposite our house was the Official, now named the dole office,  I never saw anyone go in there, it was a little bungalow of two rooms. It was shut in the end. Does that tell you something?

I have only just touched on my memory of Stanford-Le-Hope, but can someone tell me why the name  'Stanford-Le-Hope' - I know why!