Homes Boy

I entered White's Children's Home and Mission (known as CH&M) in June of 1945 having come from Surbiton, Surrey. I was 9 years old. The home was situated in Church Rd opposite "The Pond", it is now a CO-OP supermarket.  There was a large Georgian house named "The Grove" and a Hall with other buildings, we had a large field to play in, there was also a farm there. There were about 56 children there then, boys and girls. We went to Tiptree Heath School, and the Congregrational Church in (I think) Chapel Rd, now the Reformed Church. We used to be marched two-by-two to school and church.  The home was founded in 1899 by Mr Herbert White at South Woodford.  Tiptree was the holiday premises and because of the war they had to stay at Tiptree from September 1939 till Easter 1947, when most of the children were moved back to South Woodford. The premises were sold in 1954. When I was there Mr White and his wife with some of his family and "Helpers" ran the Home. Generally we were not allowed to leave the premises , and if you went walkabout and got caught you got the cane. Some of the older children used to help with the fruit picking for Wilkins Jam Factory. There was an orchard at the back of the school where we used to go scrumping, if you got caught you know what you got! (I think there were mainly pears in this orchard).
The "Grove" used to be part of the "Mill Estate". If my memory serves me right I think there used to be a cinema where Bright's electrical shop is now.  But we were not allowed to go there.      Alan Clifford Scott.