Not Much Money But Plenty Of Happy Memories

A Memory of Dagenham.

I moved to Dagenham with my family in 1949.  We lived in Cartwright Road off Hedgemans Road.  I have memories of long hot summer holidays off from Finneymore Road School.  The days were filled with trips to Leys swimming pool, where we would spend most of the day. We would bag of crisps and a hot Oxo drink if we had enough money.
Parsloes Park was another full day out.  The large sandpit was the favourite haunt, there were large square concrete blocks built into the pit, we would play 'King of the castle' games, where one would climb onto the block and announce they were king of the castle, only to be pushed off into the soft sand by the new king, this would amuse us for ages.  We would eat packed sandwiches, and there was plenty of water to quench our thirst from the water fountain spout.  The park wardens wore brown suits, trilby hats, brown leather boots up to their knees, and rode around the park on horses, making sure everyone was behaving.
If we didn't want to venture too far we had the field just across the road. The stream that ran the full length of the field amused us for hours. We would dig into the clay bank and make small caves where our imaginary people lived, then use clay to make dams in the shallow water. If we felt brave we would venture under the bridge that straddled Hedgemans Road, on the other side we would come out into the allotments, and soon be chased off by the gardeners tending their crops.

A trip with Mother would take us to the Old Village of Dagenham, crossing the Heathway passing the Church Elms public house onto Church Elm Lane, which led us down to the old village, passing open fields, and large green houses. Which were eventually all pulled down for new houses and the horrid high rise flats. Opposite the church was George's second-hand shop, which was filled with all sorts. I mainly chose a book for my treat, but there were toys, second-hand clothes and so on.

Another trip would be to Broad Street market. Mother would buy from one stall holder white parachute silk (surplus from the war stock) and make we three girls lovely silk dresses.

We knew all our neighbours by name. Everyone was in the same financial situation. There was no envy, items were handed down from neighbour to neighbour. Everyone was Mr or Mrs, no first name.

The big treat was to go into Woolworths on the Heathway shopping parade, and have an ice cream, green, pink and vanilla. The green would make your tongue tingle. The manageress always wore a brown suit, fitted into the waist, and she wore her hair in plaits that were fashioned around her ears, she was very strict, and took no nonsense from the naughty children.

These are just some of the happy memories from a working class background in Dagenham.

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