52 The Meadows

A Memory of Ingrave.

My sister, Joan, lives at No.52, and several years ago she gave me a copy of a book prepared and published by one of her (recently deceased) neighbours. This man, with friends and acquaintances all suffering from the postwar housing shortage, formed an informal group committed to developing a new neighbourhood for themselves and their families. As masters of their own destiny they didn't have to wait interminably for their "number to come up" on some official housing project list.
The book records the extra-ordinary talents and dedication shared by a now formally organized "co-operative" that, with its members holding down jobs and pursuing careers, developed everything below and above ground to create a neighbourhhood for themselves, designing and building not only desirable homes, well in the forefront of amenably-designed houses of that time, but the roads, curbs, side-walks, street lighting, and all other features of a practical and picturesque infrastructure that still stands today.
What a legacy, what an example! From my Canadian vantage point, and having visited Ingrave several times over the years, Joan lives in a very desirable community within a delightful "country" village, hopefully with some vestiges of the pioneering families still amongst her neighbours? One hopes that future generations will preserve and treasure this unique part of Essex?

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