Great Times

A Memory of Hornchurch.

Hi my name is Doug Wilson.
This site brought back so many memories. I was born in a bungalow in Wingletye Lane in August 1954 but moved to Great Gardens Road when I was 9 months old.
From the time that I was allowed to cross the road on my own (was not very old -so few cars around then and my parents drummed into me to look both ways), I spent most of my time in Haynes Park: playing on the roundabout, playing pick up stick, on the slide (we used to bring the grease proof paper that bread was wrapped in and polish the brass on the slide till you would fly off the end, the parkie would then rub candle wax on it to slow it down), and on the rocking swing - we would swing till the bars bumped and stand on the end of it and jump off. Monkey bars - we would climb to the top and hang upside down, and long jumping into the sand pit and playing in the river that ran through the bottom of the park.
When I was a little bit older my friends and I would make dens in the woods of the park, race our bikes along the tracks in the woods, play war games, climb the trees - then someone had the great idea of building flats by taking away most of the woods.
Then I got interested in the par 3 pitch and put, and in the summer would play all day.
In the picture, by the roundabout, you can see the bench which was painted in layer upon layer of green paint - I used to sit on this bench and plan my days and when I was older would sit chatting to girls.