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Woodford Bridge
Woodford Bridge photos
Displaying the first of 16 old photos of Woodford Bridge. View all Woodford Bridge photos
Woodford Bridge maps
Historic maps of Woodford Bridge and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Woodford Bridge maps
Woodford Bridge area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Woodford Bridge and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Woodford Bridge
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Woodford Bridge.
There are 22 shared memories to read.
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Claybury Memories.
Both my parents were nurses at Claybury during the 1950s. My dad worked days and my mum worked nights. I can remember her telling me that when she did 'the rounds' during the night she used to ride her bike through the dark corridors crunching over cockroaches! Dad was umpire for the Clabury cricket team and my brother and I spent many a warm sunny Sunday playing in the grounds of the hospital while Mum sat in her deck chair knitting and watching the cricket. I never had the opportunity to see inside the hospital but I was always intrigued by the big tower. I think it was a water tower. The Claybury I remember was much bigger than the picture shown, it had impressive gates with lodge houses on each side. As children, my brother and I and all our friends would go to Toms Wood to pick blackberries, we were always on the look out for 'escaped patients' and imagined anybody we saw was an inmate! Many a... Read more
St Paul's Church And Sunday School
I moved to Woodford Bridge when I was about 4 years old in 1949 and a few years later went regularly to Church and Sunday School at St Paul's Church for several years. The Vicar at that time was Rev Philip Wright. He was well known for his interesting collection of old farm and agricultural tools and had a small museum at his house.
My younger sister and I used to walk up the hill from our house at the bottom of Hazeleigh Gardens on Sunday afternoons and go to our respective classes in the rather dusty Church Hall - the children were divided up by age into several groups and I think we were also separated into boys and girls. The youngest children were in a separate room off to the right, I seem to remember, and in the main hall would be more than one little circle of children with their teacher. I seem to recall one of the Sunday School teachers was Miss Manby who I... Read more
"Any Old Iron"
This photo brings back lots of memories for me as it shows High Road, Woodford Bridge which is where the old-fashioned ironmongers that my family owned was situated. There had been one on the site since the beginning of the 20th Century, but we owned it from 1973 until my Father retired in 1987. Originally it was High Road, Woodford Bridge, but it was renamed Chigwell Road. I particularly remember 1974 as this was when the River Roding, which ran along the rear, burst its banks and flooded the yard. It was under about seven feet of water and the cellar was full up. My Sister and I found it very amusing to sit with the trap door open grabbing things as they floated by.
In later years I worked behind the counter on a Saturday and during school holidays as did my two Sisters. I used to go down there every morning with my Father, help out for fifteen or twenty... Read more
Happy Youthful Days
I was born in 1934 and my first home was 15 Stoneycroft Road. We lived there until 1937 when we moved to 19 Claybury Road. I remember going down the air raid shelter under the Woodford Bridge Green. It was a damp, claustrophobic place comprising a series of concrete tunnels and I have the impression it was always crowded. I remember standing on the top of Millman's Hill or Drapers Hill as it was sometimes called,(it is now a park), with a lot of the neighbours and watching the East End of London burn all around St Pauls. It is now covered in trees but in those days cows grazed in the hill and there was only a small spinney of trees. We used to toboggan down it in winter and for teenage lovers it was a paradise place in summer. It was also used by the Home Guard for training. At the top of Claybury Road was the Bluebell Dell where we used to paint the canvases of... (Awaiting moderation, read more soon)
Childhood Memories
I remember my father speaking about Woodford Bridge and High Road, Woodford. His name was Clarence Harris Bickers and together with my mother we all lived at 52 St. Ronan's Crescent. When we were bombed my father lost a leg and I was injured, we then moved away to live with the family of my mother's uncle in High Wycombe, Bucks. My father's uncle, William Benjamin Bickers, lived in Snakes Lane, Woodford. Does anyone know who lives at my previous address? Or know any of the Bickers family living in this area? My husband Jack and myself, with our two adult children, live in Western Australia.
St John's Open Air School, Turpins Lane
I was a pupil at St John's Open Air School from April 1958 until December 1961. Most of the boys like myself were boarders from other parts of the country and we have all lost contact with each other until recently when through a website a few of us have made contact again, but none of us have any photos of the school and I have been unsuccsessfull in obtaining any school reports etc. I would like to ask if anyone knows about the convent and if I could contact any of the nuns who may be able to help. I made a visit to the school last year but again no luck with my search. I would be most grateful for any help. Thankyou.
Memories of Claybury Hospital
My mum worked at Claybury for many years, myself and younger sister were schooled at a Catholic school in Manford Way, due to hours my mother worked we were dropped off at hospital until my mum's shift had finished. I will always remember the gardens where me and my sister would play, so beautifuly kept by the patients, we would spent hours playing, also the peacefulness of these gardens, so many flowers, and all neat. There were many patients who also wandered around these gardens, none of which were a dangerous nature, most not aware of two young girls playing. I remember asking my mum years later why some of patients were in there as I could not understand why they were there, as they seemed so well balanced, and she did tell me some of there people have been here for years and to send them out to llive in the community could cause them distress and I often overheard that some of them of which me and my... Read more
Thereas
I was talking to my nan today and she told me she used to be a care assistant, her name's Thereas, she told me all her stories, she didn't tell me when she worked there but she is 65 now so it was a while back.
