My parents, Rene and Freddie Gook moved to Abridge in the mid fifties. They were eastenders who belonged to a cycling club and used to visit Abridge at weekends - their destination was Brighty's cafe. They were captivated by the village's charm, and bought one of the new bungalows, we lived at 5 Alderwood (...Read full memory)

I was born in Abridge in 1964, the last of 9 kids. We lived in The Mead which is no longer there. Abridge was a great place to grow up, we would play outside in the woods or over the shallows all day and only come home when we were hungry. In the summer we would walk to Grange Farm open air swimming pool and then (...Read full memory)

The bottom of Silver Street on the other side of the bridge ended at the river with some railings over a drainage outlet.  This was a good place for children to get into the river from the middle of the village and paddle upstream under the bridge.  It was quite shallow in the middle of summer and small fish about three inches (...Read full memory)

This photo appears at the back of Essex Living Memories (pages 112 - 113) and in "I Remember When ... Memories of Britain (page 134)".  The two ladies in the foreground with the prams appear familiar - The lady on the left may be Mrs Peagram with her son Colin in the pram, the lady on the right could be Mrs Hockley (...Read full memory)