Daviss & Suttling Family
A Memory of Aveley.
I have very fond memories of growing up in Aveley.
I was born in a prefab in 1947 at 4 East Walk, my dad worked at Thames Board Mills clocking up over 30 years of service (he died in Field Road in 1970), like everyone born there I attended Primary School and the Junior school and entered Bushy Bit in 1958, what a great school, glad to know I am not the only one who enjoyed their early teenage years.
We moved close to my cousins Pat & Stephen Mead then onto Eastern Avenue, Michael Wilshire should remember me, I lived next door to Paul Coker and Dorothy Mann was my best friend, I lived at 2 Eastern Avenue.
On summer evenings the lamp post outside Paul Coker's house, was the wicket stump or the base when we played tag on our bikes after dark, then being called in because of school the next day.
Susan Fogg and I were both in the Bushy Bit netball team along with her cousin Christine Larkham, Denise Mitten, Helen Stowers and other names long forgotten.
I was a good athlete and the school gave me much encouragement (I joined Thurrock Harriers) but the one draw back with Aveley was the lack of transport connections, you had to bus everywhere, being turned off a bus because you were carrying a javelin at the age of 14 wasn't funny.
I left Aveley when I married in 1966, but my mother lived there at The Maltings until she died, she was also born in Aveley as was her mother and Grandmother (Suttlings).
Rita Barker formerly Rita Daviss
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Comments & Feedback
In 1949 my grandfather Arthur Rush who had the Old Ship pub bought Lennard House and built us a bungalow, "Meadow View" between Lennard House and the blacksmiths.
I still have lunch with Donald Crawford, Ray Andrews and his wife Anne nee Wright, Derek Shelley, Bob Painter, Eric Sach, et al.
John Osborne who lived at the top of Purfleet Rd + Lenny and Brian Hermitage who lived at 2 Purfleet Rd, at the top of the High St. were also good friends.
Most of us are in contact on the Facebook site "Memories of Growing Up in Old Aveley".
Your Grandmother was Ettie Suttling born 22 June 1895 Aveley, her parents were Charles Suttling 1869-1959 & Esther Thorn 1870-1953.
Your Mother was Dorothy May Suttling b.18 April 1915 in Hackney, London she was baptised at St. Michaels Church, Aveley on 6 February 1921.
I have a very large tree on Ancestry.co.uk which has many birth, marriage, deaths and census records of Suttlings on it.
Please contact me if you need any more info.
Regards Rita Barker
Again if you need more info, please get back to m.
Regards Your Cousin Rita Barker
My brother John Benson was born in 47 and went to Bushy Bit same time as you. I started there 2 years later. Our family moved to Australia in 63. On a trip to Britain a few years back my wife and I stayed at Bushy Bit (now the Thurrock Hotel) I walked around the dining room looking at all the old school photos, but got dizzy as there were so many and they all looked the same so gave up on trying to find my class as none of them had a Form name etc.
I remember the prefabs, made of asbestos, supposed to be temporary after the war and still there 15 years later. We played in them after some of them were closed and partly derelict, amazing we never came down with Mesothelioma! I remember Avril Larkham, who lived across the road from us in Crescent Walk, was Christine her younger sister? I have fond memories of Aveley but the place is not the same anymore.
Kind regards
Billy Benson