Prefabs In Ripple Road Dagenham 1947 To 1959

A Memory of Dagenham.

I was born in Upney hospital in July 1947 and lived in a prefab at 703 Ripple Road. Opposite was a bone/scrap yard and along the road the Ship & Shovel pub. I went to Campbell and Dawson schools and remember the shops in Gale Street. Went to Saturday morning pictures in Beacontree for 6d - there was a good fish and chip shop there too also remember going camping in Halinut forest. There were hundreds of prefabs along the A13 Ripple Road with fields behind. I did go back quite a few years ago but alas all the prefabs were gone !!!! I lived there with my parents 2 sisters and a brother. Winter months we had ice INSIDE the windows. The prefab only had 2 bedrooms my brother Tony slept in parents room and my 2 sisters Christine and Linda and I all slept together top to tail in one double bed!! Oh the rows we had about feet in faces!! I do remember the rag and bone man with horse and cart and also vineger man on a bike with barrel on front of his bike. My father had a mobile libary in back of Morris Traveller.... in fact not many had cars anyway. I remember a soliatary house in the middle of all these prefabs where the owner ran a christmas club and my mum would go every Friday and give him money to save for Christmas. We moved to Abbey Wood SE London in 1959 in a 4 bedroomed council house which compared to a prefab was like a mansion!!