Great Dunmow, Parsonage Downs c.1955

Photo ref: D90037

My gt,gt grandfather Abijah Hoy was born in Great Dunmow in 1813 and was a farm worker all his working life. He died at an address in the High St in 1881 and on his death certificate his occupation was a "Cow Man". Most of the Hoy family lived in a row of very early 19thC cottages at Church End, just by the bridge over the River Chelmer. These basic 2up 2down cottages are now Grade 2 listed. Nearly all the family were ...see more

My 3rd great grandfather's name was Robert Monk,he was born in 1810 in Dunmow Essex..he had a son Thomas Monk (my 2nd great grandfather) who later married Eliza Morch and moved to Hackney.....

My family moved to Great Dunnmow 1959/1960 from West Yorkshire. We lived on the High Street in a large red brick house that used to be, then a hotel. We lived downstairs (then called Janet Taylor) and my cousins lived upstairs (Simpson). We went to the local primary school, which was a few minutes from Doctor's Pond. The pond froze up every winter, the ice would be several inches thick and deemed ...see more

My mother lived in Dunmow from 1932 until 1946 when she left to live in Edinburgh. My mother's name was Rosalind Frecknall and she and her family lived at The Close initially, then The Downs. Her father, Claud Frecknall, taught woodwork at the local school and was an air raid warden during the war. My mother remembers being in the cinema and when she came out she heard the planes overhead; often they were on their ...see more