Great Yeldham 50 Years Ago

A Memory of Great Yeldham.

Born in Chelmsford in 1946 I grew up in Gt. Yeldham but after a career in the Fleet Air Arm the flying side of the Royal Navy I settled in Somerset. The small town where I now reside though quite away from the coast is close to a Royal Naval Air Station at which I served. I married a Yeldham girl and as I mentioned we live in Somerset.
As a child I lived at the top of Oaker Hill on the Ridgewell road and opposite the entrance to the RAF station. Father was a porter at Yeldham station before becoming a platelayer for BR and ending up as a Signalman at Birdbrook station. We moved to the Croft when it was built I think in the 1950s and would go by bus to Hedingham Secondary Modern School. Mother was a Post Lady and also helped run the library as a volunteer.
I can remember Highfields being built as some of it was directly behind our house in The Croft built on a field that backed onto our house and was used for keeping chickens, eggs were purchased by my mother from over the fence and were always fresh. I think most of the residents would make a weekly purchase.
When the Colne valley railway line closed father took work at Whitlocks which made Dinkum Diggers and when itself was taken over by the Powell Duffry group it produced the Hi-Mac another earth moving and transporting machine. Also I myself worked at Whitlocks as did my wife my brother-in laws and my Mother and Father in law.
As a growing kid I would often journey to Halstead on the train with the some other lads but whilst they paid a shilling return fare because father was a railway worker I was allowed a privilege ticket so my return fare was Four pence of course pre decimal.
Bowtells meadow was used as a play area for football and before the houses were built on Churchfields we had our November bonfire there. The bonfire was always constructed by us kids and we always tried to make it bigger than the preceding year thankfully one of the residents of Churchfields kept it under control as it was easy to get carried away with our building. Great Yeldham did have a football and a cricket team both teams played home matches or games on the recreation ground. At times Bowtells meadow was home to TOM AND Diamond twp horses belonging to Goodchilds Farm.
To earn an extra bit of pocket money I would muck out pigs for Mary Hum and as four of them were allowed to exercise on the recreation ground I thought it would be a good idea to let them out if we were losing at football!! One of her sows was named Doris and could be a bit of a problem so we had to be extra careful if we let her out cantankerous old sow had a mind of her own! Other ways of earning some money was farm worm like pea picking, potato picking, and potato planting, hoeing beans for one farm and of course strawberry picking at Timmy Chamberlains.
We had the Friday night pictures the Reading Room would be set out with a screen and projectors and normally a short and the main feature film were screened. It was common for some of the local lads to hold a burping competition during the film which was always one by the same lad I will not mention his name but if you attended the films you will probably know!
Another use the Reading Room was put to was the Boys Club which was replaced by the Youth club. I did have a hand in the instigation of the youth club as the man who ran the Boys Club was very often working overtime at Whitlocks and needed to take some action. Together with another lad who worked with me pig cleaning we approached AC Whitlock in his office to register our complaint of the amount of overtime the Boys Club leader was doing. We both smelt strongly of pigs but Carlton Whitlock said he would look into the matter which he did and the Youth Club came into existence. Just going back to the boys club each year we would put on a concert and my Uncle would do a short act of whistling with his fingers and mouth producing fantastic tunes in the style of Ronnie Ronalde.
Other play areas were the Dawles sometimes known as the “Humps and Bumps” just up Tilbury road by the footpath that eventually comes out by the School. Sometime we would play up at the Sandpits which I don’t think we were really allowed access to but hey ho!! During the harvesting season us kids would think it great to move some of the hay or straw bales and make a camp which would be quickly destroyed by the farm workers

Tilbury road led to Mill Lane where my grandparents lived and also further on and towards the village of Tilbury was as road up to the old airfield which I used to cycle to turning right on the perimeter track and then down the main runway again meeting the perimeter track which I took to come out in Ashen close to where one of my old girlfriends lived. Well it was quicker than going on the main road although I think it is now a public right of way.