View From The Whit Hart

A Memory of Hockley.

When I was very small, my mother brought me here to play on the swings and slide in the park opposite the pub and shop. On hot days I was allowed an ice-cream or ice-lolly from the shop. In the distance Rochford Hospital chimney could be seen, surrounded by fields.

This view was in my earliest recurring dream; I would stand at the top of the hill looking down. In the dream as I looked at the beautiful view I would hear music... The Elizabethan Serenade. It must have been on the radio a lot at the time. In my dream there would be a mirror -image of the view going down the opposite side of the hill, which obviously wasn't there in real-life... but I remember the clarity of the dream as if it were yesterday.