My Life In Elm Park, Hornchurch
A Memory of Hornchurch.
I could go on and on with memories. Myself and my parents moved from London to Arbour Way, Elm Park on 24th August 1953. I went to Ayloff School from 1954-1960, when I left to go to Suttons Secondary. We moved to Elm Park because my dad worked at Murex in Rainham and it was a lot closer for him to get to work. I went to Brownie's at, I think it was St Nicholas church hall, in Benhurst Avenue around 1960. Miss Smithson was the Brown Owl. Also she was the secretary of the Riteway School of Motoring at the corner of Maylands Avenue and Coronation Drive. The instructor there was a Mr Gollop who scared the life out of my parents when he taught them to drive circa 1958. When I went for driving lessons in 1968 I said to him. "you scared my parents, but you won't scare me". He passed me over to a younger instructor, then back to himself to take me for my test at Hornchurch test station. Thankfully I passed first time.
I used to go to Hollicks sweet shop nearly every day after school. I remember it was the first shop to open when Tadworth Parade was being built. Then later they built Station Parade. I remember the pram shop's logo was 'Everything except the baby'.
My parents bought me a second bike at the bike shop on Tadworth Parade next to Regal fish and chips - to go to school on when I started at Suttons. I came off it in the ice and deep snow of the winter of 1963 and Mum took it back to the bike shop to have new handlebars.
I used to love the shops in Elm Park. So individual. Treasure House with it's costume jewellry and various other items. Noddy's toy shop, Spotlight - a forerunner of Superdrug. Joan Lesley ladies' wear. The good old Co op, Tuck Box sweet shop - I bought my first naughty pack of 5 cigarettes there when I was about 13!!!
No more time now. Will add more memories later
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Thank you for your comment on my memories. Sadly you are some years older than me, so I wouldn't have known you as we moved to Elm Park in 1953 when I was four years old, so I started at Ayloff in 1954. An old school friend recently told me that Ayloff had been knocked down and rebuilt and it is now called Maylands Avenue Primary. What a cheek! That's both my schools renamed now!!!
I remember our dear next door neighbour Mrs Cubitt, at 6 Arbour Way ( you may have known her son David Cubitt, he sadly passed away a year or so ago at the age of around 80, but then I think he was a lot older than you) telling us about her house being bombed - it had a direct hit, funnily enough the bomb missed our house and the house the other side of hers. But her house was rebuilt and they moved back in. I don't remember her saying where they stayed while the house was being built.
Yes life in Elm Park was definitely good. I remember coasting down the hill from the station on my Triang scooter - great fun.
Best Regards
Elaine Stebbings (nee Silman)
Regards
Shirley Ainsworth
I too have very fond memories of Elm Park and am the friend of Shirley Ainsworth and it was my Mum who worked in Hollicks (two days a week) for about 28 years. She was rather a biggish lady called Peggy and she loved her days at Hollicks, with all the children coming in for there sixpenny worth of sweets! I, too, went to Suttons Primary from 1955 and then went up to Suttons Secondary until 1967. I lived next door to Shirley in Rosebank Avenue and our houses overlooked the airfield (now a massive housing estate). There was also Suttons farm which we used to walk through to get to school and I remember a beautiful horse called Gypsy who used to benefit from any cake I hadn't eaten during "playtime". I used to cycle too when in the Secondary School. I remember the shops you mention and Home and Colonial, which sold groceries, and which was a couple of shops away from Dayburns the bike shop. When I was really little my Dad and I used to go mushrooming over the airfield which belonged to the RAF and I was always scared that someone would see us and shoo us off with a rifle or something. Shirley and I, with our Mums and neighbour "Auntie Marjorie" and her labrador Bruce, used to walk in Bluebell Wood also which was where St. George's Hospital was. It was just like being in the middle of the country. Such happy times and it is so nice to have a good friend with whom I can relate all these things.
Best wishes
Jeanette Davies (nee Poole)
Hope you don't mind me replying to you both together. Well you are lifelong friends. How good is that??
Thanks so much for your replies and memories of Elm Park. Although I was a very regular customer in Hollicks, I'm sorry but I don't remember Peggy, although maybe if I saw a photo, my memory could be jogged. I do remember that all their staff were very friendly and helpful.I used to buy my Acid flavour Spangles there frequently and Mum used to order me a Beezer comic
Thanks for naming the bike shop too. Yes of course it was Dayburns!! I was glad when the handlebars of my bike got changed there after I came off it in the ice in the winter of 1963, as they were originally drop racer type ones, which I was never happy with, so I asked for them to be replaced with straight ones like the brand new 'Dawes Daisybell' bike they sold, which I really wanted but my parents couldn't afford a new one.
Of the shops in Elm Park, I think Blows the radio, electrical and record shop was my favourite when I became a teenager. Every three weeks when I had saved up my 6s 7½d for the single I desperately wanted that week after hearing it on Juke Box Jury, I would go into Blows and ask to listen to it before buying it in the listening booths. What a thrill!! The latest Beatles, Billy Fury, Cliff, The Shadows or whoever.
Yes I remember Maypole grocers and Home and Colonial. Do you remember Rands' the drapers in Tadworth parade? I was friendly with their daughter Margaret who was in the same year as me at Suttons.
I used to walk or ride my bike with one of my friends to Suttons across (we used to call it) the old Farmer's Field. After school sometimes Mum would send me over to Nu Bake the cake shop in Tadworth Parade to get a couple of bakewell tarts to have with a cup of tea when I got in.
Also my parents took me to Huson's photographers a couple of times over the years to have my portrait taken to send to family overseas. I remember Mr Huson a thin man with a beard sitting me there telling me the best way to turn for the photo.
George's Hobby Stores remember next door to the Launderette? George's daughter Georgina was in my class at Suttons, but sadly she passed away at only 13 - something to do with her brain and and onset of puberty. So sad. We were all so shocked. She was such a nice girl always giggling in a group together with us in the playground.
Can either or you remember the name of the hardware/oil shop in Tadworth Parade? We used to buy our paraffin there for our smelly old paraffin heater in the winter. Also fire wood when we had a coal fire before my Dad got the fireplace blocked in as it was dangerous. No central heating in those days. Just the paraffin heater in the hall at the bottom of the stairs and odd one bar electric fires around the house. G-d it was cold in the winters back then.
When I was 12 in 1961, Mum and Dad went over to Rumbelows in Station Parade and (thought) they bought themselves a record player on the never never (Dansette type) - Guess who played it the most?? I was sent over there monthly with the £1 12s 6d payment. So that was the beginning of me being a regular customer at Blows. The first record I bought was Hayley Mills singing 'Lets Get Together' from the film 'The Parent Trap' , second one was Neil Sedaka's Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and third one was Wild Wind by John Leyton. I wore a bald patch in my parents' carpet in the lounge dancing to all the records.
Well I'd better stop now. It would be lovely to read more of your memories when you get time
Very best wishes to you both and looking forward to more of your memories
Elaine xx
Oh you brought back a few things I had forgotten there! I think the hardware shop may have been Goodrich? It always had a distinctive smell but I loved that shop as I got older. Before I got married (in St. Nicholas Church in Elm Park) I saved up for a crockery set there and the owner used to accept money bit by bit until you had paid fully and then you could take it away!
I also had a Dansette record player bought from Rumbelows. I used to put my favourite record on (after listening to it in the booth and buying it in Blows) and leave the arm up so it just played and played!
I remember Rands (although I had completely forgotten it). That is very sad news about their daughter. I used to buy material from there and sit and make dresses by hand for my holidays!!
I also recall being in the garden in Rosebank Avenue as a child and my mum would call over the fence to our next door neighbour (and she would do likewise) and offer her a cup of tea! Mum would then proceed to make the tea and hand the cup over the fence and they would drink their tea and chat! Not something we would dream of doing these days!
Do you remember the Winkle Man who used to come round on Saturdays in his van? I think a bakers van used to come round midweek too as I was allowed to go and choose a cake! Also the Paraffin man who sold pink and blue paraffin??
And then there were the few shops that we used to call the Airfield Shops. They were the only ones open on a Sunday in those days.
Ahh such memories and between us all I think we should be able to piece together a complete picture of those days.
Best wishes
Shirley
Last communication now for a couple of weeks as I'm off on holiday tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Just thought I'd let you know in case you reply and wonder why you don't get a response back from me for a while.
I must put you right about something Shirley if you will excuse me. It wasn't Margaret Rand who died, It was Georgina ( I don't remember her surname) the daughter of the owner of Georgie's Hobby Stores.
I don't know what happened to Margaret as I lost touch. Some of my school friends passed the 13 plus exam and left Suttons to go to Abbs Cross Tech or Hornchurch Grammer or Romford County High. She might have been one of them. I wasn't academic and the thought of two hours homework every night put me off passing the 13 plus. I was quite happy to stay at Suttons, although my parents would have preferred me to go on to Grammar school.
In those days education wasn't thought so important as jobs were easy to come by. I think we were very lucky to be born just after the war straight into the National Health Service.We had an Enid Blyton 1950s idyllic childhood, then the 1960s was the best time ever to have been a teenager. We had the best music and the best fashions in my opinion and I would think that everyone of our generation would agree. Elm Park was a lovely place to grow up and it's location was so good being only 20 minutes from Southend so the seaside was so easily accessible and Romford for all the big shops only 3 miles away and an easy bus ride on the 252 or 165. And of course you could jump on the Underground at Elm Park Station and be in central London in an hour.
I love Essex and wish I still lived there but owing to personal circumstances I moved away in 1977. I live in Milton Keynes now and am very happy but would happily go back and live there. But it would be too far from my kids as I only have a couple of school friends still there.
Thank you for naming the hardware shop. Yes of course it was Goodrich. I remember the paraffin man coming to the house and the baker. Also do you remember Fella Brothers ice cream? I used to go rushing out in the summer to get my cornet and a choc ice for my Mum and a wafer for my Dad.
Lovely the neighbourliness in those days. Back then you always called grown ups Auntie or Uncle even if they weren't you real Aunties or Uncles. It was just a form of politeness. Not much of that these days sadly. Our neighbours were 'Auntie Next Door' to me.
I don't remember the Winkle Man.But a rag and bone man with a horse just like Steptoe used to come down my road Arbour Way shouting to announce they were there.
The clothes shop near the station I remember being called Joan Lesley'. I don't remember the name Monitas. Maybe you can correct me on that.
I used to play over the airfield in and out of the bunkers a few times with friends.
I remember when Hornchurch swimming pool was built in 1960. We got taken there from school and also used to go there with friends in the holidays. I swam a length once when I was 12 and got a stripe. It took me a week to get over it. I never was much of a swimmer, just the breast stroke widths. After we had got out of the pool and got dried and dressed we use to go upstairs to the cafe and I always used to buy an orange cupcake. Delicious!!!
Well Shirley that's about all my memories for this message. I hope you and Jeanette will send me more of yours. It's so exciting reading your memories. Do you still live in Elm Park? I still hanker after it. Occasionally when make the trip to Southend (two hours from MK) I stop off at J29 of the M25 and drive past my old house. It looks totallly different now. Unrecognizable with all the updating. When my parents were alive ( we left there in 1968 and my parents let the house then when I got married to my first husband I wanted to move back so Mum and Dad sold us the house) I took a photo and showed it to my Dad and asked him if the could guess what the picture was. He guessed it was our old house, but would never have recognized it. It has an extension to the side added and the fron garden all paved over and different windows etc.
Very Best wishes It's lovely having these 'chats'
Hoping to hear from you again
Elaine xx
I've just been reading through yours and Shirley's comments. You are both very good remembering shop names, something I don't remember, although when you say the names I do.
I do remember the Winkle man who came around on Sunday and the baker and also the milkman who had a horse and cart and the rag and bone man with his bell!
I still pass through Elm Park from time to time as my brother and sister-in-law still live in Hornchurch and sometimes I do a detour around through Elm Park and into Rosebank Avenue. My mum lived there right up until she died which was just four years ago. My mum and dad moved there just after the war so she lived in the same house for 65 years. Many of the neighbours have remained there too, although they moved in after my mum but have still stayed there years. I still go to see her next door neighbour (which was where Shirley used to live until they moved two doors up). They seem such small houses now, tiny kitchens and I just wonder how on earth my mum used to cook a roast every Sunday for the four of us and serve it up as there was absolutely no space, and I remember it took the whole of Sunday morning to cook the meat and everything. Meat was indeed well cooked then!
And yes, we had paraffin and oil heaters too. Oh the smell! And when it was really cold in the winter, we used to wash in the sink whilst my mum was getting the breakfast because it was warmer there with the oven and hob on.
Do you remember watching Quatermass on TV? How scary was that. I remember us all sitting around the tele and half the time I couldn't look, I was so scared. Then on the Radio there was Two Way Family Favourites, whilst mum was cooking the Sunday roast, "Sing Something Simple" at tea time on Sunday, and "Children's Favourites" on Saturday morning and they always seemed to play "Nellie the Elephant" and the man presenter (can't remember his name) used to finish off by saying "Goodbye Children. Everywhere".
I remember Fella Brothers too. Lovely soft ice-cream and also Dickie Birds. He used to come around everyday and shout out "Dickie Birds" and we'd all go running up and I always had a chocolate lolly or banana lolly, still my favourites.
We had a record player too. The first one was a wind up one and then we graduated to one where you could play 10 singles at a time. The first record I bought was "Alvin's Harmonica" by the Chipmunks and my brother's first record was "Peter Gunn" by Duane Eddie. I've still got many singles and kept all my LPs too, which have now come back into fashion. I don't know if you listen to Radio 2 at all, but at 1pm every Saturday Tony Blackburn does "Top of the Pops" and features two separate years and plays the top 20 of that week and the first hour is either 50's, 60's or 70's. Whatever era, it always brings back different memories, all happy I have to say and as you say we were born just about the right time.
Well, all for now. Will think of some more memories.
Best wishes,
Jeanette
A very late reply!! I have had some problems in signing in to the site. I've finally managed, as you can see to get signed in again. So sorry to you all if you have been waiting for a year or so for responses from me.
Maureen, sad that you left Ayloff in 1954. That was the year I started there. I remember Mrs Brown who was a dinner lady there. She was very kind and she was there on my first day, helping show the latest intake to their classrooms and generally showing us around. Do you remember any of the teachers? I had Mrs Hayhow, then Mrs Davies, then Mrs Reece and last of all in the Infants, Mrs Colman, a horrible woman who used to pull me out to the front of the class and smack my legs for talking. She would be charged with child abuse these days.
Jeanette you must have thought me very rude in not responding to your post. Sorry, I have explained why above.
Yes I do remember Quatermass being on the telly, but my Mum wouldn't let me watch anything too scary. She didn't want me having nightmares and not getting up for school!
I listen every Saturday to Sounds of the Sixties on Radio 2 and also Pick of the Pops in the afternoon. So sad about Tony Blackburn being sacked from it. He always made me laugh with his funny comments just before the start of a record, relating to the first lines of the song. I remember Two Way Family Favourites, then the Clitheroe Kid, then Round the Horn. They all made us laugh as we ate our Sunday lunch. Music is very important to me for the memories it brings back. I am currently writing my life story for the benefit of my descendants as life was so different in the 50s and 60s to what it is now for youngsters. So for a number of reasons, I decided to write my life story just in case any of my five granddaughters might be curious what life was like when I was young.
When I listen to those two programmes, they help stir my memories and so provide me with material for my book. I am lucky in having a good detailed memory. I can remember every teacher I had right through school and every holiday I went on as a child. Does any of the Ayloff ex pupils remember the assemblies where as you were filing in, that lovely teacher Mrs Brooker played the piano smiling at every child. When we were going in she played Anchors Aweigh and when we were leaving the hall when assembly had finished she played Stars and Stripes Forever. (I have had a right job recently naming Stars and Stripes as I knew the tune but not the title. I finally found it at the suggestion of an Ex army friend who was familiar with marches who suggested I look online for marches by John Souza who wrote it, then I finally found it. I never did forget how those tunes went.
Best wishes to you all
Looking forward to reading any further memories you might wish to add.
Elaine xx
My sister Ann is now 74 ( 10 years older than I). She went to Britons and had a Saturday job in the chemist around the corner from the fish shop and bike shop.
Great to read all your comments, wish I knew some of you! Hopefully some girls from Maylands 1964 onwards will read this. I wonder what happened to our art teacher Miss Barnfather, she seemed so trendy at the time and was so kind to all of us.
Laraine Payne
I knew your mum well. Remember her working with a Lily Shrimpton?? That was my mum! lol
If your name is Carol, I remember a Carol Shrimpton in my year when I was at Suttons. Could it be you? I was there 1960 - 1965. I remember during a teacher's strike in 1962 we were having school dinners in the hall and you used to sit opposite me ( if this is indeed you)
Elaine Stebbings (maiden name Silman)
have fond memories of Elmpark but revisited in 97 & 2012 was very dissapointed where had Elmpark gone no front gardens Graffiti everywhere at least I still have my memories of how it used to be
I must have missed you at Ayloff as I started in 1954. The headmaster was Mr Martin. In 1958 our class were treated to an outing to the London Planetarium as a reward for full attendance for six weeks. It got on the BBC news too. There has been a book published called The Elm Park Story. It is available on Amazon. I bought it and there is a photo and a write up of this event of my class's good attendance that year in it. It is a great book telling all the history of the area and how Richard Costain the builder bought Elm Farm in 1935 and built the Elm Park Estate on it. The station was opened in 1935 etc etc. Essential reading for anyone who ever lived there.
Lovely to hear from you. I remember corresponding with you via FR. You told me about your time at Suttons and the uniform was brown when you were there. You live in Adelaide now? I am on Facebook. Find me there and we can be FB friends. I'll check my copy of the Elm Park book. It's a wonderful book. I found the history of the area so interesting. My Mum used to say it was pea farms before Richard Costain bought the area to build the estate. Interesting to know about your grandfather being the nightwatchman. Reading the Elm Park book, it brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. It was such a lovely place to live in the 50s and 60s. Also in the 70s when I lived there after I married and had my two boys. But marriage ended and had to sell the house and move away. I belong to an Elm Park group on FB to keep up with what's going on there. Sadly there's a lot of crime there now. Was hardly any when I lived there. Had a reunion with a few of my old classmates from Suttons in Jan 17. It was lovely. I stayed at the Railway Hotel in Hornchurch by the station. It's an Ember Inn now. Very nice. Was a freezing cold night, but the room was lovely and warm. We had a very enjoyable reunion with a lovely dinner at the Railway. Sadly the last of my friends have all moved away now. So there are none of us left living in Elm Park/Hornchurch. But we keep in touch via FB and emails.
Nice to know you found two nice ladies from Romford and London. You will enjoy your catch up. I love things like that.
Take Care
Love Elaine xx
I have just spent an interesting hour or so on a very hot night in South West France reading the memories of Elm park posted here. If I may I would like to add my humble contribution. I lived in Morecambe Close, Elm Park (South Hornchurch) from 1950 when my parents bought the house. It backed onto and faced the Aircrew Selection Centre of RAF Hornchurch and had a Spitfire and Gloster Meteor (first jet fighter) stationed within feet of our back garden. My brother and I used to climb the fence and sit in these planes before someone came to chase us off. I went to Ayloff County Primary School in 1952. My first teacher was Mrs. Szarak whose Polish name came from the fact that she married a Pole who had come over during the war. She had a volatile temper and had the habit of throwing exercise books if she did not like what was written. The headmaster was Mr. Martin who was very keen on introducing us pupils to 'culture' so we had to learn a poem by rote every week and recite it en-masse. These included Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, The Ice Man and Cargoes by John Masefield. He would also play classical L.P's in the hall at assembly and when the L.P of .My Fair Lady' came out we were treated to this also. I remember Mrs. Brooker pounding out Souza marches for us to leave the hall and I had other teachers called Mrs. Hayhow (I though she looked like a witch) Mrs. Morgan, Mr. Ball, Mr. Cork and Mr. Swift. In 1957 Mr. Swift organised a trip to Bellinzona in Switzerland which cost £25 which my parents struggled to find but fueled a lifelong interest in travel and languages. My father worked at Murex in Rainham where my Grandfather Cyril Trussler was the General manager and got my father the job after he was demobbed from the Royal Marines at the end of the war. At the top of the road were what someone has referred to as the Airfield shops, Martins the newsagents which sold sweets weighed out from glass jars (2 ounces for 6d) and icecream. This shop was open on Sunday and if we were lucky I would be sent for a 1 shilling (5p) block of icecream which would be wrapped in an old newspaper as insulation to stop it from melting. This was then served up as desert during two Way family favourites, or one of the other programmes on the radio like, The Clitheroe Kid, Life with The Lyons, Round the Horne etc.
The Winkle man also came round on Sundays selling shrimps by the pint or half pint measure. My parents thought this an extravagance to far although our neighbours the Stainers always had shrimps for Sunday tea! On Sundays I was sent to the Baptist Church Sunday School with 2d for the collection. Sometime I had to do my 'party trick' which was to recite from memory all names of the books of the Bible. My Grandparents went to the morning service and if I was unlucky I had to go to that too to give a reading from the Bible. (perhaps this speaking in public was not wasted as I went on to qualify as a Solicitor - but that is another story) At Ayloff I managed to pass the 11 plus and went to Abbs Cross Technical High School in September 1958 (exactly 60 years ago next month) The School had just been built and no pupils had ever been there before this intake. I was in Class 1.4 Mr. Howell who taught German and English. Other poor unfortunates were assigned for German to a Dr. Walters who was a German and drove a Mercedes 190 and who had the habit of swearing at the pupils calling them English B*astards!
The School playing fields had not been finished so in the first Summer we had to play cricket on the tarmac of the play grounds which, with a hard cricket ball made for some 'interesting' bounces. We had state of the art Woodwork and Metalwork workshops and learned Technical Drawing, Art and Pottery/Ceramics. The Gymnasium was opened by members of the Essex Cricket team using the indoor nets. I remember most of the shops in the newly opened Tadworth Parade and used to be sent to Georges Hobbies for glass and putty after my brother or I had put a ball through a window (and suffered for it!) I used to be sent for fresh bread (a Bloomer) to Nu-Bake and brought this home still warm. They also used to bake a loaf in a flower pot which fascinated me as did the eels in the galvanised tank at the fishmongers next to the shoe repairers and Woolworths where, funds permitting I would by packets of Frank Godden Collection Builder stamps.
I can remember very much more but I am sure that you are bored by now! but I would be interested if anyone has similar recollections.
Best wishes
Ian Macintosh.
I used to live at 5a Station Parade (Above what has been Webbs for many years now), but we used to own it in the late 50s when it was called Outwell Bulb Co. as it was part of my great uncle's business based in Norfolk and he installed my parents to run and manage it. I was was 4-5 years old at the time so I don't know what it was called before we owned it, but I do know it was a florist of some kind. Both my parents are well into their 80s now and my mum has had a couple of strokes that has impaired her memory & my father has advanced Alzheimer's (stage 7) and we have been trying to find what the name of the shop was before we got it.
After the shop was sold to Webbs we moved to Princes Park, but I was always in Elm Park right upto the late 1980s when I moved with my wife and family outside the M25 orbit. My 1st boyhood crush was Marion who lived in Warren Drive. She was an older woman. She was 14 and I was 10.
Hope you don't mind me butting in, as it were, but I came upon you by accident just now & wanted to share my own memories of Elm Park.
I was born at home at number 412 South End Road, in 1961, next to the little field with what was the Red Cross Hall.
I used to go to ballroom dancing lessons there as a child. Proper dancing, not that show stealing stuff you get on Strictly, lol. Nice to watch but not possible to do on a floor filled with fellow dancers.
Prior to that I attended both tap & ballet lessons at the upstairs hall next to the library. I had my own beautiful red tap shoes which I adored.
Before I became a Brownie (different group from Miss Smithson's pack to her disgust) I went to guides with my 3 older sisters as a sort of mascot.
I expect that was to give my Mum a break as she had my younger brother quite late in life.
His birth also got me sent to school before my time as the doctor wrote a note to get me in early as Mum's blood pressure was very high and she needed the quiet.
I went to Ayloff for a while, which I hated, sorry. I was always a keen reader and was reading before I went to school so the teacher would sit me in the corner of the classroom reading aloud to a group of my classmates while she concentrated on the others.
She had a strange way re education in that if you asked her how to spell anything she would just say, "look it up". Quite hard to do if you don't know how to start it.
I remember the outside toilets and having to walk across the playground in the rain to use them.
I also remember a boy used to bring his rabbit into school and at lunch times he would play with it by the fence to the railway. Often he would put it under the fence and them call the caretaker over to rescue it from its 'escape'. Sadly, I think you can guess what caused bunny's eventual demise.
I was only at Ayloff for a short while and a new school R.J.Mitchell Primary School opened and I transferred there.
Re Elm Park shops, I remember Dayburns, still selling bikes, but now called Cycle Cellar. The Regal Fish Bar is still going strong.
I remember spending my pocket money in Treasure House.
There was a toy shop near where the Regal is, where I bought a Mary Quant Daisy Doll.
Spotlights was great for household stuff & Barry Shooters the chemist was always handy.
The 'stationers' someone described near the old post office, was called Wych Elm Library and I remember going there as soon as any new Enid Blyton book came out to get the next one on the list.
Unfortunately, my parents gave all my EB books away. I would have loved to read them again but they are much too expensive now to rebuy. It wouldn't be the same anyway.
In 1972 I left Mitchell's for Sutton's senior school which changed its name a year later to Sanders Draper after, as a previous poster said, a world war ii hero who lost his life whilst avoiding crashing into the playground.
I failed my 11+ having taken it during a rather nasty bout of flu. I can clearly remember the pages of the test swimming round in front of me. That could have taken me to Abbs Cross (or Abbs Scabs as we 'wittily' called it) but I liked SD so I didn't care.
In 1988 I married and made the huge leap from South End Road to Ambleside Avenue, where we still live.
I have tons more memories but my beloved wants his lunch. Never did train him right ;o)
Before I go though, Monitas was on the left as you came out of the station and Joan Leslies was on the right. It sold men's wear but also some school uniforms.
I bought my Husband's wedding shirt in there.
Bye for now x
Still in touch with Jeff & Lee Dugdale but lost a bit of hair.......
Still proud of my memories our boxing team didn't do bad in the end, had a couple of ABA champs Chris Sighney I think and Rob Greery) (it's been a long while) Suttons has a Falklands war hero Jeff Urand marine commando, taken prisoner (by order) then returned to capture Port Stanley see( Britons small wars).
Still in touch with Jeff, Lee Dugdale, but my big brothers have sadly gone, Brian & Richard.
Mike cole
Margaret..living then.silverdale drive.
Margaret. Surname back then was sheppard.
When I was in the sixth form at Abbs Cross I, with friends Steve Davis and Brian Wilson, would have an occassional lunchtime drink at the Elm Park Hotel. We would drink in the public bar and had to avoid being seen by teachers in the saloon bar when at the bar buying beer. The public bar price was 1s 8d a pint in those days.
It was so nice reading all your comments. I was not as lucky as the majority of you - I moved to Suttons Lane in 1954 (I was nine years old) went to Suttons primary school and then onto Suttons High School until I was 13 - in which year we moved. I lived in the Hostel, at the bottom of Suttons Lane, and was, mostly, not talked to because "only poor people lived there". Anyway, Mr. Pike, Mr. Guest and Ms. Syrett were the most influential teachers in my entire life. They were understanding and very respectful. I was top of the class 1A, 2A and 3A. Also sang in the Hiawatha opera that we performed. Those teachers gave me the courage to accept that I could do more in life - after school I got married and moved overseas. I later went to University and got my Masters degree - couldn't have done it without their nagging voices in my ear. There were also twins that were in my class from Elm park that were always super nice to me their christian names were Lesley and Barbara - If anyone knows them please thank them for me. I am now getting on in years but visit my old stomping grounds at least once a year - fond memories.
I remember them building an adventure playground on Carnforth Gardens when I was about 6. It was incredibly dangerous but I loved it and spent every afternoon there after school until I had to come home for my tea. It had gravelly tarmac and a swing boat that was so dangerous that when I fell from it it hit me in the face and broke my cheekbone. It was dismantled only after my friend Susan Tomlin broke her leg falling from it. There were also very high monkey bars and I would hang from the top by my heels. If my parents had seen they would have had a fit!
I went on to Abbs Cross Tech which I loved. I was in Milan house. I was a very keen swimmer as a child and joined Hornchurch swimming club. My dad had moved jobs from Murex in Rainham to Roneo Vickers in Romford and he would drive me and my brother to the pool on his way to work so we could go the early morning swimming training.
I can remember going into Hollicks sweet shop or Tuck Shop on my way home from school to buy black jacks or cola cubes and my mum used to send us out to buy groceries from Wallis supermarket (not much of a supermarket if I remember). There was also a greengrocers and launderette on that parade of shops if I remember rightly and a clothes shop near the steps up to the station where mum could buy us clothes using Provident Cheques.
I bought my first single, the Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ for 5s 3d from Woolworths and I my mum used to get her hair done at Jan’s (I can still smell the heady perfume of the perming lotion!). I remember there was a jewellers on the other side of the road from station, just down the hill. It had a clock with Roman numerals but I can’t remember it’s name. I do remember however going there when I was 13 to have my ears pierced. They asked if I had my parent’s permission and I said yes - I didn’t. After the first piercing I almost fainted but I still let them do the other one.
In the summer holidays I would walk down Rainham Road, under the railway bridge, past Costains and my dad’s allotment, to Harold Logde Park and I would walk right through the park and come out on Abbs Cross Lane and take the bus home. We didn’t have so much parental supervision in those days and I loved it.