Best Childhood Ever

A Memory of South Ockendon.

We moved to the prefabs in South Road, South Ockendon in 1949 From London, my sister and I started school in the village school the headmaster was Mr Impy after that we went to the new school which was called Mardyke School I only remember the name of one teacher which was miss Wright she was the PE teacher and had long red fingernails, my sister passed the 11 plus but there was only one place at the local grammer school and she had the 2nd highest mark so missed out so she went to St Leonard’s secondary where she took the 13 plus and passed so she went to Beal grammer school in ilford, my dad used to leave his motorbike atJarmans Farm (which is now a garden centre), they used to have a vegetable round and the cart was pulled by two horses one was called Grey Bill and the other one was Peggy, the old grandad used to sit in Peggy’s stable smoking his pipe, the grandson was called Boyo and I remember when he started school my dad asking how he liked it to which he replied ‘I don’t think much of that firm they don’t even give you a cup of tea in the morning’, it was the saddest day when we moved out of the prefab but I still have many happy memories of my time there

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