Nostalgic memories of Southend-on-Sea's local history
Share your own memories of Southend-on-Sea and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 11 - 20 of 62 in total
The Hall was the closest Library to my family-home in Marlborough Rd. I used to spend hours there every week, researching school homework; and collecting Library Books for myself, - and for my Mother and my Aunt, from "lists of author-choices" they gave me!
The Hall has a particular connection for me because my Father went to school at Southchurch Hall School, and one ...see more
We moved to Sandringham road in the early 60's I went to Southchurch Hall HS for boys. I remember the technical drawing class room was a portacabin to the left of the main gates, the woodwork classroom was at the bottom of the playground, and the metalwork class room was to the right of the playground. One very cold winter we had a slide, solid sheet ice, going down the playground straight ...see more
As the classic 18ft long local dayboat classes became more expensive to build and maintain, there was an explosion of smaller, cheaper racing dinghy classes all round the UK, postWW2. Though the local Thames Estuar-y and Essex- One Designs continued to race from the Alexandra Yacht Club, younger members were racing the new dinghy classes, Enterprises, Fireflies, ...see more
This Picture was taken by someone on the Pier, above the roadway. The shops to the right were known then as Palmyra Terrace, IIRC, and the little sunken amusement park to the Left had been renamed by then from "The Shrubbery" to "Peter Pan's Playground".
IIRC, the "Westcliffe Belle" was a conversion by Johnson & Jago, Boatbuilders of leigh-on-Sea, of one of the big sailing yawls or ketches that had worked off the Foreshore pre-WW2, giving excursions out into the Estuary to see the very busy Shipping.
I remember this motorboat working from the first Beach Pitch to the West of the Pier, from the beach ...see more
This beautiful Grade 1-Listed building was the closest Library to where I lived near Southchurch Park, and I spent many hours inside during the 1940's and 1950's exploring books, or in the landscaped grounds.
As I became a teenager and also more interested in History, I was fascinated to discover that the "old farmhouse" where my ...see more
In the foreground is the SMNCo.'s TSMV "New Prince Of Wales I" [a 75ft vessel built by Hayward's Boatyard, Burdett Road, at the back of the Kursaal] normally berthed at that Jetty. I think by the mid-1950's, my family's Company, the SMNCo. had begun to paint the "New Prince of Wales 1" a mid-Blue colour.
. Behind our "New Prince Of ...see more
Southend-on-Sea in the 50’s
At the housing estate in Mitcham where we lived they had a tenants association. Every Friday night, two of the committee would go round to the Elm Court flats in Mitcham, where we lived, to collect one or two shillings. This money was for an outing that the committee organized, mainly in winter, so that people could have an evening out at least once a year. There were ...see more
I do remember when this was just a hole, but with a lot of concrete structures . apparently building was stopped due to the war and lack of funds.
This twin screw motor vessel at the Jetty belonged to our family company, the Southend Motor Navigation Co. Ltd. She was built for the company in the 1920's by the local Hayward's Boatyard, Beach Road, Southend and was commandeered by the Royal Navy for the Dunkirk Evacuation Operation Dynamo in May, 1940. She served through the rest of the War as an inshore minesweeper, and ...see more