Childhood Memories

A Memory of Thundersley.

I remember buying a lollipop & a caramac bar from the little sweetshop opposite my school in Dark Lane most days after school (they also sold Tizer by the glass). Mr Pope the kindly school lollipop man. The fish & chip shop where a very old lady (I was 6 so anyone over 30 was old!!) called Emma worked. Fairy lights strung along Hart Rd by the shops at Christmas time. Thundersley Infants School being set fire to, so no school for a while (Hurrah!) then lessons in some kind of huts near the church for a couple of months
before finally being shipped by bus daily to a school near Hadleigh for 2 terms while our school was repaired. Playing for hours on the common, in the woods & in the play area which had the highest slide I had/have ever seen. It was so high the top was caged in for safety. I left Thundersley 36 years ago when I was 11 (I was Maureen Slattery back then) so most of my childhood memories are there. It was a lovely place to grow up in.

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Added 26 April 2008

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I remember sitting in the fields near Hart Road Caravan site watching the flames rising in the sky from that fire. I was a teenager then.

By Denise Davies on Sat Apr 15th 2017, at 2:28 pm

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I too remember the fire at the infants school. I knew some pupils who had to go to Westwood Primary in Hadleigh temporarily. Luckily I got to stay at Thundersley as my classroom wasn't affected. My teachers was Mrs Vipond. I went on to the junior school next door where I remember taking part in a sponsored walk around the school field to raise funds for the swimming pool!

By denwarner on Sun May 28th 2017, at 6:16 pm

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I too did that sponsored walk. I remember it well. First I was one of the pupils helping the teachers by stamping the sponsor forms of those taking part each time the participants completed a lap of the playing field, then my friend and I decided to join in with the walk too and raise some money ourselves. The only part I could not recall was what we were raising the sponsorship money for so thank you for clearing that up for me :)

By Maureen Barnes on Fri Jun 2nd 2017, at 6:11 pm

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Does anyone remember Mr Trodd of 'Trodds' greengrocers? There was also a newsagent/sweet shop a couple of doors away (it might still be there) I used to go in there often in the 1960s, At Christmas they sold huge beautiful boxes of Milk Tray and Dairy Milk chocolates with pictures of thatched cottages and cute cats on the front -they were very expensive. Also 'Keymarkets' - that was on the same side as the chip shop and was possibly Thudersley's first supermarket. I loved the tiny shoe shop in that row as well .At the Council offices further along where I went with my Grandparents to pay the rent ( to Wiggins who they rented a bungalow from) - there was a squeaky mat as you went in the door and I always made as much noise as possible by continually stamping on it. Oh happy days....

By denwarner on Fri Aug 18th 2017, at 7:46 pm

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I remember Keymarkets, think it was called Greens before that, and the tiny shoe shop. I also remember a green grocers on the same side as the chip shop and another one on the opposite side near to the hairdressers & the iron mongers. There was a butchers on the chip shop side too with sawdust on the floor and a lady sitting in a separate part from the butchers counter in a type of wooden structure which seemed to me as a child to be quite high up...but was most probably just slightly elevated!.....who took your money when you paid for the meat you had bought rather than the butchers handling the cash themselves. There was also a dry cleaners that my Mum used regularly on that side too & a wool shop for buying everything you needed to knit baby, clothes, childrens jumpers, mens pullovers etc. Back then you shopped daily not weekly or monthly like now so as a small child I would go with my Mum to the Hart Road shops most days to buy groceries....& get sweets!

By Maureen Barnes on Mon Aug 21st 2017, at 10:02 pm

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I remember that lady in the butchers! Think she had her glasses on a string round her neck and sometimes wore a kind of butchers blue ( or black) and white striped boater hat. In the wool shop ( Gwen's?) they would let you put wool away so you didn't have to pay for all of it at once in case you didn't need itl.Next to the wool shop was an alley with bars to walk through to stop pushbikes - my friends and I used to do 'apple turnovers' on them on the way to and from school.

By denwarner on Sat Sep 2nd 2017, at 8:06 pm

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In the 1960s the Corona man in his lorry used to deliver fizzy pop to our house on Langford Crescent. I think it came once a week or fortnightly on a Friday evening. My Granddad always bought bottles of cream soda that he drunk with a generous dollop of (Rossi's or Wall's) vanilla ice-cream added to it! My Nan had orangeade lemonade and very occasionally cherryade. It was a real treat back then.

By denwarner on Sun Oct 1st 2017, at 8:12 pm

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Yes I remember the Corona man coming round in the 60's too. I also have a memory from being very young...possibly about 2 or 3yrs old, certainly no older...of an ice cream man coming into Sayers, where we lived, on a bike and selling ice creams from containers attached to it. Only remember it the once other than that it was ice cream vans that came round, but definitely that time it was a bike :)

By Maureen Barnes on Tue Oct 3rd 2017, at 5:29 am

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