Daviss & Suttling Family

A Memory of Aveley.

I have very fond memories of growing up in Aveley.
I was born in a prefab in 1947 at 4 East Walk, my dad worked at Thames Board Mills clocking up over 30 years of service (he died in Field Road in 1970), like everyone born there I attended Primary School and the Junior school and entered Bushy Bit in 1958, what a great school, glad to know I am not the only one who enjoyed their early teenage years.
We moved close to my cousins Pat & Stephen Mead then onto Eastern Avenue, Michael Wilshire should remember me, I lived next door to Paul Coker and Dorothy Mann was my best friend, I lived at 2 Eastern Avenue.
On summer evenings the lamp post outside Paul Coker's house, was the wicket stump or the base when we played tag on our bikes after dark, then being called in because of school the next day.
Susan Fogg and I were both in the Bushy Bit netball team along with her cousin Christine Larkham, Denise Mitten, Helen Stowers and other names long forgotten.
I was a good athlete and the school gave me much encouragement (I joined Thurrock Harriers) but the one draw back with Aveley was the lack of transport connections, you had to bus everywhere, being turned off a bus because you were carrying a javelin at the age of 14 wasn't funny.
I left Aveley when I married in 1966, but my mother lived there at The Maltings until she died, she was also born in Aveley as was her mother and Grandmother (Suttlings).
Rita Barker formerly Rita Daviss