Purfleet In The 50s And 60s

A Memory of Purfleet.

I was born in Purfleet in 1947 and lived in Riverview Flats opposite Thames Board Mills until leaving for University in 1966.
The flats were owned by Esso where my Dad, Herbie Jarvis, was a manager. He worked there for 46 years from age 14 (pushing barrels) until retirement at 60. The flats are still there but now all privately owned.
I remember all the people others have referred to and can add my friends Dickie and Bobby Johnson who lived in Mill Road and then The Drive, Alan Latchford who I think still lives in Purfleet, and Tony Jackson who lived in the drive. All their fathers worked in TBM or “The Mill” as it was referred to. The “Mill Girls” worked shifts and wore green turbans and overalls and came through the village each day with much laughter.
The Arthey family lived in the Flats - Joan and Ray with their two blonde daughters (Marilyn my sister Mary’s age -born 1943 - and Helen my age.
Kenny Nash and Brenda Parker also lived in the Flats and we used to play building dens and fires in the allotments behind the Flats and also in the Botany where big boys took on the challenge of “The Wall of Death” - a thin crumbling path cut high in a sandy cliff. I never managed that…
Also played along the river wall, climbing in the waste paper stacks t TBM. I’ll return later with more memories.

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