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Former
Harold Hill resident John Beavis provided these personal memories.
He mentions the ‘out work’ that was taken up by the
women at home in order to provide extra income for the household.
Also, he notes the estate being little more than a giant building
site in the early years and the limitless opportunities this presented
to the children. Housing was in such a desperate need that some tenants
recollect moving in while the electricians and plasterers were still
at work!
As a child I cannot remember anyone discussing the East End as such,
although I knew we all came from London. But at six, we probably had
more important things to discuss. In our case the first memory I have
was living in a basement flat in Chelsea. It sounds grand, but a damp
basement flat is a damp basement flat wherever you live, and this was
the reason we were finally rehoused. After the war, people took whatever
accommodation they could find, or afford. Opposite the flat was a flattened
area with just two old air raid shelter entrances sticking up out of
the ground.
Originally my father wanted to live on the Debden Estate
as it was on the London Underground line - he was working for the
Underground and thus would have free travel to work. Despite several
visits to the Debden Estate Office we never made it to the top of the
list. Then we received the invitation to view a house at Harold Hill.
With my family, I was only 6 at the time, we moved to Harold Hill
in 1951. After receiving the original invitation of a house by the
LCC we travelled by train from Liverpool Street to Harold Wood and
then presumably by bus to the LCC Offices in Gooshays Drive. There
we were given the keys to the property so that we could inspect it.
As at the time we were living in a basement flat with three rooms in
total - kitchen, bedroom, sitting room, and an outside toilet. Plus
a tin bath of course, which was brought in from outside when required
and used in the kitchen, viewing a three bedroom house in Hailsham
Road with a bathroom - and hot and cold running water! - kitchen and
through lounge cannot be imagined. Certainly we were very excited at
the prospect. For reasons that I do not know the odd numbered houses
had through lounges, while the even numbered houses had a separate
living room and dining room, with connecting doors. I remember the
road and pavements were dark yellow in colour - probably sand; certainly
the road was not tarmac’d until after we had moved in during
October 1951 as I watched fascinated as they laid it down.
Gooshays Farm was opposite the LCC offices, and the Gas and Electricity
Boards used the barns at the time as salesrooms. At the time of our
visit to inspect the house, there were also various tradesmen outside
the LCC offices, presumably touting for business. My father was concerned
at the cost of a season ticket from Harold Wood to Liverpool Street,
and one of tradesmen employed by Charringtons the coal merchants gave
him a lift on the back of his motorbike to Harold Wood Station and
back so that he could check the fare, before making his decision.
Several people told us after we had moved in that it had had a fire
in the kitchen, presumably caused by the builders, but there was no
evidence of any damage when we looked over the house. If memory serves
me correct houses were being occupied as they were being completed,
so not all the houses in the road would have been finished when we
moved in. The gardens were of course clay. There was a story that the
council would provide topsoil, but I believe it was just that a rumour
- certainly no topsoil ever arrived although it remained a subject
of discussion for some time. On the subject of the gardens, before
any proper work could start, the occupiers of the houses had to clear
their gardens of the builder's rubble that had been left behind.
This side of Harold Hill was still very much a building site in late
1951, and as kids we would play on the nearby blocks of flats that
were being built at that time - between Barnstaple Road and Montgomery
Crescent - when the builders had finished work for the day. Climbing
ladders, running around the boards on the scaffolding on the first
and second floors! I wonder what the Health and Safety Executive would
make of it today?
At the time our nearest shops were either the two Noak Hill Stores
or a bus ride into Romford. In bad weather we would walk along the
roads to Noak Hill, but in dry weather it was possible to walk across
the fields at the back of Hailsham Road. I understand that this area
has been build up now. Thus the building of the shops in Hilldene were
followed with interest. Facing the shops from Hilldene Avenue, the
bank of shops and flats to the right were used for a Civil Defence
exercise just prior to their completion. I believe the shops to the
left hand side had at that time started to be opened.
At a later date, possibly the late fifties, and the sixties, Epicure
employed many people on the estate as ‘out workers’ peeling
onions. The onions were received in course sacks and the peeled onions
were returned in white linen sacks. While the housewife - most mothers
stayed at home at this time - normally was the employed person as far
as Epicure was concerned, in reality the whole family helped out. Imagine
if you will a hot summers day and the whole family sitting in the garden
peeling onions! This ended when the law changed on hygiene in the working
environment!
In the early years fog, or smog, was not uncommon. At this time, it
was not unusual for bus drivers on the 247A and 246 routes heading
to Harold Hill to refuse to go past Harold Wood Station, in case they
became stuck on the estate. Therefore in foggy conditions commuters
and others would have to walk from the Station to their homes. There
is a story that during the last smog - a lovely yellow colour I remember
- in 1963, that one 247A bus driver was persuaded to continue onto
the estate with a bus full of passengers, with one of the passengers
walking in front with a torch. The smog was so thick, that the person
with the torch mistook Chelsworth Drive - which is the last turning
before the A12, in Gubbins Lane - with the result that the bus eventually
ended up at Gallows Corner. At that time of course the Gubbins Lane
/ Gooshays Drive connection with the A12 was a dog leg, hence the confusion!
A friend recounted this story to me the following day, but I cannot
guarantee its authenticity.
Many men on the estate worked for Briggs, which eventually became
part of Fords in Dagenham as the pay was the best around. I must admit
while I understand that Briggs only supplied Fords, I never understood
the link, or why the name Briggs was dropped, but that's another story.
My father for various reasons continued working for L.T. until he retired.
On schools I went to three on the estate. Broadfords, until Bosworth
was built, then after failing the 11 plus, Quarles. Bosworth was closed
eventually due the discovery of blue asbestos, and Quarles I understand
is now an adult centre of some kind.
In 1956 the 11 plus examinations took place at Harrowfields. What
a long walk that was that morning up Dagnam Park Drive!
During the first two years at Quarles there were two classes called
1G and 2G. These were for the kids who had passed their 11 plus and
been allocated to the Harold Hill Grammar School which had not yet
been built, and which was not completed until I believe 1958.'
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