Great Totham

Read and share memories of Great Totham and Essex inspired by Frith photos

Freddie Holmes' garage

I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes.  The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids!  Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop".  He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers held together with elastic-bands; when applied to the backside they made you sit up in both ways!  But he was a good teacher, joined in with our games and was liked and respected.  His wife, Hilda, a formidable lady from Yorkshire, was his deputy.
Then, Arthur Green ran the village post-office from the front room of his house on Staplers ...read more here
Contributed by Peter Saunders

Freddie Holmes' garage

I attended the primary school, just down the Maldon Road from the garage in the photo, which was run by Mr Holmes.  The sweet-shop behind the pumps was popular with us kids!  Headmaster of the primary school was Mr Herbert Lewis, a Welshman known to us as "Pop".  He maintained discipline - and our attention! - with a bundle of rulers held together with elastic-bands; when applied to the backside they made you sit up in both ways!  But he was a good teacher, joined in with our games and was liked and respected.  His wife, Hilda, a formidable lady from Yorkshire, was his deputy.
Then, Arthur Green ran the village post-office from the front room of his house on Staplers ...read more here
A memory of Great Totham contributed by Peter Saunders

A real English village

My parents moved to Wickham Bishops in 1948 to help friends run the village Post Office Stores which sold everything - stamps, paraffin (you brought your own can and it was filled from a barrel at the back), vinegar (as for the parafin, it came from a barrel out back), cheese portions cut from huge cheeses wrapped in linen, and loose flour and pulses which even as a five year old I was allowed to put into blue sugar-paper bags to be weighed. Sweets where still rationed and broken biscuits were popular. My mother and her friend went once a year to order skirts, blouses, frocks and underwear from the London warehouses. Toys that came in for Christmas were not in ...read more here
A memory of Wickham Bishops contributed by carol argyris

Sailing with my dad

The best memories of sailing with my dad most weekends and baleing water out of the dingy.  It leaked.
A memory of Heybridge contributed by Antony hammond