Pitsea

Read and share memories of Pitsea and Essex inspired by Frith photos

Brick House London Road

I was born in Brick House, London Road, in 1930. My father was Arthur Herbert Holmes, an architect and surveyor. He planned many shops and other buildings around Essex. My older brother Anthony James Holmes is buried in St Michaels Churchyard. He died as a baby. I left here in 1933 but I have happy memories of giving chickens a ride in my pedal car up and down the road. There was a small nursery on the north side of the road quite close to the house. The gate posts belonging to the house were still standing in the early 1950s although the house had been pulled down. Colin
Contributed by Colin Holmes

Gran's bungalow

Pitsea will always bring back happy memories for me. I was born in my gran's bungalow during WW2 & remained there till I was 3, when my mum took me & my brother back to London, where she had been bombed out. But I always went back to Pitsea, throughout my childhood, to stay with my grandparents. The freedom I felt there was wonderful (unlike London). I spent my days walking through fields, going to the market, going to buy fresh eggs, without any fear of walking alone. Sometimes we got the bus to Southend. Inever wanted to return to London. I did go back to live in the bungalow 20 years later, where I gave birth to my second child, ...read more here
Contributed by pat skeels

When the Reverend Nichols was the Rector

Sadly I believe, St Michael's Church  is little more now than a ruin of it's former self, nothing like it was in the 1940's when it seemed to stand proudly on the hill watching over and protecting the small village below as it had done since Norman times: even then the inscriptions on some of the tombstones weathered and worn away so that one could only make out perhaps a name or date and wonder whose last resting place it was.   

We moved to Pitsea just shortly after war broke out into a small pebbledashed bungalow White Lodge, 9, Church Park Drive, on an unmade road with a small narrow pathway infront of the six or so houses, ...read more here
Contributed by Thelma Hurly

Victory Parade and the sudden downpour

What memories this picture brings back to life again!! I had just been discharged from the Fever Hospital having spent six weeks there with Scarlet Fever. Nothing was going to stop me from taking part in the Victory Parade especially as I had been picked as one of the colour party carrying the Guide Flag. It was a beautiful hot sunny day, perfect for the occasion. The Parade had started at the top of main road, I can't remember exactly where but it could have been on the field next to the Police Station, or even somewhere further up the main road, and was to march to Pitsea School where we would all disband on ...read more here
Contributed by Thelma Hurly