Museum of Nostalgia
Your Memories
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1950's picture of Cosy Corner Cafe which stood on the junction of St Marys Lane and Station Road Upminster. Does anyone remember having a cup of tea in there?
When Sisters' Rosalind and Heather Roberts were children in the early 1950's they looked forward to the walk Home from School which took them via Station Rd. Upminster, and often into the "Cosy Corner Cafe" where they often spent their pocket money on "Glo Joy" Ice lolly's which cost 3d (just over 1p in today's money) their favoured flavour was Banana but there was also a Vanilla Glo Joy, not many places sold them and walks for miles would be undertaken to get one!. Rosalind and Heather also remember well the Mini Hovis loaves for 1d (well under 1p in today's money) that Abrahams the Bakers would bake, they say the smell was irresistible and they're certain that the fresh baking at home time was no coincidence! The Ladies shared also Memories of 1949 when the Upminster Playing Fields (now used by many for recreation) were Cornfields. Thanks Ladies it's great to hear about Yesteryear in Upminster.
Scenes From The Past
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South St Romford in the 1920's Looking North towards South St. Romford from Western Rd. Where Costa Coffee now stands.
Romford Market looking North towards St. Edwards Church in the 1920's, Sheep pens were made of wooden hurdles and Horses are tethered to railings
In the the 1930's buses were still a regular sight passing through the middle of the Market!
The barn in 1920
Barn painting.
ROGER BARNES MEMORIES
Earnest Doe & Sons Ltd took over the Upminster Tithe Barn and adjacent fields during the early part of the Second World War, my Father Mr. W. Barnes was Manager of this Depot this would have been around 1942. This Company at that time were very busy with Contracts for the Air Ministry ie. Airfield construction around the South East of England, they also did work for the Ministry of Agriculture as most Park & Spare Land was made ready to grow crops because of the food shortage on account of the War being on.
The Tithe Barn was used for storing plant ie. Tractors, Machinery, Fertiliser and tons of seed, the Barn used to be in three sections to house them all and fifty Years ago the Barn roof on the south side was in such a bad state of repair that it was recovered in corrugated tin and tarred over, it looked terrible, but at least it was waterproof! The original type of thatch roof looks a whole lot better now.
As children we spent many hours playing in the Barn, believe it or not we used to climb the massive beams to the top and look through the holes in the thatch , I wouldn't do that now! As older people will know forty or fifty years ago the winters were a lot worse than we have now, back then, when the thaw started you used to get Icicles at least a metre long hanging off the bottom of the thatch, great as swords or spears!
It's amazing to think that, what is now the Upminster Playing Fields was originally three separate fields stretching almost to Cranham and was used for growing crops! Wheat, barley, oats And potatoes were grown. As kids when we were not at School we would go potato picking (You did get paid it was 6p a bag in old money), the bag weight was 112lbs, so you would get £3.50 at the end of the week, and you felt rich, as pocket money was two shillings!
The machine used behind a tractor for digging the potatoes out, was a Potato Spinner (A Model of which is in the Barn) The Field was close to the Barn and Hall Lane, I later had the job of ploughing this with a tractor ( A Fordson which is also exhibited in the Barn) Halfway through the job, I stopped to adjust something and unbeknown at the time dropped my watch in the furrow then continued and ploughed it in ! So if anyone has a metal detector!
Myself and my two brothers all worked for E. Doe and Sons as and when we left School, during the winter months we would spend many long hours in the Barn on plant and tractor maintenance especially when the weather was too bad to work outside.
On a more macabre note, apparently a previous occupant of the Farm had taken his own life and hung himself from one of the beams at the far west end of the Barn (I believe this can be verified by the Romford Recorder), Almost at the same spot I survived getting crushed as the Daimler I was working on had rolled of the jacks seconds after I stopped work on it. Close to this area when part of the floor was levelled a couple of very early coins were found and a large copper type of Token What this symbol represents I don't know there was no date and it was quite a crude stamping.
Walter & Nancy Barnes,1962, Upminster Barn
Michael Barnes& Bob Millgate, Upminster Barn,mid1950s
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