Local History (Southend and Essex) Group

The contact for this group, which meets at Westcliff Free Church on the third Tuesday of each month, at 10.30am, is Terry Tidman.

Contact Terry on 01702 559761

Group presentation at autumn meeting

Group leader Terry Tidman at the microphone is helped by Roger Saward at the laptop

Following our outside visits this year, seven of our regular members gave details of their impressions and findings from  our interesting buildings in and around Southend (even venturing to Rayleigh). Each spoke about one of the following, supported by photos taken and projected by Mavis:  Southend Museum – Betty (standing in for Joan) ; Southchurch Hall – John and Brenda; Beecroft Art Gallery - Margaret;  Old Leigh Heritage Centre – Roger;  Priory Museum – Mavis. Terry finished up by speaking of the visit to Rayleigh Windmill.

He  followed this by mentioning some other suggested interesting places we would like to visit in the future if the venues, including Porters, the Pier Museum and the Palace Theatre, are willing to have us.

It was quite an interesting year and the loyal support of our 10 to 15 members reflects the interest in the history of the town and includes the many changes that have happened in the past and will be happening in the future.

Visits to heritage centre and Southchurch Hall

An interesting and successful visit in April to the Leigh Old Town Heritage Centre was hosted by our own Mavis Sipple, who gave us an “all our yesterdays” slide show of how the Old Town was in yesteryear. We had an equally interesting visit to Southchurch Hall (right) in May, where we were viewing the “Upstairs and Downstairs” Victorian exhibition. This included a talk and explanation of the various articles, photos and memorabilia on display, by Robert Colby-Blake in the Upstairs and by his lady colleague in  the Downstairs kitchen, with the utensils, and cooking equipment and methods used before electricity and gas, and for laundry and food preservation. Both of our hosts were suitably attired. At Rayleigh Mill (left) we were given a short talk by a member of the Rayleigh Historical Society, and we were able to view much memorabilia and a large scale model of Rayleigh Mount as it was originally soon after the Norman invasion.

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