My Canvey memories 1948 to 1970

When we left London in 1948 I was going to the Leyton County High school for boys so I had to enlist at Westcliffe High School for boys but as my academic skills were (to say the least) unsatisfactory they were quite happy for me to transfer to William Read Secondary School Long Road (by Jones Stores).
This school was more on my wavelength and at this point I must make mention of some of the teachers at this school.
The name "Slasher" Eales still sends a tremor through every old school pupil when recalling school days, a strict disciplinarian to whom a kick up the bum or a clout around the head was the norm (plus of course the cane) a 24 hour teacher who's beady eyes were always on you even after school, he also took gardening classes and scripture lessons and when Slasher said "dig" you dug and when Slasher said "Pray" you bloody well prayed.
On Saturdays and Sundays he could be seen cycling up and down Long Road and if his telescopic and X-ray eyes caught you doing something wrong or acting the goat then on Monday morning woe betide you.
He was a practicing Christian as he was a sidesman (I think that’s what they call them)
All the time we were at school we thought Slasher was a right B#@!!#d but when you look back in retrospect this man was responsible for keeping thousands of us rascals on the straight and narrow ,taught us the meaning of respect, obedience and the will to work hard, in fact the type of teacher that is required in schools this present time were the aforementioned virtues are sadly lacking.
Another man who used to put the fear of Christ up us was the local policeman by the name of P.C. Farmer, now this huge overweight man used to ride his mode of transport (a bike) with his heels on the pedals and rode very slowly, but this was deceptive as my mate Harry and myself were caught riding two on a bike by him so he gave us a stern lecture and told us to walk to where we were going but being smart arses as soon as he got out of sight and carried on riding we jumped back on and rode around the block and as we went around a corner who should be in front of us was , you’ve guessed it one P.C. Farmer who issued us with a summons to appear at Rochford magistrates court for which we both got fined 10 shillings(I think) a very smart copper that one.
It isn’t until you get older and more wiser that you do realize just how much influence these two men had on your own ideal standard of living
"Gillie" Potter the science teacher and Miss Dalrymple the music teacher - I think - who did her best to try and get a load of us Canvyites to sing in tune "Who is Sylvia, What is she?." an impossible task.
Just to conclude on school life can you imagine about fifteen boys some with voices breaking, some with deep voices and some still with their high voices all trying to harmonize with fifteen girls all singing with high pitched screams with as much gusto as they could produce, With this Cornucopia of sound even modern day music would not be able to beat this.
The Headmaster (I think) was a Mr. Watkins.

The daily walks down to the beach, Andrews Amusement Arcade and the Casino are still fondly remembered.
At the bottom of Maurice Road by the seafront was Andrews, this was rather a small ramshackle fun fare and wasn’t very popular with us boys
Down the seafront was the Casino amusement arcade with rides, machines and a small lake with boats you could hire out.
The penny machines in the Casino were ripe for cheating, when you won on the machine you were supposed to turn the knob twice and get your penny back but we turned the knob very slowly until it was about to click
then you spun the knob very fast and it clicked past the stop and you kept doing it and getting pennies every time, also all of the money used to fall into the bottom of the machine which had a wooden door so as the owner could get the money out but there was a gap at the bottom of the door and there was enough room to slide an hacksaw blade into the gap and slide the pennies out and we did quite well out of this, and of course the more you used the hacksaw the bigger the gap became at the bottom.
The owner of the Casino was a Mr. Beaumont and he and his two sons used to walk around with huge bunches of keys hanging around their necks (these they used to open the machines when they broke down) so we had to keep an eye out for them as they knew what was going on it was just a case of catching us, which, with our street wise intelligence, was a very difficult task.
When they started to come towards s we would be out of the door and up onto the sea wall, pockets full of pennies and rattling like mad.
They got to know us and then whenever we went into the Casino they hovered around us like a bad smell.
We then adopted commando tactics with someone finding out which section of the Casino they were in and we would then duck into the other section and do our bit with the hacksaw blade.
This all changed when we got the lovely taste of Charrington’s beer so our hunting ground became the Monico Pub next door.
I bet many readers have some fond memories of the Monica with Dave the pianist a small bald headed bloke who used to take his false teeth out and sing “Shining Sarah sitting in a shoeshine shop and when she sits she sings and when she sings she sits” say that fast and you’ll see what I mean.
Also down on the seafront was the Canvey Model Village a small area made up of a collection of miniature buildings , this was only of interest to the multitude of visitors mainly from East London. and of course the numerous Bingo stalls dotted along the seafront
Up on the sea wall (level with the Monico pub) was a very unique building shaped lie a ship’s bridge, this was the Labworth Café and the building was one of the few architectural designs by Ova Arup (whoever he is) and very art deco
When we left London in 1948 I was going to the Leyton County High school for boys so I had to enlist at Westcliffe High School for boys but as my academic skills were (to say the least) unsatisfactory because although I had passed the 11 plus exam and won a place at the Leyton County High School each successive year I went down a grade so by the time I left at 14 I was in a C class, the reason for this was that algebra, trigonometry, French, German and Geometry was just too much for me to take in so at Westcliffe they were quite happy for me to transfer to William Read Secondary School Long Road (by Jones Stores) on Canvey Island

CANVEY AS I REMEMBER IT
EPISODE ONE OF MANY
Sitting out here in Australia in my Seventy fourth year with the temperature on 38 degrees Centigrade and a cold Tooheys in my hand my mind went back to the wonderful memories of my teenage years on Canvey Island, so I decided to put pen to paper and take a happy trip down memory lane which your readers might like to share with me. As it is a rather long trip I am spreading it over a number of episodes I hope a lot of members of my blog site are senior citizens as they will remember the 50s and sixties and there are quite a lot of people on the Island who were in their teens in the fifties.
My first memories of Canvey Island when I moved from London with my family just after the war were the wide open country spaces and the unmade roads. My parents had rented a small bungalow at the very end of Beach Road which in the winter became a quagmire and impassable, luckily we had a back path which led up to the High Street, but these conditions were nothing to the pleasures that Canvey gave to a Londoner used to congested streets and little freedom. This back path went past a row of shops that included the "Toothman" who made false teeth, Selby's the barber, a gun shop, a shop used for storage (Just found out it was owned by Ken Macquarie) one used by Mr. Bishop as storage and a few other shops that I cannot recall, the path ended in the High Street by Tremains the newsagent and just past Tremains was Bishops the greengrocers and then Attewells the butchers where my brother Roy had a part time job delivering the orders (this was whilst he went to school and before he joined the Royal Navy as a Boy seaman).
Our next door neighbors were a Mr. and Mrs. Watts (who was instrumental in getting me a job with the Regent Oil Co.) and next to him lived Jack Surrage and his family.
Mr. & Mrs. Watts lived in a bungalow that was at one time a school.”
The bungalow that my father rented was a small two bedroom fibro one and, having sisters, my brother and I slept in a shed in the garden (this may sound rough but the extra freedom it gave us outweighed the discomfort). This shed was provided by the Coastguard Department (unbeknownst to them). During the war they had built a two storey observation post on a field at the sea wall end of Weel Road ( in what is now called Kismet Park I believe) which was left empty when the war ended, so every night my brother and I stripped a couple of planks from it and with our father walking on the other side of the road took them home. End result one shed in our garden and just a 4 x 2 frame at the seafront.
I suppose he thought it was better for us to get caught than himself (only joking)
Our bed in the shed was covered with numerous greatcoats (all obtained from the Sally Army) so we were very warm in the winter, plus the fact that our mum used to put a couple of house bricks in the oven and when it was time to go to bed the bricks were rapped up in an old pillowcase and into the bed.
By sleeping out in the shed we had the opportunity to sneak out and go exploring (only God help us if our father had found out).
That was fantastic as my brother was 12 and I was 14
More to come

Welcome to my blog page, here there will be my memories of my teenage years (and another ten untill I left Canvey)living on Canvey Island Essex.
In my eyes boys, and more than likely girls, the teenage years are the most exciting years of your lives , you can do things that the older generation don;t like, experiment with everything and usually get away with it.
This is not your usual blog, I will not be telling you that I had cornflakes this morning and I burnt the toast ,it is a sunny day etc.
Just my memories of what I consider to be the greatest decade of the 20th century, very little unemployment, no drugs ,none of us had heard the word suicide, we fought with our fists and not knives and guns and best of all the plethora of singers and artists ever, thats the 50s
So sit back fasten your seat belts and I will start posting very soon
Eddie