My Canvey memories 1948 to 1970

Part 9 Local cafes
A mention must be made of the local cafes where the local youths met to pass the time, one of the most popular was Cockle Jacks being situated in the centre of the Island opposite the Haystack where most of us met to decide our destination that night. We were always welcome there even if we had no money to spend Cockle Jack’s wife Ann and her helper Kit Foster put up with us, noisy but happy just to listen to the Jukebox and chatter amongst ourselves.
Then there was the Commodore situated on the corner of Sea view Road and the High Street (opposite the Admiral Jellico) Owned by an Italian with, if I can recall correctly, had two good looking daughters. The front entrance in the High Street was the café and the side entrance was the fish and chip shop. I do not know a lot about this café as we rarely used it preferring the cafes nearer to the centre of the Island.
Wally Brown’s café at the corner of Long Road and Haven Road was the workers café and you would not find a nicer couple than Wally and his wife Sweeney’s café was another handy café situated next to Benfleet Station and backing onto the creek, a wooden building stuck on piers and an ideal place to wait for the train and having the mandatory jukebox ,the owner, a Mr. Leech, (no relation to the farmer) had a daughter who we nicknamed “Spider” because she was all arms and legs and a son called Vic, they had another café in Leather Lane London and a couple of times we went up there and helped Vic out in the café( not very successfully I might add) when his parents were away

Then there was the Jolly Boys café at the junction of Beach Road and the High Street with Tiny Tim serving behind the counter ( I think he stood on a box to serve, only joking) and dead opposite was Green glades café which, although not having the mandatory jukebox had one very good asset namely not many patrons and an alcove in the far corner at the front of the café where the owner a Mr. Lilliard used to let us play cards “No money boys” he used to keep telling us And we would tell him we were only playing for matches but as he was rather slow moving by the time he shuffled around the corner to coerce us into buying more tea and toast the money had been replaced and little piles of matches were innocently in front of us.
But the best café on the Island that us boys used to use for gambling was a newer café situated in an arcade of shops that Mr. Taylor who owned the petrol station next door had built nearly opposite New Road in the Village. This café was called the Unic , now this was in the mid fifties when we had all come out of the army ,old enough to drink and drive ,now looking back in hindsight it was a very stupid thing to do but in those days there was no such thing as ?Blow in the Bag sir? or random breath tests and, being young and silly we used to go out drinking, weekends we would drive up to London and do a pub crawl round all the well known ones including The Mile End Tavern and a little one tucked in behind Aldgate bus station and sometimes over the south side of London to the World Turned Upside Down, and Joe Lucy’s pub the Thomas a Beckett , both on the Old Kent Road and The Hole in the Wall, during the summer months we stayed local either Southend or any of the mainland pubs where the coaches used to stop on the way back to London loaded up with tipsy young ladies wanting to enjoy themselves (but that’s another story)
When we came back onto the Island after a nights drinking binge we would drive to the Unic cafe, drive fast up onto the pavement and skid to a halt about six inches from the plate glass window, (just to scare the birds sitting by the window, as you will have guessed we were show offs and lairs) swagger into the cafe' and throw a couple of bob to the girls standing around the juke box for them to play some music ( this two bob played 5 records I think) and then go into the back room where we would have a game of cards (the owner did not mind this providing we would keep buying food and teas and he also liked a game of cards) we played pontoon three or nine card brag at sixpence a hand and he would keep the cafe' open until we all went, sometimes this was as late as 2 in the morning.
Oh the joys of youth

PART 8 SOME MORE CANVEY CHARACTERS
* Sparrow Dent - the scourge of non ticket holders on the Canvey buses although only five feet nothing in thick soled shoes he grew to an enormous six feet when he donned his inspectors uniform, and always seemed to be acting the hard man, we had this annoying habit of chewing up our bus tickets into wet soggy balls which didn't please Sparrow who had to wait until we flattened them out for inspection.
* Another bus inspector I recall was Bert Windsor a rather big bloke with a very bald head (I worked with his brother Ronnie at Regent and he too was lacking what I now lack, hair) Bert wasn’t so officious as Sparrow and you could have a laugh and joke with him (like making out that you had lost your ticket and spend a long time looking for it and then produce the ticket from some queer place on your anatomy.)
* One of the bus drivers I clearly remember was a "Jack the lad " type ( one of your readers on Canvey told me his name was Bert Foulgar)long black hair good looking and wearing an ear-ring and looking like a gypsy, who had a lot of the young girls hearts in a flutter We called him 'Lover boy"
* Dave - last name not known, the resident pianist during the summer season at the Monaco pub on the seafront, small and a bit bald he brought the house down when he sang ( minus his false teeth ) "Shining Sarah sitting in a shoeshine shop, and when she sits she shines and when she shines she sits" Sing that fast and after a few milk stouts and you will see what I mean.

* Joe Overs - Canvey's professional photographer who was always seen riding his bike in much the same style as P. C. Farmer and when you asked him how he was he replied "I'm alright on the whole"
I could go on and on, Tiny Tim from the Jolly Boys café at the beginning of Beach Road, (whose head could just be seem above the counter) Harry Whitcombe a foreman at Gouldings Sheet metal Factory who was also a part time fireman and after the siren had sounded could often be seen peddling furiously down Long Road trying to get to the fire station before the fire went out.
* Billy Hodder - After a year at Gouldings I left and obtained a job on the Harold Hill new town site as a plant fitters mate and a bus used to leave Canvey every morning to transport workers to the site, now the steward on this bus was Billy Hodder (this was Bill's bus and nobody but nobody got on that bus unless Bill said so) and a funnier man I have yet to meet. He would have been the original Arthur English and from the moment I got on the bus until we arrived at the site I was in stitches, jokes rolled out of his mouth in a continual stream and being only 16 at the time a lot of them went over my head, but as everybody else on the bus was laughing so did I. Come to think of it the bus was a Hodder family special as besides Bill there were his brothers Laurie, Ronnie and Buck and two brothers-in-law Bill and Bert ? Lewis and as I said at the start one of the funniest men I have ever met.
I can still visualize Bertie Benson wearing a Trilby Hat and carrying his big brass instrument - I think it was a euphonium. He used to catch the train into the City nearly every day to do a bit of busking and could always be seen walking up Ferry Road towards the station
Also there was a bloke who used to wear smart navy whites in the summer and all through the winter he wore yellow sou westers including a hat and Wellington boots.
Arthur Reid who I suppose would have been Canvey's answer to old man Steptoe
Some of the other characters that I can recall are Mr. Andrews who used to deliver bread around the Island on a three wheeled tradesman’s bike all hours of the day and night, definitely not the fastest thing on three wheels in fact it would be a dead heat between him and a tortoise in a race.
Mr. and Mrs. Harmes who were expert ballroom dancers always in the dance hall floor of the Red Cow on a Saturday night and whilst us lads reluctantly got forcibly dragged onto the floor, shuffling around on the same spot, one hand under your partners bum , the other around the back of her neck, one eye one the clock (seeing how long to chucking out time) and the other eye on your beer Mr. and Mrs. Harmes would be spinning all around the floor oblivious to all the obstacles in their way (us).

Part 7 Characters
Because there are quite a few of these memorable characters I am splitting them up into two episodes
In recalling these people I have mentioned names, now this is no way meant to be derogatory or put them down, in fact I am putting them on a pedestal as they are an integral part of Canvey's history and I hope that older residents who read this can also remember these characters and have a little laugh and maybe an odd tear.
These are some of the people I can recall during my early years.

* The first one I can recall seeing when I moved to Canvey was the Bird Man who used to stand on the corner opposite the Haystack Pub and feed all the birds and sing to himself, the song went something like this ... I'll be pleased to hear the noisy aero planes shan't I - shocking - the damn noise affects me - I can't work for years and years and years every fortnight. Then he would go and recite a cure for a cold which went something like this "two ounces oil of linseed, one ounce oil of turpentine " etc. a harmless happy person we were told that he was a wartime pilot suffering from shell-shock.
* Mrs. Freeman and her daughter, known as The Cat Lady who wore what I can only describe as St Trinians girls uniform (a short skirt with stockings full of holes)and a beret pulled down over her ears and pushing a Tansad canvas pram around Canvey with her cats wrapped up in blankets lying like a pair of babies in the pram.
* Fred and Bill McCabe - Fred was the Editor of Canvey News and Benfleet Recorder and known to us boys as Canvey's leading crime reporter, we used to rib him every time we saw him by asking him if he had caught any villains lately. His brother Bill was a builder and every time we saw him we would say "Keep your chin up Bill" now all the readers who can recall Bill will know the significance of this remark.
* Jack Bradley known to everyone as Cockle Jack (a rather rotund man) who owned the very popular cafe opposite the Haystack was always outside selling seafood from his stall while his better half Ann and her helper Kit Foster did the serving inside.
* Peggy Della with her red beret - whose rich baritone voice could be heard echoing from the Haystack to Lakeside Corner. Her command of the English language - very colourful to say the least - was an education and her rude answers shouted to us on the other side of the road to some very rude personal insulting questions burnt your ears.
* Peter Bond who always wore a knee length maroon jacket and drove around Canvey in a Hudson Terraplane convertible with his two mates sitting up on top of the back seats the car being previously owned by Dianna Dors (So we were led to believe!)
* Lt. Col. Horace P Fielder a leading Tory Party figure who owned the local caravan park (who I think eventually had the Conservative Hall named after him) and had this fanatical notion in his head that all of the local yobs had but one thing on their minds and that was to rape and pillage every one of his female holiday makers and therefore maintained a 24 hour guard on his site trying to chase off any local intruder with his walking stick, but one man with a limp and a bike was no match for the "Hungry" erect (metaphorically of course)_ Canvey boys who he called "Those horrible Oyster Fleet boys". Looking back in retrospect I would have done the same thing as him.
He also had a very nice looking wife called Barbara who was once a Canvey beauty queen (I think)

Essex Way also brings back memories as many a time I used to park my black Ford V8 Pilot at night at the top lay-by near the water tower (just to admire the twinkling lights across Canvey and meditate, you will understand that of course!!) with my girl friend until our dreams were disturbed by a knock on the steamed up window and a melodious policeman's voice saying "Hello Hello Hello? What have we here then".
Which meant winding down the window one inch and from the back seat explain to the very nice gentleman trying to shine his torch through the misted up window that you were just passing the time and listening to Radio Luxembourg, needless to say a grin used to spread across his face and he would depart, this was before the era of random breath tests because I am sure many a time if I would have had to blow into the bag I would have been over the limit.
Whilst on the subject of trains I think belated thanks is due to the old L.M.S. Railway on the design of the carriages and the very advantageous positioning of the railway stations, this I will explain. The carriages were divided into separate compartments of 12 with a door handle that could be held shut from the inside by putting your shoe against the handle thus denying access to everyone, and a light bulb that could easily be removed with a twist. With regards the stations it was a couple of minutes travel between Southend and Westcliffe and the same between the stations up to Leigh but between Leigh and Benfleet was a superb 8 to 10 minutes or so it seemed and by restricting passengers to the compartment by pushing your foot hard onto the inner handle and removing the bulb as the train pulled out of Leigh you had all this time to do your own thing, hopefully with the female of the species (i.e. read the Evening Standard, play dominoes, snakes and ladders, discuss the state of the economy or PARTAKE IN BIOLOGY LESSONS) and by raising your head you knew that when you saw the lights of Canvey Bridge and the Bus Terminal and Cafe you had one more minute to straighten your tie???? And get ready to disembark, Of course now with the modern trains all one compartment, brilliant lighting and very fast, this type of pleasure is denied to the new younger generation so progress does have its drawbacks.

Most of the girls living on the Island either commuted to the City or worked at Egans Factory or Neales a bookbinding firm at Northwick Corner
The girls who used to travel to the City to work went mob handed, nearly on the same bus and train. One of the girls gave me the nickname of "peanuts" as I was always sat on the top deck of the bus in the back seat eating peanuts and it was this one girl amongst that mob that I had a crush on, nice little dimples on her cheeks but as I was rather shy back in those days I did not have the courage to ask her out, I just wonder where I would be now if I had of asked her out??.
I will not mention her name in case she still lives on the Island (Oh the joys of youth.)!!!!!
Who can ever forget a typical Saturday in the Fifties -
One of the most popular cafes was Cockle Jacks being situated in the centre of the Island (opposite the Haystack pub) Whose owner’s wife used to tolerate all the boys and girls meeting there and very rarely spending a lot of money, I think she was happy just to have the café busy ,we would then decide what we were going to do that day, decide what and where we would go , sort out who we were going with then a bus to Benfleet Station, on the train to Southend , a walk to the top of Pier Hill where we went into Peggy's café here all the hot food was displayed in the front window in large trays, filled ourselves up then either went to the Gliderdome for an hours roller-skating or to the Kursal,
The Gliderdome experience was great and as usual we mucked about, we would skate around in a large circle get up speed and the let go of the last person in the line who would then go out of control causing chaos on the rink
Very often we would be so engrossed in enjoying ourselves that we forgot the time and missed the last train to Benfleet (which wasn't all that late) and then we would walk home to Canvey singing and larking about sometimes calling into any fish and chip shop that was just about to close and say "Have you got any fish and chips left" and if they said yes we would say to them "well you shouldn't have cooked so many" and laughingly walk out of the shop.
Sometimes we were stopped by the local police and asked to keep our singing down but it was all in good fun, it is quite a long way from Southend to Canvey so we were knackered by the time we walked (and sometimes rolled) down Essex Way, by that time of course the last bus had gone so another long trudge over the level crossing and along Lakeside Path and home.
One thing I will iterate now and all through these memories is that although we mucked and larked about and sometimes were a pain in the arse to some of the older residents on the Island and got into quite a few scrapes never did we resort to kicking or the use of knives
In fact, by to-day's standards, we were model citizens.

I have added some old photos I have from my time on Canvey, there is also an album of scanned photos in black and white and not very clear that were sent to me by various people from Canvey so just click on the profile photo
Then click on "more" to see the other albums
Thank you Peanuts

My first job after leaving school at 15 was with Gouldings & Sons Sheet metal and Wireworkers where a lot of local boys had their first taste of working for a living. They had two factories, one in Yamburg Ave (Wireworks) and one in the old market building down on the corner of St. Annes Road (Sheet metal),
I worked at the wirework factory which was only a few minutes walk from Beach Road, my starting wage was 10 pence an hour - a grand total of One Pound Sixteen Shillings and Eight pence a week, of which I gave my Mum one pound. Can you imagine the outcry if you asked your kids now to give up over half their gross income towards the upkeep of the family!
The foreman at the wireworks was a man called Arthur Richards and a nicer man you would not meet, his tolerant attitude to the boys who had just left school helped us to acclimatize to the workforce, when you start your first job straight from school you need a man like Arthur to ease you into adult life not some boss or foreman who think their sh*t doesn’t stink and play all kinds of idiotic tricks on you.
When you had learnt the basics of the job the pay went up to 1 shilling an hour and you were put on piecework which meant the faster and harder you worked the more money you ended up with at the end of the week which was another good lesson in life (work hard and you will prosper).
Mr. Goulding the boss left the running of the factories to his foremen and did not visit the factories all that often, when he did he reminded me of Winston Churchill as he was very big and smoked a cigar.
We all looked forward to pay day and the visit of the Telfer Pie man from whom we bought pies, sausage rolls and slabs of cake and when you came from a poor family the pride in taking pies and sausage rolls home on pay day was tremendous.