Album Rayleigh, Essex from Deborah Lundbech

Martyr's Memorial, Rayleigh, Essex, England

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:54:44 +0000

Uploaded for the Vintage Photos Theme Park theme of: STATUES AND MONUMENTS
This English RPPC was taken in what I always considered my hometown - Rayleigh, Essex. At some point along the way I realized that I only lived there for six years, 1958 - 1964. I was absolutely incredulous - as were my family and other clueless fellow emigration travelers. It seemed as though we lived there a lifetime. We had to keep counting years to believe it was true.
Anyway, in those days of daily shopping, we passed "the monument" on High Street several times a week. It definitely held a weird fascination for me, imagining the horrifying burning of people.
Two of them were burned on this spot and two were burned in London.
The monument was erected in the early 20th century by local Protestants to honor the "Protestant Martys" burned by (I suppose) Catholics during Queen Mary's reign in the mid-1500s.
Thousands of people attended the unveiling of the monument. Luckily, Rayleigh High Street is extraordinarily wide and could accommodate them all. [See below].

"F" for Frances

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:51:36 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

One last one uploaded for the Vintage Photos Theme Park theme of: SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH "F".
Frances, our next door neighbor on Woodlands Avenue in Rayleigh, Essex, England.
Probably around 1959. School photo taken at Love Lane School, Rayleigh.

The Dutch Cottage

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:38:24 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Postcard from 1970, showing the Dutch Cottage in Rayleigh, Essex.
This is on the road to the train station, and I used to love walking by it. I always wanted to go inside.

Love Lane School Pageant

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:11:38 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

A clipping from a local newspaper sent to us in the U.S. after we emigrated.
Probably late 1960s - early 1970s.
I get the Indian theme but what is that strange building with windows in the background?
I love the boys fighting about the bow in the background.

My neighbor Ruth and I famously had a fight at our Love Lane pageant. We were about eight years old and had to perform a ribbon dance as part of the performance. The dance involved gamboling about in white dresses with partners and holding shared ribbons. Our ribbons were two tied together and one was nicer than the other (presumably) so, in the middle of the dance, with our mothers watching, we were furiously tugging on the ribbon to try to get (or keep) the "good side"
I remember our mothers afterwards scolding us. "Typical! The two of you fighting up there.Everyone around us was laughing at both of you!!"
We were mortified.
I think we hadn't realized that other people would notice.

Rayleigh Church, 1964

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:35:22 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Ruth and me - with my habitual unattractive squint into the sun and wearing that hated coat again.
Mike 8y
Don't forget, one sock at half-mast!!? ;)

Richard Eric 8y
You were correct about that coat. A character-builder, for sure.

scientific country (deleted) 8y
Like someone auditioning for the Sound of Music, very sweet. Bad luck on that coat by the way

Deborah Lundbech 8y
OK, Abaraphobia - I wasn't going to list ALL the pathetic things about me but yes, the half mast sock and while we're at it, the trodden down shoes and the damn bangs or fringe cut by my mother -as usual crooked and way too short!
Richard Eric - "I know, right?"
(As everyone seems to be saying these days.)

Deborah Lundbech 8y
Celia - do you mean the part where the Captain asks where Maria got her clothes - and Maria says from the poor donation box - and he says "What about the coat?" and she says "The poor didn't want this coat."
Well, I've fumed about it already in another photo so I'll move on now!
Forgiveness is a good thing.

Richard Eric 8y
You survived it brilliantly.

Fevan51 8y
Lovely old Rayleigh church. I went to Sunday school here. Had a wonderful Sunday school teacher who had a deformed hand. He told bible stories so well. Wish I had told him that at the time.
I remember Ruth's coat with the bobbles. What was the occasion? Do you remember?

Deborah Lundbech 8y
It is a lovely old church - they used stones from the old castle on Rayleigh Mount as part of the building material. I think it dates from the 14th century - at least part of it.
The first time I ever realized that gravestones had people buried underneath was on a walk with your mum in this graveyard.
The whole notion seriously freaked me out.
I'm still bitter about Ruth's awesome bobble coat so I can't comment on it.
: )
I think we might have been to the market across the street (remember that?) And I think my mother took the picture.

Joanne Sliding in Fairview Park, Rayleigh, 1974

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:29:32 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Taken to demonstrate the truly awesome slides they had in England!

Joanne and Poppies, 1974

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 16:28:52 +0000

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Brought forward for the Vintage Photos Theme Park theme of:
FIELDS, CROPS, PASTURES
Rayleigh, Essex, England - on the way to Hockley. Taken with my Instamatic (if you couldn't tell.)
Shortly after this I think we came upon a tiny hamlet with an old stone church.

Rayleigh, Essex Outskirts, 1974

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:27:59 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Off the Hockley Road.
Did we see a reform school or prison near here or am I dreaming this?

Woodlands Avenue "Cliffs"

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:34:25 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

When I was growing up on Woodlands Avenue, this land was a tangle of woods and shrubs and muddy trenches- a wilderland! In the way kids name things it was called "The Cliffs" possibly for the slight rise in the land toward the back. It was enclosed with a locked gate and a Keep Out sign that we often ignored. In 1972 I was disappointed to see it had been groomed into this bland field - robbed of all mystery and allure but admittedly more scenic to adults.

Playing Field, 1972

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:24:13 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Saint (?) or King (?) George's Playing Field - taken on my first visit back to England in 1972- with Ruth on the right (my Woodlands Avenue neighbor that we emigrated with) and Lynn on the left ("the American").
The ubiquitous Rayleigh Church featured on the horizon and what looks like a Spider Monkey running up the path.

23 Woodlands Avenue, 1972

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:47:35 +0000

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Our house. The peaked roof is cut off not flat.
Unknown child - one of the ursurpers who moved in when our back was turned.
What's with the bushes?
And HELLO! - the door is supposed to be NATURAL WOOD not BLUE!

Woodlands Avenue 1972

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:41:47 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

"A nice place to raise your kids."
Here's something totally culturally different than growing up in America (where we emigrated):
On this short street all the following families emigrated (that I know of - in six or seven years):
Lundbechs, Browns, Dawsons, Parkhills, people next to the Whitings, and the family that lived there after them.
I'm sure there were more i don't remember.
They went to the States, New Zealand, and Australia and Canada.
I don't know any Americans that had a family they knew move to another country.

Rayleigh Station 1972

nobody@ipernity.com (Deborah Lundbech) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:34:10 +0000

Deborah Lundbech has posted:

Taken in April, 1972.