Shops and Shopping

Fab morning spent at the new Brights Centre with Age Concern members and new visitors. Looking at shops and shopping in Rainham we created a 2D facade of shop fronts along Upminster Road South at the present time together with a 3D 'village' of fascia's and information from past shops and businesses in the same area.

We also met a Centenarian! Trixie turned 100 at the end of November and helped us with many layers of histories in Rainham!

A-Z of Rainham and Timelines at The Village Christmas Fayre

RAVE (Rainham Association for Village Events) are the organisation behind the Rainham Village Fayres which exist to promote Rainham Village and its small business's, the Fayres have been running for about 20 years now, they take place on the 1st  May bank holiday and the 1st Saturday in December.

We were invited by both the Library and the Youth Centre to have a stall at the Christmas Fayre so decided to take up both offers and took on some hired help to assist!

Had an enjoyable day chatting to local people and collecting memories and happenings for our timeline and some amazing A-Z artworks from youngsters together with facts, dislikes and likes in the village. (tried some amazing juice from the stall next door too - ginger, carrot and kiwi!)

Planning and Shoes

Day in The Ship Centre organising everything for the Christmas event on Saturday. The Youth Centre have created some fab alphabet letters, need to buy washing line and pegs! Popped into the shoe shop to chat to the owner about it's history and shopping in Rainham, so much has changed since the new store arrived, couldn't believe it had been there since 1990! Essex Footwear is right next to the walkway to the big store and had some of it's land compulsory purchased to create the 'alley'.

Map Mania in Romford

Visited the Local History section of Romford library to look at some of the old maps of Rainham and the surrounding area. Fascinating selection of maps from across the years, interesting to see the changes in the local landscape across time.

So Sad So Deri Sad

Interesting day in the library, found a new section of reference books with a couple of gems, one book all about Rainham Town FC formed in 1945 and disbanded in 1994. Also found a book of street names which mentions 'Deri' a local social worker who has a road named after him.

Have a few ideas now emerging; A Rainham A-Z or perhaps an acrostic from Rainham Trail; Ruins Archway etc.. Then there's a handful of lost stories, the Royalty and the Bridge, the hidden compartment in the chest inside the Norman church, allotment workers arriving by train from London, the library fire, and then the unexplained; smugglers tunnels, Viking Way (why viking way?) the buildings behind the buildings, the empty social services building.....

Lots more to find out we feel!

Ray & Dot

Had a visit from Ray & Dot Wright during our day at Rainham Library and had a lovely chat about their lives in the village and their families.

Ray's grandad, Alfred Walls was a lamplighter and lit 52 lamps from the clock tower to Wennington Road every evening, he also ran the bike repair shop during weekends, rowed the ferry across the Thames & carried out car repairs and all in addition to his day job! Ray also told us a really sad story about his grandfather. In addition to all his jobs Alfred was asked if he could become the grave digger for the village which he accepted only to find the first grave he dug was for his wife and child.

On a lighter note Ray and Dot told us about the fire station built on the little factory site in Wennington and the fight for it to be built, about the smog, the new A1306,  Ford's - where Ray applied to work for because the wages were 2s11d an hour, more than he could earn working with his father as a lorry driver.

We learnt about dried fish skins being taken to London by horse and cart to sell, about the allotments, the families with large houses who employed local people to keep the ditches of the Ingrebourne River clean and clear of weeds.

We also found out Ray is 81 years old and Dot is 80 years old and they look amazing! 58 years of marriage too - clearly Rainham is good for you!

Post it!

Productive day at The Ship Centre (nice cup cake too!) read a couple of books on the history of Rainham, made contact with RAVE and booked an appointment to visit Romford Library Local Studies Centre to look at some old maps of Rainham and other sources of information.

Started jotting down the variety of information coming through so far and the water isn't going away! Read about a possible tunnel linking Rainham Hall to the river which would have been created for smuggling. Also found out the May Fayre was offering coach trips down to the river from Rainham to see the wildlife there and then there is the new walkway connecting the village back to the marshes and river. Oh and the new maze at Rainham Hall is created from sailing knots.

A right Royal planting ....

The young people at the Royals really mucked in and got their hands dirty helping us try to brighten up the outside of their youth centre....which was a good job as we were planting up hanging baskets. Some of the them even knew the names of the plants, so the Rainham horticultural society had better watch out as they may have future competition.

Fragments

Found out all about Age Concern's new centre in Rainham from a representative at the library today. We've spent the day discussing what the new trail could be and how it could look (oh and with a spot of lunch at The Brittania - another link to water!) We keep finding bits of other trails and odd signs, here's another discovered on Monday:

The Ship Centre

First day 'in residence' at The Ship Centre in our cosy triangular room upstairs!

'The Ship Centre is part of the ministry of Rainham Parish Church. It is situated in the village near the War memorial opposite the church. It was opened by the then Bishop of Barking, the Rt. Revd. Roger Sainsbury on June 8th 1995 as a teashop with a view to extending the church into the community of Rainham. It was the brainchild of the Revd. Tom Lynds, and a number of others, to purchase the old Goodwin's Hairdressers shop for this purpose. Grants and private donations from church members enables the work to go ahead with most of the work being tackled by men from the church itself.

That was 14 years ago and from small beginning selling cakes and sandwiches the Ship has grown into an established restaurant, serving full home cooked meals' 

Mapping with The Royals

An evening session with youngsters at The Royals resulted in a map of Rainham across the floor created with masking tape, labelled with felt tips (and an exploded fizzy drink in one corner!)

The End of the Road

Took some time to wander down to the site of The Diver and see if we could locate the old beach area where Londoners would come for a summer's day out. Found the Diver but the path was closed due to construction work :-(

A Sunny Walk Around the Village

Good day spent with young people from The Royals Youth Centre locating places around Rainham which mean something to them and documenting with good old fashioned film cameras!

Poster/ Flyer

75th Anniversary Event at Rainham Library

Looking forward to the 75th Anniversary at Rainham Library on Friday 20th October and meeting local people (and the coffee!) We'll be there during the morning to tell people about The Rainham Archive and The Heritage Trail.  Picked up some great books from the library a few weeks ago, one with a great quote from an American visitor back in the early seventies: "One day, after driving past monotonous factories for perhaps half an hour, the bus terminated its journey at a lovely little Norman Church in Rainham village, Essex".

Research Visit

A little time to wander around the village, visit the library and The Ship Cafe. Had an interesting chat with the ladies in The Ship, looks like we can hire a room upstairs to base ourselves for a couple of months, and the library looks like another option. Found out about The Diver, a sculpture placed in the Thames: http://www.thediversculpture.com/. 

The Diver was conceived as part of the London Borough of Havering’s regeneration of the River and formation of a riverside public footpath at Rainham. It took self-taught sculptor John Kaufman (1941-2002) five years to see the project through from its original inception to its installation 26 feet deep into the Thames mud at 3.30 am on 23rd August 2000.

John’s idea for The Diver was inspired by the stories told by his grandfather Johann Friederich Andreas Kaufmann who worked as a diver in the London Docks at the turn of the 19th /20th century. It commemorates the men who worked in difficult and often dangerous conditions in what has always been a working river. The fingers on The Diver’s left hand are bent in memory of John’s grandfather, whose arthritis was caused by the cold conditions he endured.