Did you know that there was a W. H. Smith at Langdon Hills in the 1920's? Well it's not what you think, there was a William Hutton Smith who had a small shop on the High Road and it was unrelated to the high street retail giant. There was even a dolls hospital in the same area around the same time.
Find out a bit more about the family who ran a historic public house in Vange for seventy years and what happened to several other public houses. Follow the dairy business that got passed down three generations.
Basildon had a large impact on the music business in the eighties but in the swinging sixties things were really lively. Mecca Dancing entertained the young of the era and bands would do the Mecca circuit travelling all over as Mecca Leisure Group ran numerous nightclubs in major towns and cities throughout the UK. The bands would sometimes become a resident band at one of the Mecca venues, one band was Sadie's Expression and another was the Dave Clark Five who both were resident bands at the Locarno Ballroom that later incarnated to Raquels.
This book is crammed full of pictures and information which is put into bite-size chunks, making it a very easy read. The sections are: - Shopping, The Working Day, Transport, Leisure and Activities and Entertainment.
"Lost Basildon presents a portrait of this town in Essex, showing not just the buildings, streets and industries that have gone or changed, but also a way of life that is no longer. This fascinating photographic history of lost Basildon will appeal to all those who live in the town or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades." (Described by Amberley Publishing).
The book is available at amazon.co.uk and Amberley Publishing's own site as well as a host of other book selling sites and you can buy it at the WHSmith store in Basildon.
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