Ken Porter's New Book

Sylvia Kent has written an article about a gentleman who has been very helpful to me when I was researching both of my books, Ken Porter. In particular Basildon Through Time. I virtually became researcher in residence on a Monday and Wednesday at the Green Centre at Wat Tyler Country Park in 2014. He is by far the leading expert on Laindon and Langdon Hills history at present. You can see Sylvia's article here. You could also visit Basildon Heritage's website, Ken is the chairman and treasurer of the group.

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Metal Culture's Zoom Event - Quite a Few Faces from the Past!

I have known about Metal Culture, the one that is based in Southend, and their events for some time. I have often thought of joining one of their events but didn't get around to it. Last night I plucked up the courage to join their Zoom meeting called 'BASILDON, what next for the Creative Industries in South Essex?' It was really good actually, I imagined that I would sit observing, feeling too awkward to join in, but in fact I did get involved and added something to the various debates that were going on. To start with we watched six speakers; Aden Hynes from Sculpture Studios who showed a film. Moira Brock from La Danse Fantastique who showed a film. Joseph Brennan, an architect. Clare Mortimer from The Craft Shed. TIME - Therapy in Musical Expression, who showed a film and then Laura Mauro a writer. It was really interesting, although I already knew about Sculpture Studios and TIME. There were about forty participants and what struck...

Noting the changes to East Walk and East Square.

I thought I would share a few photos of Basildon town from the past particularly around the East Walk and East Square region where a lot of changes are happening right now. The last photographs are my own shots of the demolition of the old post office in East Square. These can be clicked on to be enlarged. The Mother and Child Statue with East Square seen behind. Date unspecified. From Basildon Through Time. Basildon Town Square 1960s. Keay House can be seen on the right and the part of it that overhung the square was demolished in 1996. From Basildon Through Time . East Square before the head post office was built and opened in 1963. From Lost Basildon. A photograph that seemingly didn't appear in either book. East Square. You can see Stylo (Barratt) and Austin the Tailor in East Walk, Basildon, in the 1970s. From Lost Basildon. New...

Yardley London Celebrates its 250th Anniversary as we Remember Yardley's in Basildon

YARDLEY London, that legendary purveyor of perfumes, soaps and toiletries will celebrate its 250 th anniversary this year. The company which was once called Yardley of London is one of the oldest brands in the history of perfume, toiletries and cosmetics. It has been awarded ‘Royal Warrant of Appointment’ six times, starting with Edward, Prince of Wales in 1921 then including the Queen and the late Queen Mother and most recently, in 1995, Charles, Prince of Wales. At the end of January 2020 it will be 21 years since Yardley of London closed its doors at its site in Basildon. The last man to leave was security guard Roy Davis. He locked everything up and put the key through the door in January 1999. Unfortunately the company had got into financial problems in the mid-1990s and it went into receivership in 1998 after a year of marketing attempts to try and turn around its then old-fashioned image even though it had swapped Hele...

Lisa Horner Writer & Artist

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