The Archive’s second event of the year was a great success. At 10 am on Saturday 22nd March, the doors of the Manor Mission opened promptly and all hands were on deck to arrange the tables, photograph displays and to set up the “tea and cake shop”.
Over the previous day or two, several ladies had been baking a selection of old fashion cakes to give a nostalgic feel to the refreshments. Caraway seed cake, bread pudding, fat-less fruit cake made with a tea bag, rock cakes, sausage rolls, rhubarb cake and blackberry muffins.
Guests began arriving and were soon browsing the display boards and maps, looking through the albums, recognising and chatting to previous neighbours and old school friends. As usual the enlarged copies of the 1956 and 1958 Laindon High Road School long photographs drew lots of attention as people searched among all the faces to spot either themselves, some of their school friends or teachers.
A queue started to form at the “tea shop” and soon the home made fare was ‘selling like hot cakes’ (at a very reasonable price of course). The first to run out was the bread pudding and muffins. I was even asked “Is there any more bread pudding”. The fruit loaf was also very popular and soon people were sitting happily chatting and munching. The queue continued all afternoon with some going back for second and even third helpings.
It was good to see some new faces among the many regulars visitors. All were very welcome and some had travelled great distances from various parts of the country. Some had questions to ask, stories to tell and a few brought various items to be scanned.
The merchandise stand did very well indeed with the sale of several maps, postcards, key rings and various leaflets. Together with the sales from the tea/cake stand, the Archive’s funds were given a nice little boost which will help towards future events. Many thanks to all those involved in making the day so enjoyable, the team, their helpers and all the visitors who came along.
Most of all a very big thank you to David Marshall for his help in setting up the display and the two ladies from the Manor Mission who helped in the kitchen. Your time and hard work was very much appreciated.
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Thank you to everybody for such a wonderful event. I met a few people I grew up with and it was nice to see them again. I am already looking forward to the next one.
Re the refreshments, the bread pudding was ace.
What a lovely day today at the Manor Mission! A great success – thanks to Ken, Ann and John, Nina and Colin and everyone else who arranged this event. Your hard work certainly paid off! It was a lovely day and so surprising to see so many old faces there – a grand turnout indeed – Laindon lives on! Ann and Nina – your home-baked cakes were very tasty – so many to choose from – well done.
Once again a heartwarming event greatly enjoyed by myself and Tony my husband. The scrumptious cakes and pudding baked to original heritage recipes by Ann and Nina were a welcome addition. I really valued chatting to many people – all of whom seemed to have had an anecdote to tell about my father!! It is so important for our wellbeing to keep and share our cherished memories of our past in Laindon alive and what better way to do this than at this event at the Manor Mission (where I made my first appearance on stage in 1943!). A big thank you to everyone who made this such a successful day for all of us. (Missed you Ian and Patsy but hope to catch up with you another time).
I’d like to say a big thank you for making me feel so welcome on the memory day. I met up with old school friends again, and met new people in the hall, such a lovely atmosphere and a great display of photo’s. It was well worth the journey. Hope to come again but will wear a name badge, as I kept asking people who they were, and I was getting asked. Mind you I’ll probably need a name badge soon, it’s an age thing !!!!! Love and thanks to you all. Joan Baterip (nee Sarfas)
Thank you for the very nice comments, especially about the home-made cakes and buns. There were a few left over, so we took them home with us. They certainly didn’t go to waste as Colin took them along to the Sunday morning work party in Mark’s Hill Nature Reserve where about seven hard working volunteers were busy cutting up logs. The cakes and buns were much appreciated at tea break time and the cake tin arrived home later – completely empty!
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