Almada Avenue, Lee Chapel

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Does anyone have any memories of Almada Avenue, Lee Chapel?

Editor:  I have added a map showing the location of Almada Avenue’ which runs left to right just above the words ‘LEE CHAPEL’

Does anyone know why this Avenue was named after a city near Lisbon in Portugal?

Editor:  The name of the Avenue as ‘Armada’, but unfortunately, the sign writer misspelt it as ‘Almada’. 

1938 O.S. map (Click to enlarge)

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  • The editor has noted that the bungalow in Little Lullaway was “‘St Elmo’, in Rayleigh Drive”.
    This bungalow is too far north to be St Elmo which was a substantial brick building that stood on the plot to the north side my mother’s property, Villa. Also note that it is Raleigh Drive, named after Sir Walter Raleigh.

    Editor: Hi John, thank you for pointing out the error. I have checked this using the 1949 BDC property survey map of the area superimposed on Google Earth and have found that the bungalow now used by Basildon Samaritans was previously named ‘Oak Hall’.

    By John Moore (03/03/2022)
  • I’m just curious how many properties survived been built on for the new town. I’ve heard recently that a few bungalows in Great Knighleys have, but does anyone know of others. Thank you.

    Editor: Apart from a few bungalows/houses in Markham’s Chase, we know of two surviving bungalows in that area. One in Little Lullaway, now used by The Samaritons – previous address, ‘St Elmo’, in Rayleigh Drive and one in Falstones on the corner of Amberden – previous address ‘Hawthorns’, Green Lane. We are unaware of any surviving bungalows in Great Knightleys.

    By Lynne Poultney (24/01/2019)
  • I am afraid I am joining this discussion very late in the day and I do not really know so much about the history of the area, only that I visited there during the war for holidays and moved there in 1951 at the age of 9. Before this my Mother’s Sister had married and moved to “Windsor” Tyler Avenue during the war. Her house is the square on the map on the north side of Tyler Avenue. Theirs was the last bungalow in the avenue then, just before the stile into Bluehouse Farm. I can remember going with my Mum when we stayed with my Auntie, to get fresh milk in a jug from the farm from a cowman named Oz and also collecting mushrooms there early in the mornings. I loved to watch him hand milking the cows.

    The small circle on the map just south the farm buildings was a bomb crater that became a pond where I spent many happy hours with my cousin. I remember a cow getting stuck in the mud and had a rope tied to her horns to be pulled out by a tractor. There was a well stocked fishing lake behind the farm where my Uncle paid to fish.

    When I finally moved with my family from East Ham we lived in “Alpha” Buckingham Road. It was the first house at the west end of the road and as I went to Markham’s Chase School, I would walk down Buckingham Road along a very uneven path and then down Almada Avenue (everyone called it Armada Avenue) and along Markham’s Chase to the school. In the summer when it was not muddy I walked across Bluehouse Farm instead. At the end where Almada Ave met Green Lanes I am sure there was a shop called Armada Stores. On Green Lanes was a small church hall where all the locals would go for “social” gatherings. Everyone brought food to share and we danced to the Valetta and the Gay Gordons etc. with music provided by someone’s wind up record player. Someone else on this forum mentioned the table tennis club that used this hall and Billy Bedwell and Pat Hope. Pat Hope was my Auntie’s niece and she did marry Billy Bedwell and they built a bungalow next to my Auntie’s house in Tyler Avenue. Billie had a twin who I believe was called Violet and lived opposite him. When Pat was a teenager she delivered milk for Whife’s Dairies.

    I only remember two families who lived in Almada Avenue. The Dutnalls and the Marshalls but I do not remember the names of their properties.

    I can remember when they started to build the Link Road. It ran directly behind my Auntie’s back garden in Tyler Avenue in the field we had always played on. We had to move from Alpha in Buckingham Road in about 1958 when I was 16 as it was compulsory purchased to make way for the Alcatraz estate. I moved with my Mum and Dad and baby brother to Omega, Buller Road. My Nan moved to Treetops in Tylers Avenue. I think Tyler Avenue is the only original road left on the south side of Laindon Link.

    I hope someone may find this interesting and jogged the memories of some other people of that time.

    By June Higgs (nee Ferguson) (29/01/2017)
  • Family – A Worsley, Alfred and Edith.   Their sons are named John Edward and Robert James Worsley.   House name is “Hawthorns”, street name is “Falstones”  in Laindon.

    By Rienske Ebing (21/06/2015)
  • I have found a ‘Wales’ family on the 1949 Electoral Register living in ‘Dawn’, Spinney Road, Lee Chapel.  Leonard G, Nellie M and Elizabeth J.

    The BMD records show that Leonard and Nellie had married in 1943.  Their children were Valerie A, born 1943 and Christopher L, born 1947.

    Leonard G Wales died in 1950 aged 46.  Nellie and Elizabeth were living at the same address in 1956.  Elizabeth J Wales died in 1958 aged 85. 

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (01/08/2014)
  • Thanks very much Brian.   Lennie Wales was my dad’s cousin.   This info is very useful.  How did you come by it?

    Chris.

    By Chris Savory (01/08/2014)
  • Chris, The Wales family definitely lived in Almada Ave but cannot say it was that particular house. This would have been at least up to 1959 as Christopher Wales was a friend of mine at Markhams Chase Primary (now Janet Duke) and I often went to his house.

    By Eric Pasco (10/01/2014)
  • Chris.  No problem.  I had several things I wanted to research at the Records Office.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find exactly what you wanted.  I searched the Electoral Registers from 1935 to 1939 but couldn’t find any mention of a place called ‘Sylvesa’ in Almada Avenue.  However on the 1937 Electoral Register I found Caroline and Richard Rutter living in a place called ‘Sylvern’,  Almada Avenue.   There’s no one with the name Wales or Rowe listed at that time.  However, Florence and John Wales are shown living in ‘Hill View’, Almada Avenue on the 1949 Electoral Register.  I hope this is of some help to you.  I should have asked for your dad’s name as that might be useful.        

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (10/01/2014)
  • Hi, I remember that the Wales family they lived in Woodland Road, Val and brother Chris and charming mum. By Brian Cordell. 10.1.2014

    By Brian Cordell (10/01/2014)
  • I’ve just looked for Woodlands Road on the Electoral Register in the fifties but couldn’t find anybody called Wales.  However, I did find some people called Rowe.  Grace and George Rowe Snr plus George Rowe Jnr lived in “Iona” and Alice and Charles Rowe lived in “Aleyone”.  Perhaps the Wales family lived there in the sixties. This gets more intriguing doesn’t it! 

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (10/01/2014)
  • Hi Nina

    Firstly, thanks for your help, much appreciated. I think I’m getting somewhere now.

    Does anyone else re-call either Wales or Rowe families in Almada Avenue or elsewhere, names and dates would be very helpful.

    Eric and Brian can you re-call anything else about the Wales family?

    Regards and thanks.

    By Chris Savory (10/01/2014)
  • Hi. Ref the Wales family, it would have been in the 60s. I remember them, their bungalow was on the corner of Woodland and Green Lane.  I seem to remember that their dad had a serious cycle accident coming down from Church Hill, I hope I’m wrong? Again, their home would have been under the Laindon link.

    By Brian Cordell (10/01/2014)
  • Hi to all,

    Once again, many thanks for all the very informative and interesting information on the Lee Chapel area, so useful in my research.

    However, may I draw your attention to my original request for help and that is does anyone have any information regarding the ownership of ‘Sylvesa’, Almada Avenue, Lee Chapel, Laindon in the 1930’s? It wasn’t me who added the additional question concerning why/how the avenue was named.

    Many thanks.

    By Chris Savory (08/01/2014)
  • Hi Chris.  I hadn’t forgotten your request.  I will be making a visit to the Essex Records Office in Chelmsford tomorrow and will endeavour to find the answer to your question.  I will report back with my findings.  Best wishes. 

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (08/01/2014)
  • Hi Nina, thanks for your reply.

    I hope the request didn’t sound like me giving out a task.

    As I live in Eastbourne your kind offer to do a bit of researching will really help. I suspect the owners may have the surname Wales or Rowe, I don’t know when they bought or sold the plot.

    Kind regards and thanks again. 

    By Chris Savory (08/01/2014)
  • Good to see Douglas Road get a mention. This was one of the first roads I explored after moving to Laindon in 1957. With other youngsters we would freely roam the empty houses, scrumping in the garden trees during that Autumn and catching lizards and butterflies and finding birds nests in the Spring and Summer 1958. There was also a pond somewhere at the junction of Ulster Road opposite the Co-op shop where we would find newts, either swimming in the water or buried for hibernation in the mud. As Alan says, Douglas Road was mainly a mud track, with just enough width for cars although I never saw one there. There were too many impassable sections for easy passage, unless you were on a bicycle. What a shame that network of roads was not developed as is Claremont Road and Tavistock Road, both improved on their original alignments.

    By Richard Haines (03/01/2014)
  • I remember that little church and was recently trying to remember where it stood. Thank you for enlightening me.

    In this same article, the name Billy Bedwell was mentioned, and I knew him well, as his Lovely wife helped to deliver me, living next door.

    By Brian Baylis (31/12/2013)
  • If one walked west on Almada Avenue it became Buckingham Avenue. A right then took one on to Sandringham Road which in turn became Douglas Road. On Douglas Road between Gloucester Road. and Berwick Road. lived the Cole family. Theirs was a large well built two story house with ample grounds and, on the south side a fenced field which was part of the property.

    Mr. Cole worked on the London Stock Exchange and each morning would travel up to Fenchurch Street dressed in such sartorial splendour as to put other businessmen bound for the city to shame. Quite why the family had elected to inhabit such a grand house obviously out of place with its extremely modest neighbours was a mystery. My good friend Jim Grindle lived opposite in Hillside and I came to know Renee Cole, the daughter. Renee was an extremely attractive young woman with the peculiar attribute of one distinctly green eye and one distinctly brown. Neither of which detracted from her attractiveness!

    On occasion, in the spring and summer, business friends of Mr Cole would stay the week end. On these occasions the Cole’s and their guests would ride horses around their adjoining field jumping temporary fences laid out for the occasion. The party would all be togged out in riding habit, jodhpurs, riding crops, the lot. All very incongruous for the mud track called Douglas Road and the surrounding neighbourhood. One of Laindon’s little mysteries.

    By Alan Davies (30/12/2013)
  • Thats an interesting story about the table tennis club Alan, was it on the south side of the rail way line?

    I walk my dogs daily around the woods at LCS and grew up playing around their also.

    It is still possible to walk the original (I think) route of green lanes from where it crosses the railway to where it meets Lee Chapel Lane. Its very over grown in parts and has been bypassed by the modern bridal ways and of course it has been crossed by Mandeville way and Stanway.

    If you look carefully on google maps/satellite view I think its still possible to see the route where it met the railway up till Mandeville Way. After that it blurs into woods

    By David Lammin (27/12/2013)
  • The wooden church in Green Lane was St Michael’s.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (27/12/2013)
  • and roughly where would that be Nina?

    By David Lammin (27/12/2013)
  • I’ve just remembered there’s a picture of St Michael’s Church and a bit more information on the article “History of Northumberland Avenue”.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (27/12/2013)
  • Continuing south on Markhams Chase (which is not named on this map) the road becomes Green Lanes. It is not marked but continues south beyond the confines of this map. Somewhere down Green Lanes was a small wooden church hall. Very modest. As they all were. I have no recollection which church it might be. Walking down there, after dark, it was as black as a coal cellar. No street lights just light from the moon— if it was not overcast. Remember to take a torch.

    In this little church hall existed Green Lanes table tennis club. I was a friend of Peter Lowe, one of the members, and went with him several times simply to watch. The calibre of play was something I had never seen before, playing for the various Youth Centre teams. I can only assume that the best players in the area had banded together and formed Green Lanes in order to play in higher leagues and against stronger opposition than was otherwise available.

    I cannot remember all of the player/members other than Peter Lowe, Peter Lucas, Morris Balchin, and the best player that I ever saw— Billy Bedwell. Other players might laugh or crack a smile or utter a “good shot” to an opponent. Not Billy. Never! He was deadly serious, showing no emotion other than total concentration, and merciless to his opponent. To watch him play was an education.

    The club also contained two girls. Pat Hope, who was the best female player I ever saw, and Margie Norris. I used to think I was a fairly good player but Pat Hope could have given me five points start and beaten me to twenty one. How embarrassing would that have been?

    Billy Bedwell was involved in the Dagenham train crash but, to my knowledge, was not injured. Somewhere or other I heard that Billy and Pat Hope had married but I am not sure about that. In retrospect, after all these years, it is amazing to think back on watching such a very high standard of table tennis taking place in a single room, wooden building down a pitch black lane where one hopped from one stepping stone to the next not daring to miss one’s footing. All with the aid of a torch!

    By Alan Davies (25/12/2013)
  • Hi everyone, this has been a fantastic response to my original mail. May I please ask anyone if they recall who lived at ‘Sylvesa’, Almada avenue? My father was there in april 1937.

    Many thanks.

    By Chris Savory (21/12/2013)
  • The heading of this page asks why this road was named after a town in Portugal. Possibly it was mistake by the person who recorded the minutes of the meeting.     

    John Bathurst has already propounded that it should have been Armada Avenue and appears to be the correct version. 

    A letter from the Billericay Rural District Council to the Laindon Parish Council in April 1936 regarding the flooding of a watercourse in adjoining Green Lane states that it was not the responsibility of the Billericay RDC as ARMADA Avenue was an estate Rd. and the complaint was forwarded to the Lee Chapel Parish Council.

    By W.H.Diment (21/12/2013)
  • David.  We’re not related to your neighbour.  None of the Humphrey side of our family have ever lived in Falstones.   

    I have several sources of research, the main ones being: The Electoral Register, the Census, newspaper archives, old maps and  I make occasional visits to the Essex Records Centre at Chelmsford.  The  memories of my family, friends, neighbours and other contributors to this site are also very helpful and some of my own of course, having been Laindon born and bred with a family history in Laindon that goes back to 1915.  Best wishes.                        

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (15/12/2013)
  • In the top left hand corner of the map there is shown a public footpath running from, I think (I cannot quite read it) Leinster Roard diagonally across St Nicholas Lane.

    This prompts a thought. Public footpaths are centuries old rights of way. They provide legal right of way through woods, across farmer’s fields, through streams etc. The rights of way existed wherever people, going back a thousand years or more, made their way to the market, the church, the town centre or wherever. They survived the coming of the railway, imposing upon railways the mandate to provide crossings such that the public right of way was not infringed upon. Hikers today value them highly although there is often some dispute between hikers and farmers who tend to resent hikers trampling down their peas! 

    Are all of the public footpaths that threaded their way through Laindon still in existence? They have survived for over a thousand years. Have they finally succumbed to redevelopment mandated from Basildon?

    By Alan Davies (15/12/2013)
  • firstly thanks to Nina for your insight in to research methods.

    Secondly looking at the map I would judge that that foot path is where James Hornsby School (Nicholas school to me) stands, but where it crosses the very top of the picture looks like it could be at pound lane/nicholas lane junction.  If you stand at that junction today there is a clearing in the trees (albeit rather broad) that runs up the grass hill to St Nicholas Church. I am not sure it’s designated as a foot path still though.

    How many BOAT’s (by-ways open to all traffic) must there have been in the area until the new town came along and all these were either closed or turned into full A or B roads.

    There is still a few left but to my knowledge none in Laindon.

    By David Lammin (15/12/2013)
  • That’s really interesting thanks. I would loved to have seen the area before the new town, I am of an age (born in falstones in 67) where I can only remember the new town and find it sad when I see my patch changing. Exactly how old Laindoners must have felt when their patch was changing back when it was all distorted by my new town.

    How do you do your research?

    Editor: A lot of the articles are contributors memories, which are where possible backup from public and private records.

    By David Lammin (14/12/2013)
  • My Father has just come round and I am showing him this fascinating article.

    He has noticed and reminded me that we had a family named Humphrey who lived next door but one to us in the late 60s (294 we believe Falstones, we were 298) who he thinks worked at Tate & Lyle Canning town, He also believes that they may have lived in Samarkand! Are you related at all?

    By David Lammin (14/12/2013)
  • Ah yes, the bungalow ‘Samarkand’ I often wondered which road it stood in before the Laindon Link was constructed. For us it used to mark the nearness of the New Town when walking down Laindon Link. We also used to wonder if the word stood for the names of the occupants, in other words, Sam Mark and who? It always caused amusement.

    As for Nichol Road, another mystery. On all the prewar OS maps it’s down as Nicholl Road which is what it is now on the blue road sign. All the time we lived there the road sign said Nichol Road, which I believe was on the title deeds of No 1, our house. Clearly all connected with St Nicholas Lane, a really ancient road in the vicinity. What a fascinating place Laindon was.

    By Richard Haines (10/12/2013)
  • David.  I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can.  Firstly, I am not sure about the bank.  I seem to remember the Link always seemed quite high even before they altered the road to slow down the traffic which had been able to reach high speeds when travelling from Basildon to Laindon (there had been several nasty accidents).

    Secondly, the area of ground where Samarkand stood and later was used as a small football pitch, is still there but fenced off.  (We drove past it this morning).  On arriving home we went onto the planning department of the Council’s website and discovered that five houses are planned to be built there.  Two, three bedroomed semis and one four bedroomed house.  (All on what had been Samarkand’s garden).

    Thirdly, we then drove to Falstones and located the bungalow that you mentioned.  It is called “Hawthorns”.  Back home, with the aid of an ‘overlay map’ using Google Earth, we now know this had been Green Lane (South of Markhams Chase).  The residents of “Hawthorns” in 1968 were Edith and Alfred Worsley plus Frederick Hills.

    Lastly, Minchins which runs north to south would have been between the middle of Fleet Avenue (which became Gt Knightleys) and Almada Avenue.

    I hope this helps.  It has certainly been fascinating to research. Best wishes.        

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (10/12/2013)
  • I believe the house to which you refer was called “Samarkand”.  I can remember seeing its large sign board well into the late sixties, on the right when travelling along The Link from Basildon to Laindon.  It had stood with at least 53 other properties along Elizabeth Drive and was apparently the last dwelling left standing when Falstones was built.  The residents of ‘Samarkand’ were Isabel and Frederick Wright.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (09/12/2013)
  • I can also recall seeing this property when I used to travel to and from work by bus in the early 60’s. It had a really beautifully kept garden with an arbour which I’m sure was in the shape of an upturned rowing boat.

    By Colin Humphrey (09/12/2013)
  • Thanks for that, I was asking for my dad who recalls it when he first moved to the area in the early 60s. I used to play football on the piece of ground the house stood on in the 70s and early 80s. It’s hard to see the natural height/level of the land, was the building always by the Link’s bank? or has the Link been banked up for Stainway bridge?

    Anyone got any photos of the area? There is still an old bungalow in Falstones, what road would have this stood in? Also up until very recently there were two or three bungalows in Mynchins, what road would have these been in and how did they survive when all around was removed for the new town. thanks for the reply, most interesting

    By David Lammin (09/12/2013)
  • Can anyone name the old house that stood at the top of Falstones that was demolished sometime in the 1960s? I would imagine looking at the old maps that it stood originally in Elizabeth Drive?

    By David Lammin (08/12/2013)
  • The practice of giving the ancient “high waye leading from Langdon Church towards Willow Parke” the name “Green Lane” was pretty standard. There are some two hundred such Green Lanes to be found in London and the South East of England alone, often in densely urbanised districts, where they serve as a gentle reminder of the area’s rural past. No such luck in Basildon. 

    The New Town re-developers decided that even this tiny piece of Laindon’s past was not worth preserving and they continued the destructive work started by the old Billericay District Council and obliterated the road completely. The previous administration who, as explained, changed a part of the ancient “waye” to Markham’s Chase (and the short northern length to “Church Hill”) never fully “adopted” the remainder in such a manner as being worthy of the thoroughfare being called, henceforth, a “road”. Fearful of providing road surfaces that would encourage new ways being found for heavy, motorised vehicles into the district, the council only ever provided an asphalted pathway along its length from the end of Markham’s Chase to its junction with the concrete strip that was Northumberland Avenue. If my memory serves me correctly, even cycling was prohibited along this path, although the prohibition was largely ignored. 

    Once Green Lane had bisected Northumberland Avenue, it crossed the railway by a vehicle width, unmanned, level crossing, the gates to which were kept locked. An adjacent foot railway crossing for pedestrians was protected by wicket gates which closed automatically under the control of heavy wooden beams attached by chains. This railway crossing was always referred to as “Barker’s Crossing” taking its name from the adjacent shop by that name in Northumberland Avenue. All this was swept away when the New Town Development Corporation constructed the new Staneway bridge across the railway a short way to the east. 

    Once south of the railway on its way to “Willow Parke“, Green Lane climbed the hill past what was known as the “Primrose Hill Estate” which occupied farm land once farmed by Lee Chapel Farm. The lane retained the name “Green” as far as its link with the east end of Lee Chapel Lane (a road that also had a dual personality, being known as “Oxford Street” at its west end!). 

    From its Lee Chapel Lane junction onwards in a southerly direction, Green Lane became known as “The Bridleway”, which was virtually the same thing in a different form. The Bridleway eventually became known as One Tree Hill after crossing Dry Street on its way to Corringham Church.

    By John Bathurst (18/07/2013)
  • To answer the Editor’s query first regarding “Almada Avenue”. To my mind, this was due to a misunderstanding. A study of the street map of Laindon that was published as an accompaniment to the Ordnance Survey map published on the web site shows that a number of the roads in this part of Lee Chapel which was north of the railway bore a common theme, taking their names from the History of England in the period of Elizabeth I. This was in keeping with the name “Elizabeth Drive” which was the continuation of Northumberland Ave, a truncated stub of which still exists. For this reason and because other names like “Drake”,“Earle D’Essex”, “Raleigh”, “Spencer” “Darnley” and “Phillipe” were all, also, involved, I remain certain that “Almada” was, in fact, a misspelling of “Armada” and would thus account for the use of the name “Fleet Avenue”. It was certainly the case that the name of the road was always pronounced as Armada and *Almada” appears to be a case of somebody getting their English history mixed up! Alvoro Vaz de Almada, first Count of Avanches was granted Knight of the Garter by Henry VI. In her account of the routing of Almada Avenue, Mrs Humphrey omits to mention that the avenue bisected Green Lane before cutting across Lord Burleigh Drive. This cross road is indicated on the OS map that accompanies the article. Green Lane (so named because it was an ancient bridleway) ran due south from Laindon Church. On the 1705 map of Laindon Hall that is available at the Essex Records Office ( Reference D/DU 64/1) which is believed to be a copy of a map of a century earlier, this thoroughfare is marked as “tne high waye from Langdon Church towards Willow Parke” although the track actually went on all the way to Corringham church. A framed and coloured copy of the map that ls in the CRO is available in Laindon Branch Library.

    In the 1920s and 30s, when a Charles Markham was farming at Blue House Farm he donated a field to Essex County Council in order for a new school to be built. In deference, a part of the Green Lane, starting at its junction with St Nicholas Lane, was metalled as far as the school site. This was renamed as “Markham’s Chase” and the new infant and junior school was named accordingly, remaining so until its first head teacher retired when it was renamed “Janet Dukes’s”. This school is clearly indicted on the accompanying Ordnance Survey which has been dated to 1938. The school was opened in 1933. It will be noted that on the map the road running north/south to the west of the school is the aforesaid Markham’s Chase/Green Lane. The series of dots in this road are the result of a mistake made by the Ordnance Surveyor’s cartographer. They should have been erased. What they originally indicated was the boundary between the parish of Laindon and that of Lee Chapel but, because the Billericay area had recently been elevated from a Rural District to an Urban District, the parishes of the district had been abolished, a process known as “unparishing”. This resulted in the need for the OS to alter all of its maps accordingly and obviously, in the case of the 1938 map of Laindon, this was done imperfectly.

    Editor: Many thanks John, that certainly makes sense . Incidentally, I have two Bebington street maps one of which I’m sure considerably predates the 1938 OS map, both show the name as Almada Avenue.

    By John Bathurst (12/07/2013)
  • John Thank you very much for the additional details. So it should have been ‘Armada’ in line with the theme of the area but had been misspelled as ‘Almada’. Such mistakes are sometimes unfortunately made by sign writers, a good example being Nicol Road, Laindon: the road sign now reads Nicoll Road. Apparently for about 30 years the signs on Broadmayne in Basildon, showed ‘Chalvedon’ as ‘Chelvedon’ and ‘Barstaple’ as ‘Barnstable’. I also noticed when travelling along Nethermayne, the sign at one end of the road said Nethermayne yet the sign at the other end showed it as two words: Nether Mayne. Incidentally, these days there’s an ‘Armada’ Close off The Link, not far from where the original Almada (Armada) Avenue had once been. Thank you also for confirming ‘Green Lane’. I thought it was that, but couldn’t quite make out the name on the map even with the aid of a magnifying glass. So I took the often good advice of: ‘If in doubt, leave it out’. Best wishes.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (12/07/2013)
  • Hi Chris, How sure are you on the name of the avenue? and do you think it was off of Lee Chapel Lane? When entering Lee Chapel Lane from the High Road at the foot of Crown hill on the left the first ave was Nightingale,the next one on the left was Victoria, the next on the left was Woodgrange, on the right side the first turning was Stacey Drive the next was Heathleigh Drive and way down on the bottom of the lane on the right was The Chase which led to Southway off of Dry Street. On the 1929 Electoral Roll there was a property named Alma which was at Kingston Hill.To get to Kingston Hill you had to go up Heathleigh Drive, I don’t know if this is useful for you. Ellen

    By Ellen English nee Burr (10/07/2013)
  • Almada Avenue ran eastward from the junction of Buckenham Road and Norfolk Road cutting across Lord Burleigh Drive, Spencer Drive, Rayleigh Drive until it reached Borthwick Drive. This area is now called Lee Chapel North. Properties in Almada Avenue, according to the 1949 Electoral Register were: Gordon House, Audeen, Pinjarra, Avon, Floreat, Little Wonder, Dorreg, Kalee, Duval, Westville, Hareth, Wilmar, The Caravan, Heathlands, Maison Bourlet, Melville, Chalet, Meadowside, Southview, Floretta, Mill Haven, Meadowview, Devonia, Edna, Sunset, North View, Oaklands, Rock Vale, The Brambles, Nutley Dene, Hopedene, Mayville, Lilac Villa, Peacehaven, Hill View, Marian and Gilmore.

    By Nina Humphrey(née Burton) (10/07/2013)

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