MEMORIES OF MALDON
Glimpses into the lives of Maldon residents over the last 70+ years
To capture the memories of Maldon residents for the benefit of future generations, the Society has established an oral history archive,
‘Memories of Maldon’, under Wendy Howell's leadership. Copies of our recordings have been deposited with the Essex Record Office to provide material to assist those researching Maldon's history.
You can listen to some of our recordings on the Listening Station at the Maeldune Heritage Centre.
Visit our new oral history website
Listen to more than 65 interviews with local people
telling stories of their lives in Maldon
https://www.maldonoralhistory.org/
Share your memories
If you or someone you know would care to donate their memories of Maldon
please contact us maldonsociety@aol.com
These nine extracts from our Oral History archive demonstrate the wide variety
of remarkable people in Maldon who we have had the privilege of recording.
Their stories are quite varied but are all based on their early lives in this superb town.
These clips last between 2 and 4 minutes. Please click on the cursor to listen.
DAVID WILLIAMS - David’s career was in water! He worked in the Langford waterworks and later became Chairman of Maldon District Council. Here he recalls his early visits to Maldon on the bus with his family where they bought fresh fish and winkles.
TED CLAYDON - Ted, age 84, has lived in Maldon all his life. His father was a fisherman and Ted has many stories of fishing exploits. He clearly remembers selling the catch that his father brought in – perhaps he even sold some to David’s family? (see above).
PAT CUNDY - North Street was home for Pat and her family. She has good memories of the shops in North Street in the 1940s and 50s; also of collecting rents, buying huge quantities of aspirins and collecting jugs of beer – all as a young child.
MERLE PIPE - Merle remembers her father in law, Harry Pipe, who lived above his butcher’s shop in the High Street. During the war he was very popular as he often slipped extra rations into customers’ shopping. There were always long queues outside his shop.
MARGARETT MIRZA - Margarett was born on Market Hill in 1937. She has a truly amazing memory from when she was a very young girl. Here she speaks about Market Hill being Maldon’s ‘second high street’ with a variety of shops and businesses; also the unusual milk delivery.
JOHN DOUBLEDAY - John is the famous sculptor who created the Byrhtnoth statue in the Prom Park and the new sundial in St Mary’s Churchyard. A meeting with a well known potter when John was young, and the resulting introduction to clay, strongly influenced his choice of career.
CAROL NOAKES - Carol lived in Queen Street, Maldon, with her grandmother. They enjoyed lovely times together and had one of the early televisions in the town. The neighbour opposite ran a shop from a shed in her back garden which Carol and her Nan visited regularly.
DAVID PATIENT - David is a well known Maldon shipwright. During his many years of restoring boats and barges, he also worked for the Cirdan Trust which owns a fleet of vessels to take under-privileged children for holidays at sea. Here he talks about the Trust and the boats he refurbished.
COLIN SWINDALE - Another boat builder and shipwright, Colin has worked in the Maldon area for most of his life on a huge number of boats. He remembers his sailing boat ‘Sealion’ and the hazardous journey back from Twickenham, down the Thames and eventually back to Fullbridge.
