Billericay Community Archive

A local group collecting our history

The Billericay Community Archive (BCA)

The Billericay Community Archive group was formed in 2010 in partnership with Essex County Council Libraries & the Essex Record Office, and funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is run by the people of Billericay.

The Billericay Community Archive takes the form of an internet site, so that its content can be accessed from home computers, the People’s Network in Libraries around the county, and from a computer anywhere in the world.

The Community Archive gathers memories as well as copying photographs and other documents that relate to the history of the area. Billericay residents are being asked to share their memories and photographs of life in the town and the surrounding areas.

The library is a drop off point for your memories & contact details.

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  • Only just seen the remarks about the fire, it was rubber tyres and the smell lasted forever, 1948 I remember it very well. I was telling a friend about it the other day when we visited Billericay to give a talk.

    By Lady Marjorie Radcliffe (12/03/2022)
  • I attended the auction of the Stella Crofts sisters’ effects at Deerbank but was too poor in those days to purchase any of the good stuff. I did come away with a few bits though. The terracotta flowerpots and pieces of Stella’s pottery which were not catalogued as they were found in the garden on the morning of sale. One piece a mare and foal was damaged but signed. Probably thrown out by Stella. I have since had it partially restored.The other piece is a real fine gem. A superb sculpture of a Borzoi head . Stella bred Borzois and this piece served as headstone to the grave of a favourite.

    By Dave Twitchett (15/04/2018)
  • I don’t recall the fire but I certainly remember the huge scrapyard on both sides of the road. As a schoolboy I regularly cycled with friends from South Green to play on the ex ww2 tanks and armoured cars. 

    By Colin Ferrier (17/10/2017)
  • I must be getting old as nobody remembers the fire either side of road in the prewar scrapyard at Galleywood, about 1948, somebody somewhere must remember.

    By bobcroot (06/11/2016)
  • Lovely to see my old home town

    By Barbera Bethel USA (01/03/2016)
  • Went to school in Billericay and was so pleased when my school friend Sandra sent me the site. So many happy memories.

    By Barbera Bethel USA (01/03/2016)
  • Does any body remember the scrap yard that stretched from where is today north of the Ship public house on the Galleywood road. A large scrap yard both sides of the road which consisted of London trams with outside staircases, airplane drop tanks, old lorries and cars, all with trees growing through them, until the great fire when the heaps of tyres etc. caught fire and burnt for a week or more, causing traffic to be diverted down old A130 via Rettenden and the Turnpike to get to Wickford. This was late 40s/50s when I was young and my sister  was at college in Chelmsford and it took her ages to get home, any more info I would be glad to hear.

    By bobcroot (15/02/2016)
  • I have recently published a book after 6 years research on an artist-potter….Stella R. Crofts.  Stella, her two sisters and father once lived in Deerbank Road in Billericay, between the years 1932 up until 1973, when the last sister died.  Stella Crofts received some fame during the 1920s exhibiting at all the major international events of the day.  I am sure my new book will be of interest to anyone with an interest in the history of Billericay.  The book is currently available on ebay or via http://www.stellacrofts.net .  If you type in Stella Crofts or Stella’s Ark (the name of the book) into ebay then it will come up ( ISBN: 9780993101502 ).  There is a great deal in the book to interest Billericay residents including history regarding the fate of Norsey Woods which backed onto the Crofts family home.

    By Paul Hughes (14/03/2015)
  • Further to my enquiry about petrol drums, I have learned that the company, Drums Ltd, had a factory in Grays, on Thames Road.  They were subsequently bought by International Paints, who, in turn, were taken over by Courtaulds and who are now owned by the Dutch firm of Akzo-Nobel.  The odd thing is that my father always referred to Drums Ltd of Billericay.  Did they also have a site in Billericay?  Does anybody know?  Thanks.  Martin Eccles.

    By Martin Eccles (06/01/2015)
  • There is no information that we have about this specific production however we are aware of two plants which may have been involved. To the south of the town near Barleylands Farm is a factory, now mixed units which until the late 1980s was a manufacturing facility for Lin-Pac which made plastic car parts. It is possible that this factory could have made these tanks as it was there during WWII and appears to have been a target for the Luftwaffe. The other factory that could have possible made these items was situated where the station car park and the office/industrial units beside the railway line are now. Post war this factory was used a “knock down” plant for tractors being shipped abroad. Any information about this would be gratefully received.

    By Editor (31/12/2014)
  • Do any of you know whether there was a steel drum manufacturer in Billericay, making petrol drums during the second world war.  They were needed to provide petrol for the battle of El Alamein?  I have been unable to find any reference to them, so far.  Thanks.

    By Martin Eccles (27/12/2014)
  • Emily Florence Warren was born in Billericay in 1897. She nursed Eri Rapata at Grey Towers New Zealand Convalescent Hospital in Hornchurch Essex in 1917 and married him 6 months later. Eri Rapata was in the NZ (Maori) Pioneer Battalion and they sailed together to NZ in 1918 on the Remuera from Plymouth. They had 3 children in Auckland NZ, the youngest of whom is my husband’s mother. I wonder if her marriage to a Maori NZ was one of many nurse-patient romances at the time? They were very happy.

    By Dorothy Monks (11/01/2014)
  • I have recently been given a regular page in the matchday programme for Billericay Town FC, and would love to trace the club’s history and any old players from any period, who would like to share their memories with today’s supporters. Please get in touch if you have any information.

    By Emma (14/01/2013)
  • hi i wonder if anyone can help me iam trying to trace my grandads family the bull family they lived in south green in green cottages

    By Keith Nock (10/09/2011)

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