Church Creek was home to the people who lived on houseboats and a place of recreation for others. However, when the creek was blocked off following the building of Ferry Road under the railway line, all this changed, as can be clearly seen in Gilbert Wines’s photograph when compared to Joan Philips’ snap at full tide.
Pictures of Church Creek, Benfleet 1930 - 1951
Houseboats and Swimming in the Creek
From the collection of the late Kath Fisher with the permission of Paddy Marrisson
From the collection of the late Kath Fisher with the permission of Paddy Marrisson
Joan English (nee Philips)
Joan English (nee Philips)
From the collection of the late Kath Fisher with the permission of Paddy Marrisson
Joan English (nee Philips)
Gilbert Wines
Gilbert Wines
Gilbert Wines
Joan English (nee Philips)
Joan English (nee Philips)
Jill Ashdown
Jill Ashdown
Jill Ashdown
Richard Yetton recalling the various groups of people who swam in the creek from May to September, including some of the older ladies of Benfleet. 7 Minutes long
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My dad, Kenneth Cripps, with his brothers and my Nan lived on a house boat on the creek. Need help to find documented archive going back to the 1950’s. Anyone knowing any info please get in touch . Samantha Cripps, Daughter of Kenneth Cripps.
Has any one got pictures or information about the tea boat in 1948 run by Dorothy Ada Payne, my grand mother.
My father who has just passed, John David Cripps, was born on the tea boat as we have just discovered via his birth certificate.
Any information would be fantastic.
Wonderful and very interesting, Mr William and Alice Crudgington had a house barge during 1937 called Jumbo and I am trying to find some more information about my Great, Great Grandparents.
I was born and raised in Bowers Gifford, so was my father Edward who now is 81.
Such lovely images that really captivate the Benfleet era.
The small white house could be a pumping station to drain the marsh. Anglian water now has a modern building on the site which probably does the same.
In one of the photos above, there is a reference to the Black two storey house being occupied by the Midwife. The said Midwife was in fact Nurse Revell, variously referred to on these pages.
Thank you Margaret.
Having spoken to one of our older residents he thinks it might be either a milking parlor, as part of that land was used for milking cows by Howard’s Dairy, or it was an old fisherman’s cottage. It might also be that the picture is before 1939, as the army camp cannot be seen in the background and that was built soon after World War II started. If anyone has any info please add.
In the fourth photograph I can see a white house all alone – what do we know of its occupants and demise?
My Dad lived on a boat called Thanet until 1929 when his Dad died, are there any records at all of this boat at Benfleet? I have the death certificate of my Granddad who died in March 1929 and it states that he died of pneumonia on a houseboat Thanet at Benfleet. Any info would be fantastic.
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