One of the old homes of Benfleet

2013 land for redevelopment

This home is thought to have been built before the 1930’s does anyone have any more information about it?  The large plot on which it stands is now due for redevelopment, it is unlikely that this little home will survive for very much longer.

2013 number 50 Oakfield Road, its days are numbered, the large site is now due to be redeveloped.
Margaret March
A closer shot of a old home
Margaret March

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  • Ivy Harvey used to live in the house featured on this page.

    The article below appeared in the Echo News online

    A woman who has waited more than 65 years for her brother’s name to be added to a war memorial in his home town says she can finally die happy.
    Ivy Harvey’s brother George Lee was just 29 years old when he was killed in a fierce Second World War battle at Kohima, in north east India, in 1944.
    Now, 65 years on, his name has been engraved on Benfleet War Memorial, at the bottom of Essex Way.

    Ivy, 89, said: “I’m so pleased. I feel like, at last, he’s home.”
    When George was called up, on Ivy’s wedding day in 1940, he was living in Canning Town, in east London.
    Because his address was not registered as Benfleet, he was not automatically included on the memorial.
    Ivy said: “I have shed so many tears over it.
    “What upset me was George and I knew Benfleet when it was just a little village, but the people making the decision didn’t know Benfleet at all.”

    George and Ivy’s father bought the house in Oakfield Road, Benfleet, where Ivy still lives today, at the end of the First World War.
    The family ran a shop in West Ham, so they used to split their time between the two, but Ivy says as youngsters the brother and sister preferred being in Benfleet.

    She said: “We used to get up to our eyes in mud, and go mushroom picking, or go in the creek and have a paddle. It was so different then.”
    George’s wife and young sons, Brian and George, were living in Oakfield Road when George senior was killed.

    The battle, in April 1944, near to the border with Burma, marked the turning point for Allied fortunes in India when the Japanese advance was finally stopped.
    He was buried at the scene, and Ivy has visited the grave twice, in 1989 and 1994. But she has always been upset his name was not included on the Benfleet memorial.

    A year ago, George junior, 67, who now lives in America, and who tragically never met his hero father, contacted Castle Point MP Bob Spink for help.
    Dr Spink obliged, assisting the family to compile evidence, including letters written by George senior to the Benfleet address, proving his local connections.
    Now, after getting approval from Castle Point Council, local stonemason AK Lander has added George’s name to the memorial.

    Ivy said: “I’m really over the moon. Now I can die happy.”

    By Eleanor hope (06/03/2021)

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