The black and white photos below were taken by staff at Castle Point Council, prior to works carried out on the B1014 Benfleet Rd in the 1970s. Several of the colour photos were taken just after work had begun to the road layout and the rest have been taken recently, from similar vantage points.
Forty or so years ago the Victoria House Corner end of Benfleet Road was home to several different shops and businesses. Some may remember Southern Sectionals where they made fencing, sheds and cabins. This business stood on the corner of Benfleet Road/London Road on the east side and was there for some years, eventually moving to Brook Road at Rayleigh Weir. Magnet Kitchens occupy the site today.
A little further along Benfleet Road was Ballard Bros. shopfitters, who began their business there in the late 1940s/early1950s. ‘Kings Lodge’ flats now occupy this site.
On the opposite side of the road was Dorothy Ward Ltd, a mail order house which had also been there since just after the war. The Directors of this company were all local people, Mr John W Carr had lived in Benfleet since 1924 and the business was named after his wife, Mrs Dorothy A Carr (nee Ward). In more recent years the building was demolished and La Quinta Restaurant was built there.
Further along the road towards Benfleet, just on the bend there was a coach park run by Castle Point Bus Co. S & M Coaches, from where you could hire single and double decker buses and coaches. Also operating from this site, S & M Recovery, a 24/7 recovery service for the UK and Europe. Within the last few years the residential home, ‘Elizabeth House’ was built on this land.
In the 1970s Lynton Road was accessible from Benfleet Road but with the road improvements this was closed off, making the only access via St John’s Road.
Originally, immediately to the east of King John School stood Cross Farm Abbatoir. After the abbatoir was closed down two new residential roads were built on the land, Alderwood Way and Summerwood Close.
Further along Benfleet Road in the King John School area, little has changed. Over the years the school has been extended and now provides a Sixth Form College. The playing field that joins the boundary of Benfleet Road is still used for sports, as it was in the 1970s.
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Ah yes, I remember the Abattoir alongside King John school. We used to get eyeballs from there to use in biology lessons.
I remember being in a small group of 3 or 4 in a biology lesson and having to get one of the girls (maybe Angela Abbot) to cut the eye open and get out the lens…us boys couldn’t hack it!
Also remember a ‘surveying lesson’ where a group of us set off with chains & ranging poles. When we reached the cafe near the roundabout, we propped the poles up against the wall and spent half the ‘lesson’ inside drinking, and those with pocket money burning a hole in their pockets, playing on the machines (pinball maybe).
This would have been around 1966/7.
Benfleet was twinned with a French town and not long after the Appleton Arms opened we got a football team together and flew over to France to give them a match. Just before flying out of Southend airport we held an impromptu training session on the runway! I’m sure we had Peter Crouch’s brother play for us in the name of Paul Jennings who must have been 7 ft tall! Incidentally, we all got through several pairs of underpants during flight, am sure plane was held together with elastic rubber bands.
Do you happen to know anything about the fire at 134? “Rochhill” Benfleet Road Hadleigh after 1957? I was a child fostered at this beautiful house during 1954- 1956. The house was razed to the ground and another built in its place at a later date.
My grandparents built and owned No. 56, he actually built the house next door, Pinecot I think it was called, not sure if that was No. 54 or if it was the other side, so many happy memories there.
I was born in the round house on Cross Farm (106) in 1965. My father was a slaughter man there. We moved to Thundersley in about 1977. Those pictures really bring back memories of walking to the bus station near the roundabout to go to school in Hadleigh.
I was born at number 54 Benfleet Road in 1952 and lived there until 1957 – my parents were there from c.1944. The house was where the road bends, just beyond the bus and coach depot which I remember well. Also along that stretch was Paragon Engineering. The house was still standing in the late 80’s. The photos are fascinating though frustratingly I think number 54 is just out of view.
Haha! I remember very well! I was born at number 68 Benfleet Road, in February 1972! My parents still live there!
I’d say photo seven was taken in about 1976 but I’d have to check being that I was only 4! So strange to see this, it’s like opening a door crack to my earliest memories, I’m sure we have some photos.
Editor’s note: If you find your photos and would like to share them on this site, please get in touch.
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