Langore smallholding, The Chase, Wickford

I was brought up in Cornwall and when my father retired in 1946 we moved to Wickford. Mother had been a land girl in the First World War and thought it would be good for the family to have a smallholding which would give dad something to do with his free time. My parents answered an advert from a Mr Easton advertising the smallholding on an unmade track and footpath called The Chase, in Wickford. Mr Easton had decided to sell up and buy a pub in Bradwell. Our house was called ‘Langore’ and there were very few houses close by. We kept goats and a few sheep and had a pig sty and chickens.  The large field was used to grow tomatoes which were bought by the Ministry of Food. Most of this land is now the Elder Avenue Open Space. The original house has been replaced with a more modern house. Roads and houses have been built all around and our plot is now number 4 Alma Close.

I think back to those early days and remember being told that an earlier owner of the house was a  Mrs Austin who used to have a ‘show garden’. I would love to know if this was true?