The Egg Packing Station,`Wickford`

On the site of the Aldi supermarket, back in the 1950s behind the Castle Pub on the railwayside of the site,was Wickfords own Egg packing Station,where the `Lions head `was stamped on to all the eggs that were graded and packed on site.We had a smallholding when WW2 ended and had about 8 pigs,12 rabbits,18 geese, a goat and some 50 to 60 chickens plus fruit and veg, all home grown.All surplus food had to go to help the Country to recover from the war.Food was on ration still,Dad had a licence to sell from home,but he had top take the surplus eggs to the Egg Packing Station.We had to wrap each egg with a piece of newspaper,then put them in a basket and carry them down the road to get a no.34 bus at Church end Farm to Wickford. At Adcocks the Newsagents,we got off the bus and crossed Southend Road,walked round the back of the Castle Pub to the Packing Station.On arrival,all the eggs were taken out of the basket and unwrapped, then put onto a machine to be checked for cracks. Any with cracks were rejected and we had to take them back home.Eggs were then weighed.As the machine went round the small eggs would be dropped off first.then the medium and last the large. Next.they would be stamped with the Lions Head, and put into trays of 30 eggs by hand and put into boxes for distribution. I`m not sure how many times Mum would go down with the eggs,but I think it was Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays, and each week Mum was given  a pay packet for all the eggs she had taken in that week.I dont know when we stopped going with the eggs,nor when the Station closed down.