A sketch of Mayes Bros, Wickford.

Drawn by Jeff Blunt.

This sketch was sent to us.  It contains some information about when the business was operating.

Photo of the Mayes store
On the corner of Station Approach and the Broadway, probably late 1950s.

Comments about this page

Add your own comment

  • Could Simon Mayes please contact me.
    I am the Secretary of Wickford Cricket Club and have been approached by Chelsea FC supporters who are researching and recording the final resting places of all ex players. They are seeking information on Arthur Jack Mayes, who also played cricket for Wickford cricket club and Essex 2nd X1.

    By Alan Moss (17/10/2023)
  • Does anyone know the final resting place of Arnold Jack Mayes, who played for Chelsea between 1935 and 1939, and died in Norfolk in 1994?

    By Steve Lloyd Chelsea Graves Society (15/10/2023)
  • Message for Fenella & Simon Mayes. My father worked at the shop in the very early 1920s as a boy of 13 years. He wrote before dying in 1998, a lengthy account of life and work at the shop. It is very descriptive, and would certainly be of interest to you as descendants.
    If of value to you please contact me.

    By steve white (13/10/2023)
  • Could it be Alan Mayes, ex QPR, Southend and, I think,
    Brentford? As a programme collector I may have some
    Info.

    By John Wells (17/03/2023)
  • Hello. I worked for Mayes of Wickford in the late 1960s / 1970s until they closed. I drove the delivery van and worked in the warehouse. I remember Mr Silverman, (hope right name), Mrs May, Mr Mayes, Douglas Leboe (No idea of spelling) and Eric Fenwick and others (50 +years ago!). Fond memories, got married while working there, still have presents from staff.

    By William woods (05/11/2022)
  • I remember Mayes, especially your father, Fenella, and your mother at the flower shop. Those were the days. I last saw you in the Castle pub. Judith Hodgson. (Harvey Hodgson’s daughter)

    By JUDITH HODGSON (08/06/2021)
  • Mayes was established by my grandfather, and my father took over, helped by my uncle Jack Mayes and, for a time, by Ken Mayes, the younger brother. My father also ran Maywick alongside his sister, Jane.

    By Fenella Mayes (24/05/2021)
  • My father worked here when I was a child. Mainly in the office upstairs. So many memories. I can still remember how the shop smelled.

    By Christine Sanders (Watson) (10/03/2021)
  • Thank you for these comments Eric, they mean alot to my family. My father came to be near to me in Yorkshire. He was very happy there and lived until he was almost 94. He told me about your last visit to him and he was overjoyed by it, even though he couldn’t see you.

    By Maggie Carman (03/10/2020)
  • Message for Maggie Carman: I remember your dad very well indeed and your mum too. Once when he was painting the peg board inside the window display I locked him in, then went outside to look at him through the window. Many years later I met up with them again at St Mary’s Runwell. The last time I saw him was when he was leaving his bungalow to go and live with one of your sisters, he was in his nineties and almost blind but as soon as he heard my voice he said “Is that you Eric?”
    I learnt a lot from him and his life experience, which I still value to this day.

    By Eric Fenwick (07/08/2020)
  • Hi there Kenneth Saward. Are you the Ken I knew at school and left the same time? I am still in Wickford; get in touch through site, there is not many of us left.

    By bobcroot (29/01/2020)
  • Just checking History of Wickford pages and became so interested in this thread with the postings being quite precise and it is great that this was part of Wickford history. My father, Ron Mayes, actually ran the shop, Mayes Bros, in the High Street, and the factory in Hanningfield was a further business run by my father as Maywick, correctly producing broilers and other equipment for the turkey and associated industries, the name being an abbreviation of Mayes of Wickford.

    In addition whilst my father was an extremely good amateur footballer, it was his brother Jack who was on Chelsea books and his other brother Ken who was on the books for Fulham and Southend who was meant to be the best of the bunch.

    Incidentally Bobby Mayes, the son of Jack, as I understand it, made extremely good strides as a cricketer.

    My mother Peggie had the florist shop in the Arcade in Station Avenue which I believe is now a taxi office, and my Uncle George had the cafe in the Arcade behind the florist.

    We lived at the nursery, which was then Garden Beauty Products, later to become Alpha Garden Centre, and oh for the days when we used to cycle to the Tennis Club and Cricket club each evening to play football, tennis, have a game of run outs, and not even to have to worry about cycling home late or even locking our front doors.

    Sadly those days are long gone.

    By Simon Mayes (30/05/2019)
  • I vaguely remember Mayes, but most of all the secondary modern school with Ross, the sports teacher, and his 6/7 aside soccer game each year. I once got a pair of socks, 2nd prize. Mr Crook the woodwork teacher, the gardening man, the geography teacher who I know played hockey for Essex. I left school at 15 in 1951. My birthday was in December.

    By Kenneth saward (15/04/2019)
  • I was at Saint George’s School at the same time as Bobby and Sonia Mayes. She had beautiful curly hair and Bobby was a sturdy good looking lad.
    With my parents, Anne and Austen Taylor, I lived in Carlton Road, Runwell. My parents were customers of Mayes, and I attended the school from 1945 to 1954.

    By Lorraine Taylor (03/04/2019)
  • There was a Bobbie Mayes and also a Sonia Mayes too!
    They all lived with their Mum and Dad in a detached house up Swan Lane!
    Does anyone know where they are now?

    By Terry Rothery (03/02/2019)
  • I posted something 3 years ago about Mayes Bros. as my father Andy Smith worked there and I remember him talking about you Eric. There was also Miss Hudson who became part of our family. I have happy memories of Mayes Bros. and all the people who worked there.

    By Maggie Carman (27/01/2019)
  • As far as I remember there were three Mayes brothers.
    I only knew two when I worked there as a young lad, Ron and Jack. They had both played football to a high standard, especially Ron, although it was the third brother who was the professional I think. Maywick was an off-shoot and developed chicken brooders, and also early bottle gas heaters. I had a Saturday job in the shop and it was my first full time job in 1970 until they closed. I have always valued the experience and all that I learned from the people I met and worked with.

    By Eric fenwick (24/01/2019)
  • My Dad told me that a son of Mr Mayes played football for Chelsea, around the 1940s or ’50s, I believe. Does anyone know if he was right?

    By Lyn Humphrey (01/02/2018)
  • Mayes were a large family, and dabbled in many things, including owning a heating oil company, and were part of garden Beauty Products, possibly owned by Maywick.

    By bobcroot (16/12/2016)
  • Was the Mayes shop anything to do with Maywick who had a factory making hatching things for chickens at Hanningfield?

    By John Bevan (27/11/2016)
  • Does anyone else remember Mayes Bros.  I posted a comment about my dad and a friend a while ago.  Does anyone remember them?

    See the link here.

    By Maggie Carman (14/08/2016)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.