John Sadds and Sons, Builders Merchants, were situated at the junction of Jersey Gardens and Station Avenue Wickford.
On the right of the picture is Fred Neville.
Centre is Bob Croot Senior
On left is possibly Jim Bardell
This was before or just after the 1939 /1945 war.
Note Wickford Station at top right.
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My grandad, Sydney Townsend, worked at Sadds for many years. Think he was stores manager, also my uncle Dennis Garland worked at Sadds as well. Does anybody remember them?
My mother worked at Sadds, either before or after the second world war, possibly both. Her name was Joan Askew, she died in 1983. I wonder if anyone recalls Joan?
Do you remember being taught at school by Miss Amos [Mrs Cockie]? That John Sadd was a missionary and was beheaded by the Japanese for his beliefs? I don’t know when, I only remember because my father at the time was working for the builders merchants.
Did you know that John Sadds was one of the biggest builders merchants in Essex. They had yards in Hornchurch, Billericay, Southend, Chelmsford and many other places as well as a large dock facility with barges for bringing in timber for their joinery works, making window frames etc. They also owned Blackwater Timber which at the time went around the country taking down unwanted trees and carting them to their foreshore dock in Maldon, a very large complex at the time.
My dad drove that lorry after the War, it was a Bedford QL 4×4 ex-army lorry. It was used for all the unmade roads in the Wickford area, including Linden Road where I live now, before the roads were built.
I remember that Sadds huge open-backed lorry was the only vehicle that could get up Carlton Road in the winter when the road was often muddy and flooded. There was long grass all down the middle of the road, a clinker foot path down the side that had to be paid for and laid down by the residents who lived in the bungalows in the road.
Can you remember the make of Sadds huge open backed flat fronted green lorry, was it a Foden or an Albion ?
I recall that Sadd’s yard stood on the ‘point of the fork’ where Jersey Gardens went off to the right and Guernsey gardens went off left, and about 200 yds or so. I remember the Button Factory, but I’m sure that this was in its later stage of life.
Don’t I recall that a young Bob Croot worked for a time at Sadd’s? I remember a Bob Croot being at The Secondary School when I was a 1st Year.
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