Thatched Cottage, cinema and Woolworths on High Street
This picturesque cottage stood half way up the High Street, circa 1900
The cottages were demolished and the Carlton Cinema was built in 1937
The cinema closed when Basildon opened its new cinema in the Town Centre and Woolworths was built in its place. Woolworths closed in 2010.
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I too remember the cinema in Wickford, I saw ‘Superman’, also the film ‘Four Feathers’, as a youngster. As a ATC Cadet we used to attend Remembrance services in the cinema before marching to the War Memorial at the Nurses home in Lower Southend Road.
COTTAGES IN THE HIGH STREET In the early 1900s, my grandmother Margaret Rogers, lived in the High Street in a black weatherboard cottage, probably the one in the picture above, to the right of the thatched one. Margaret came from Ireland, was the mother of Elizabeth who married Alfred Carter, my Mum’s father. WICKFORD CINEMA Wickford Cinema, as well as showing all the latest films, also had a Saturday morning children’s club. I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz, as a young child, sitting next to my Mum, quite near the front, on a red plush seat, which I couldn’t stop bumping up and down on. I was so frightened by all the characters that Dorothy met on her journey, that I stuffed a whole handkerchief into my mouth to chew on and when I removed it, it was bitten to shreds like a lace doyley! WOOLWORTHS I remember the excitement when the cinema was taken over by Woolworths – it was like a treasure trove to us school children. My favourite section was the biscuit counter, where we were able to buy broken biscuits at a knock down price. When I was 15 and still at school, I and two of my friends applied and were accepted for a Saturday job. We earned fifteen shillings (75p) for a full Saturday from 9.00am to 5.30pm. The three of us were put on the sweet counter but as we were all so small, we had to stand on boxes of fudge in order to see over the counter. We wore ankle length white cotton coats (which were probably only calf length on the majority of the workers) and a pleated headdress.
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