Thundersley Postcard Memories

By Bob Delderfield & David Hurrell

The White Hart Inn and Smithy

The Four Wantz

Part of the delightful view in Daws Heath

The eastern end of Bramble Road

Bus passes cyclist on Bread & Cheese Hill

The bus starts to climb Bread & Cheese Hill

Queue forming by the smithy, at the White Hart

Since 2010, the volunteers of Hadleigh & Thundersley Community Archive have helped the people of Hadleigh, Daws Heath and Thundersley to build a superb and growing digital archive of memories.
Related presentations are made at local venues with pop-up information displays at events in the area.

The Archive has published several local interest books. The latest – completed in November 2019 – is Thundersley Postcard Memories, a veritable feast of fascinating historic postcard views with their accompanying texts.
It is a companion volume to Hadleigh Postcard Memories by the late Robert Nichols.
The new book is a glowing tribute to meticulous research and hard work by Bob Delderfield working in partnership with graphic artist David Hurrell, and the valuable input of local residents.
The result is a very attractive 112 page book with fully 200 glorious postcard images and related descriptions which enhance our knowledge of the changing face of Thundersley. Here is the YouTube video about the book!

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries Thundersley was a large dispersed parish with several small centres of population separated by farm and woodland.
An ancient manor house once stood almost alone in the middle of farmland, but since the 1930s, agriculture declined and urban development grew rapidly.

With a copy of Thundersley Postcard Memories to hand, the reader can enjoy four pictorial tours including: the present day village, Kiln Road, Bread and Cheese Hill, Tarpots Corner, the Woodmans Arms on the Rayleigh Road and wooded areas around Daws Heath, Bramble Road and Poors Lane.
Despite much new housing, vantage points along Church Road and the summit of Bread and Cheese Hill still offer splendid views towards London and the River Thames.

Thundersley Postcard Memories is available priced £12.00 in the local area.
It can be obtained from:
Dan’s News in Thundersley Village,
Ann’s Mini-Mart in Daws Heath.

It is also available online through this link to Essex Hundred.