C. S. Wiggins - the early days

The man who built Thundersley

The old Thundersley School, Church Road. Fees were a penny a week. Stan was four when he first went here. The first day the teacher kissed him but on the second day he had the cane.
Claude Stanley Wiggins
Gwyneth Craze collection
Wiggins The Builder, book now out of print
Bill Craze

Thundersley village has (of course) an ancient history, but its urban development throughout the Twentieth Century was influenced to an extraordinary extent by the vision and energy of one man and his two sons: that man was Claude Stanley Wiggins.

C. S. Wiggins & Sons developed much of the land along Hart Road including the shops in “The Village” and at the “Woodmans”, and the Raymonds Estate.

The following is extracted and adapted from the opening page of the rare and definitive history written by his granddaughter Gwyneth Craze and self-published in 2004 under the title, Wiggins the Builder, Thundersley, Essex – A Firm, a Family and a Faith.

C. S. Wiggins (known as Stan) was born in 1882 at Kiln Farm Cottages opposite the Woodman Public House in Thundersley. He attended the old Thundersley School (which was situated at the top of Church Hill opposite where the Kenneth Road clinic now stands) until he was twelve. During this time he helped his father with farm work in the school holidays and then for another year before he was apprenticed at thirteen (1896) to Mr L. S. Upson of Hadleigh in carpentry and joinery. For about ten years he continued as a day-worker and sub-contractor, but also started a carrier business, using a horse and cart to transport goods from Rayleigh Station to outlying areas. This venture proved useful and remunerative at a time when employment in the building industry was erratic.

Stan’s parents rented Kiln Farm from 1880. It comprised about 12 acres of land west of Rayleigh Road between Hart Road and Common Lane. Here with Stan’s brother Joseph (who was eighteen years his senior) the Wiggins’ carried out a certain amount of cattle dealing, hay-making and poultry keeping. Stan took this on in conjunction with his other activities until 1918. He was often up at 5 a.m. and continued work through the day staying up late into the night to complete woodwork projects.

In 1908 Stan married his cousin Lois Anderson. Her family came from Scotland but her parents moved down to Essex when her father acted as bailiff on Potten and Havengore Islands. Later, the Anderson family moved to Barking, to work on the newly opened Becton Gas Works, and named their new home “Havengore”.

After leaving school Lois was apprenticed in dressmaking but later became a “Nippy”, which is what the waitresses were called in Lyons’ Tea Rooms. She worked in the first one to be opened in London in 1845 and Joe Lyons himself would sit in the corner each afternoon to see that the girls did their job properly.

Stan chose a site near his birthplace in Rayleigh Road to build their first home, which they called “Braemar”. This is still standing (albeit greatly altered) on the northern corner of Deerhurst (459). Lois was surprised to find that there was neither gas nor electricity and that the water supply was just a tap in the kitchen. She had been used to electric lights in her parents home in Barking so still often put her hand to the wall, searching for the light switch! There were other surprises too for a girl brought up in a town, such as when she came home one day to find that her husband had left some live eels in a bucket in the kitchen – but they had escaped and were slithering up the stairs. Quickly, she shut the door and waited for Stan to come home to deal with them!

Gwyneth Craze (née Wiggins) died on 2nd June 2018 at Abergavenny. Her book, “Wiggins the Builder, Thundersley, Essex– A Firm, a Family and a Faith” sold out in her lifetime, the last few dozen copies having been kindly donated by her to our archive.  We found a buoyant market for them amongst previous Wiggins employees and folk who enjoyed living in Wiggins Homes.

After our tentative approach in 2020 to the family about the possibility of an H&TCA-sponsored reprint, Gwyneth’s husband, Bill, most generously arranged for the production of a limited edition of 60 copies, which he donated to the Archive as a tribute to his late wife.

As of November 2023, all copies have been sold and it is out of print.

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  • I have just come across this site, trying to look for information regarding the pension provider for C. S. Wiggins and Sons in the 70’s.
    So sad to hear the sad news of Barry, we had some laughs during our training, great guy.

    {Ed: Barry was Barry Leggett, see the earlier comment from Jackie Leggett}

    By Alan Trower (21/01/2024)
  • I was an apprentice bricklayer from 1972-1975 working on a number of sites around Essex eg Basildon, Benfleet, Shoeburyness. I remember the Wiggins buses going to the different job sites; plus meeting the two brothers when called to the office to chat about my exam marks from TAFE
    and John and Ralph being there for me as my site work was a 1000% better than my written work; they saved my job in the early days.
    Then chatting to the brothers at Easter and Xmas when they visited the sites with a priest; also on special jobs over the years. I was very grateful for the chance to work and learn from great people at Wiggins; helped me through my life with some fantastic memories and times.

    By david j campbell (29/10/2023)
  • I worked for Wiggins on the Redbrick Estate in Basildon 1973 then on phase 2 of the Chalverdon Estate. I was a dumper driver…

    By Alan Baker (21/07/2023)
  • I’m trying to research the site of the old Hawkwell Holt School in Rochford, now called Holt Farm School.
    The Holt Farm Estate was built by CS Wiggins, as we established last week at the ERO in Chelmsford.
    Is there anyone around who would either have a recollection of who carried out the Hawkwell Holt School build in the first place (1955-1957) or maybe worked on the school? For instance, was it CS Wiggins?

    By Carole Shorney (21/09/2022)
  • The Author Bernard Cornwell was adopted by the Wiggins and so had his name changed to Wiggins. He was very unhappy as a boy mainly because of their religious beliefs. They were members of the Peculiar People sect so he had a very strict upbringing. When he was old enough he traced his mother, whose name was Cornwell and had his changed to that.

    By Graham Patrick (23/01/2022)
  • In response to Sheela’s post below: Stan’s three children were Cyril, Mary and Joe. It was Joe who was your “pastor” at Elm Road Evangelical Church and who lived at the magnificent River View (where Cherrymeade now stands on Kiln Road).

    By David Hurrell (26/05/2021)
  • My husband did his apprenticeship with this company then ended up the youngest carpenter to train apprentices. His name was Barry Leggett. He came from Thundersley. Sadly my husband passed away 3 weeks ago. He loved his job ♥️

    By Jackie Leggett (12/10/2020)
  • I’m Andrew Wiggins daughter; he changed his name to Kim Straker and he didn’t die in America, it was Southend. If anyone wishes to contact me pls do so.
    { Ed: to contact Lisa, use admin@hadleighhistory.org.uk and we can relay messages.}

    By Lisa Straker (30/12/2018)
  • Such an amazing man. I knew him as Mr Wiggins but think it may have been Stan? He used to run a club called ‘Sunshine Hour’ on a Thursday night in the wooden building next to the church in Elm Road (it is now a nursery.) So sad to hear about Andrew; we went but didn’t realise there was another son. We used to have a song ‘Sunshine Hour at Leigh-on-sea’ every Thursday night. But what I remember most was that he was such a kind and generous man. I came from a family of 6 children, with no father around and the club was full of children like me. He had competitions where we could win prizes for colouring. At Christmas he bought us all a multi-pack of assorted chocolate. And best of all on Bonfire night we went to his house just opposite SEEVIC; it’s all built over now but it was a beautiful house and we had the most incredible fireworks. He really left his mark and will be remembered by people like me.

    By Sheela Evans (08/05/2018)
  • Thank you for this page. I was friends at school with Andrew Wiggins around 1966/68 and spent time at his house as a child. His brother, I believe, is the famous author Bernard Cornwell. Andrew sadly died in a car accident several years ago in America.
    Any information would be of interest.

    {Ed (1): to contact Christopher, use admin@hadleighhistory.org.uk and the editors will forward material to him.
    Ed (2): please note the later comment from Lisa Straker.}

    By Christopher D G Steele (07/05/2018)
  • This article is interesting as my cousins have just been to Essex recently. We would love to meet Gwyneth Craze. I am Theresa and Evelyn is known as Lynn. My mother was Kathleen Maud nee Wilding who married Clements. My grandparents lived at Lyncote Shoeburyness. I believe Gwyneth’s father married Evelyn. Lynn’s father was Sidney Walter Wilding

     

    By Theresa Lester (23/02/2015)

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