Post

Tracing Our Family's Footsteps: A Sentimental Journey Through London and East Anglia

2025-07-04

A quick unplanned trip into London to mums childhood school (attended 75 years ago) and then onto the street she was born and grew up on (1943-1974) until the Pearce family moved to Witham Essex in 1974. A neighbour…

A quick unplanned trip into London to mums childhood school (attended 75 years ago) and then onto the street she was born and grew up on (1943-1974) until the Pearce family moved to Witham Essex in 1974. A neighbour spotted us hovering and got talking… she was very kind, gave us a street parking permit and pointed mum in the direction of a neighbour who still lived on the street who she would know… Rose is now 90 and has lived there since 1960, she remembered mum, and the Pearce family…. They chatted for ages, remembering old times, old neighbours, and a street without any cars….The wall mums dad built is still standing, although the house front looks different after a fire (after they moved out). We then walked through the streets, had chips at the chip shop in Walthamstow Village. The kindness of strangers. Next we headed an hour to Bures Suffolk and saw Dads childhood house, stopped at the cemetery (dads parents are there) and saw lots of Eaves graves (Bures is an Eaves village) before heading back to Witham, stopping in Messing near Kelvedon at the grave of Auntie Doreen (mums cousin), who the Pearce family followed out of London to live near in Witham in 1974.

Topics: FamilyTravelReflection

Matthew Eaves — escape room franchise founder, operator, and writer. Also: franchise, posts, contact.