Walton Tales

To continue with Brian Hicks’ archive of football teams in Walton.

Walton Rovers who played on ground just past the farm in Kirby Road or rhe meadow near Grove Avenue pictured in 1924

Back Row: A. Barham, F. Banham, Tim Oxley, T. Cole (linesman)
Middle Row: A. South, H. Stanley, John Munninngs.
Front Row: W. Byers, E. Wilby, F. Moss, A. Oxley. Unknown

By 1928 – 9 Walton Rovers were pictured at Gt. Oakley ground and their identities were helpfully written on the photo

just as they were on this photo taken in 1932 (I’ll leave you to interpret the writing.)

By 1930 -1932 Walton Town Football Club were pictured on Cartbridge Meadow with their Secretary, Mr. Hammond

Back Row: Ted Smith, Alf Barham, Ernie Dent Mr. Hammond (Sec.)
Middle Row: John Nicholls, Vic Blake, Sid Balls,
Front Row: Jack Hicks, Leo Snare, Jack Smith, Arthur Moss, John Muninngs

This photo below of Walton Town Football Club after their 1932 -33 season claims that they had a record 21 wins in a row

The following three photos show the Walton Town team throughout 1934, 1935 and 1936

Above 1934/35

Pictured above are the 1935/36 Walton Town team when they won the Essex & Suffolk Border League

Front row l to r : D. Mason, Leo Snare, Vic Blake (capt.), Sam Brett, B. Sparling
Names of other players are rather confused so I will leave it to you.

The cover of the 1937/38 Fixture List (below) is interesting for the many familiar names of Vice Presidents which all old Waltonians will recognise

And finally below is the 1937 Walton Town team

Below, Just to round it off and not strictly in line with the title of this post is Walton Town team from 1952 with so many well known names in living memory including in the front row, Brian Hicks to whom we owe thanks for these memories, and his brother, John

A few years ago the late Brian Hicks shared his fantastic collection of images of Walton-on-the-Naze football teams with me. I am going to try to share these with you in memory of Brian.

I have done my best to read names as written on the reverse of photos, but I am sure I will have made a few mistakes as the writing has often faded or unclear.

The earliest team was the 1903 -04 Walton Town photographed here in their white shirts and black shorts. It is not definite where they played their matches but it was either where Grove Avenue is nowadays or where the allotments are by the Railway Station.

Players included Wilfred Mills whose father owned Mills Grocers where the Co-Op is now in the High Street; George Popplewell a money collector; Victor Turner the High Street stationery shop owner.

By 1919 there was a Walton Juniors team also wearing white shirts and black shorts and looking very smart

Back row left to right: Albert Lilley, Alf Barham, H. Eaton, S. Parker, Leo Snare, John Munnings,
C. Candler
Front row: H. Harrison, G. Snare, Alec Bartram, J. Barrat & A. Oxley

The 1920 Junior Team wore a new black and white striped strip

Standing left to right: A. Bartram, A. Plant, ? Lee, P. Moss, R. Smith
Sitting: G. Lee, E. Oxley, F. Moss, E. Oxley (Ginger)
On floor: R. Sharman, A. South, J. Munnings

There are many names that I and old Waltonians will remember above.

Next are Walton Town F C First Eleven

Back Row: J. Hatcher, A Dowsing (Goal), Jo Chronise.
Middle Row: R. Mills, A. Crump, A. Clarke, G. Snare, E. Hatcher.
Front Row: R. Cook, E. Oxley, F. Gray, F. Blease, A. E. Cook.

The next photo of Walton Town Juniors 1921-22 was taken on the Bath House Meadow and names of the players was included in the photo

The only names I rcognise are Alf Bartram who was a postman when I was a boy and John Munnings who was the fishmonger in Walton High Street next to Oxley’s builders yard. Both of these two names appear on the next photo of Walton Rovers Foootball Club of 1922-23 who have a completely different strip

Brian Hicks noted that he could not match the players with other local ones and that the strip did not tally with the date of the next photo of the 1923-24 Walton Town Football Club

I will continue this archive of Walton Football Clubs in my next post.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who when a house previously owned comes up for sale the temptation to look at the Estate Agent’s online details is irresistible.

I wish I hadn’t.

The garden which we had created and tended with so much love and care was a revelation as you will see in the following photos

FROM THIS

TO THIS …

Well yes, it was almost 30 years ago, but it’s hard to believe that mother nature could be so cruel.

My advice is don’t look at the past but think of the future

Today, January 1st, I celebrated my 80th Birthday and every one of them in Walton.
In my younger days I usually had a hangover from the New Years Eve celebrations. Later in life, once married and living at the Naze, the day involved a big party at our house with a keenly fought football match between children and their parents on the Jubilee Field opposite.

Just for fun I am posting two team photos from around 1982 (if anyone can confirm the date, please do)

Who do you know?

My Old Walton Photo Archive has been offline for a while. It is undergoing considerable improvement and will have a new host. Hopefully it will soon be back online and a resource available for all to see

Today the postman surprised me with a card-backed envelope which contained a true ‘blast from the past’.

The message came from a kind lady in Riegate, Surrey and contained a publicity leaflet of an advertisement in The Essex Countryside magazine from 1991. Sarah Ballingal wrote “My mother used to live in Walton-on-the-Naze and we have come across this article amongst my late sister’s belongings.”

I remember the leaflet well and was delighted to see it again – so pleased in fact that I have scanned it and reproduce it here for you to see.

I always knew it wouldn’t last forever, nothing ever does. But I am now forced to call it a day with my Old Walton Archive.

I started putting together this collection of images of places and people from the past in the late 1990s. I chose to use what was then a great computer program, Microsoft Office Frontpage, and spent many hours over the years compiling the various indices of areas of Walton, and the people who were part of the town. I later added a smaller number of images of Frinton, Kirby and local villages.

Like almost everything from Microsoft the Frontpage program was regularly updated and a new version was introduced in 2003 and later a completely new program named Expression was launched. Sadly as I had a huge number of images arranged in the old system it was not possible to convert these to the new Expression program.

Not all was lost. I was able to limp along using Frontpage for many years to add and change content on my site. But sadly no longer. Frontpage now seems to have died completely.

The web site remains available for you to view, but I am unable to add or change anything from now on.

The site still gets thousands of ‘hits’ every month and I am pleased to see that it is viewed all over the world. Thank you if you are one of the many folk who have reacted with me on Walton topics. Please do continue to enjoy the images of our town over the many years of its history

Recently I have been very fortunate to be given access to a superb collection of Old Walton photographs .
More than one hundred new images of Walton have now been added to my Old Walton Archive thanks to Daphne Horton who owns the collection made by her late brother, Tony, (pictured below)

Tony, who was born in North Street, was an avid collector of images of Walton through the ages and at Putmans Photographers he was well remembered as the man who would regularly stick his head into the shop door and announce in a loud voice, “Got any gems”, meaning new photos of old Walton. We were always happy to give him copies of anything from our collection but he also accumulated a vast number of other views and photos of Walton folk..

You can now see these new additions at the Old Walton Archive. To find the Tony Horton Collection you will need to scroll to the highest reference numbered photos in the various indexes.

One of my favourite new images is this one of Thomas Brooke, one of Walton’s early photographers, pictured outside his premises on the Parade

Many of the newly acquired photos will have been taken by him

Below is another, an interesting view of Walton High Street

I hope you have fun looking at these newly acquired images and if you can add anything to my description then please do let me know.

I have recently received three portraits from the Archives Manager of The Royal Academy of Dance in London asking if I can help with identifying the sitters as she does not know why they are in their archive.

The three portraits are in Carte de Visite form and were taken by T. C. Brooke the Walton-on-the-Naze photographer. Thomas Brooke, who still has relatives living in Walton, was operating in Walton from 1874 to around 1905 and owned The Bazaar and Library on the corner of Old Pier Street and Marine Parade.

As I have no idea who these three young ladies are and the RAC Archives Manager cannot ascertain why they are in their archive, I am reproducing them below on the off chance that someone may be able to help.

The book which is used as a prop in two of the portraits is titled “Eliza Cook” who I have found was an English author and poet in the late 1800s. Maybe someone may have a similar portrait of a known relative using this prop which could narrow down the date of the photograph.

Thomas Brooke’s Bazaar at the corner of Old Pier Street and The Parade

Can you throw any light on these images?

At a time when Walton’s all weather lifeboat is about to be replaced by a rubber dinghy inshore rescue boat. This iconic photo of long-serving lifeboat man, Keith Richardson, expressing his sad farewell as the boat left its end-of-pier moorings for the last time, is a fitting tribute to the many men and women who have heroically served this coastline for more than 100 years.

Photo by Sophie King

As a youngster I so remember lying in bed hearing the maroons which summoned the men to the lifeboat. This was closely followed by our next door neighbor, Bert Oxley, rushing from his home to assist with launching the boat into the unknown sea conditions. In those days the town was also told when the boat returned safely by another single maroon. Whatever will happen now?