Lower Kingsland Road in the early 1960s. This area was known as the Gowing's Estate with mainly chalets for holiday Visitors. Note the big elms along the front and the old boating lake later developed as Shears Crescent.

An aerial view above, taken by Jack Botham in the early 1960s, looks down Lower Kingsland Road, or Seaview Road as it used to be called, (also known at one time as Bob Cook's Road) with a small cluster of beach cafés and a car park right on the beach.

A happy party outside Blanche's Cafe in 1939.

Horrie (left and Lily Stoker pose outside the car park cafe. Photograph from Eileen Evenden

Blanche's Café was started by Ben and Blanche (neé D'Wit) Wilson. Next door was George Stoker's café which he ran at the same time with his wife Constance, and he eventually bought out Blanche in about 1936. Blanche's Café is shown above with a party from Colchester on the beach in the foreground. The photo was lent to us by Mrs Veronica Smith (neé Downsworth), the small girl in the front of the group, who well remembers these trips to Mersea before the war. Ominously there is a soldier standing by the café and shortly after this there would have been barbed wire across the end of the road and the beach would have been mined against invasion. The small hut on the right was used for keeping deck chairs for hire. Blanche made her own ice cream using ice from the Colchester Ice Company and this tradition was carried on by the Stokers although they eventually replaced it with Walls.

George was a prominent Mersea oysterman, owning extensive layings, pits, his smack 'George and Alice' (named after his father and mother) and the bumkin BOY GEORGE now restored by John Milgate. Running a café fitted in well with oystering because the busy summer tourist season coincided with oyster spatting when the layings were left alone. Oysters were sold at 1/- a dozen with a plate of bread and butter and fresh shrimps caught by brother Horrie Stoker were landed on the beach and sold at 4d a pint. During the war, George, Constance and daughter Eileen lived adjacent to the cafés which were both taken over by the Army and used as stores.

The cafe in the car park was owned by Horrie and Sara Lily Stoker. Both were tragically killed during the war in August 1942 and this was recalled by brother Bob Stoker as told to John Rowley.

'I was shrimping in the Knoll channel in the PRISCILLA with Hervey Benham, a chap named (Vincent) Winch who was a rear gunner and his Australian pilot. MAGGIE and MAYFLOWER were trawling in shallow water fairly close to each other over on Sales Point, Bradwell. On MAGGIE was my brother Horace and his wife Lily who was his official crew member. My father and Teddy Vince were on the MAYFLOWER. Without any warning there was this big explosion and looking up river we saw a huge column of water close to the smacks. Since there were explosions most days we didn't take it seriously but MAGGIE had put up a mine with her trawl. Sadly, Horace and Lily were killed and Father was so cut up about the situation, he wouldn't come home. I had to go and tell Mum what had happened'

The car park and café were then taken over by George and later by Eileen. Many coaches used it and Moore's double-decker buses used to come down from Kelvedon. The area was developed for housing in 2002.

This article is from the Back in Time series in Mersea Courier about 2006.
Gowings has generally become spelled Goings.

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Horace and Lilian Stoker - WW2 Memorial Profiles

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