| Having known Griffon Corner now for ninety years, I thought I would take a look at the changes that have been made.
The name has changed and most people will now know it as Tesco Corner. At one time it was also known as Digby's Corner.
The photograph here was taken by Jack Botham around 1962. It is looking southeast to the junction of Barfield Road coming in from upper left and High Street North from lower left. Mersea Avenue is lower right.
I can remember Thorp's light brown buses and coaches based at the garage on the corner before they were sold out to the Eastern National Bus Co in 1936. On the corner with Mersea Avenue, Clem Smith's shop which later became Cresta Stores has gone, as has Holly Lodge which stood opposite in Whiting's Yard. In my early memory it still belonged to the Thorp family. A small shop was built on the north end of Holly Lodge which at times sold paint, was the coal office and car sales office. There was a forge in the yard then worked by Joe Munson. I can remember hearing his hammer clanging on the anvil from my house in Barfield. On the corner opposite Griffon I did the brickwork on the new hairdresser's when working for builder G A Cock in 1958/9.
Digby's house has had changes, the shape remains the same but the shop is different. The little Home Kitchen has grown into a brick built bakery and house, the Spinning Wheel haberdashery has gone and been replaced by Mersea Cycles with my son Laurence carrying on the family tradition by site managing the project. Across the road the field between the Council Houses and Griffon Garage has been filled with the Roman Catholic Church, Clinic, Vince Close and Fire Station. Griffon Garage has relocated to Rushmere Close and been replaced by Tesco Express.
Away from the corner down Barfield Road, the Council Houses where I was born have been replaced by Harrison Court and Gray's Close.
Published in Mersea Life May 2022
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