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Stephen Nunn goes on a trip down memory lane to Maldon's old garages

A much-loved family man who lived in Maldon for most of his life has died.

An author has died just days before the release of his book.

DO you remember the big names in Maldon that MADE things? Remember John Sadd & Sons (where my father worked from 1956 to 1978) which later became Boulton & Paul Ltd? Indeed, I worked there from 1975 to 1978. They made wooden and aluminium ladders, kitchen units, roof trusses, doors, windows, TV units and more. Stella Components was another big name making all kinds of tubular items. Ever Ready, in Heybridge, made batteries, Bentalls made farm machinery and petrol engines, they even built cars. Then there was Cooks Boatyard making Thames barges and launches until it closed in the 1980s...

MY late maternal grandmother often used to call St Peter’s Hospital ‘The Spike’. As a youngster it intrigued me, but it wasn’t until later in life that I realised why. I discovered that strange colloquial term of hers was actually a nod to the building’s past. Prior to it becoming the caring NHS establishment that we know today, it was a workhouse. Opened in 1873, it was a place dreaded by my grandmother and her contemporaries – somewhere they didn’t want to end up, hence (it turned out I wrongly supposed) the nickname – representing something sharp and somehow coldly ...