THIS week in Down Memory Lane we visit a local pub, the Oak, in Lodge Lane, Sockett’s Heath Little Thurrock.

In the Thurrock Museum collection I have come across a small souvenir calendar for 1937, which is inscribed: “You are welcome all the year round at The Oak, Socketts Heath, Grays. Manager E C. Harper.”

On trying to research the history of the pub it is clear that on the 1897 ordnance survey map there were almost no buildings along this stretch of road between what we now call Piggs Corner to the Deneholes roundabout, in an area describes as Socketts Heath (was this named after a farming family of the area?).

I have received information from a local family that their father worked on building the pub, or adding an extension to it in the 1930s.

On checking the licensee’s list, the first entry is Edward Charles Harper for 1937 and in its early days it was a Charringtons’ tied pub.

My featured photograph is a postcard image taken from the Arterial London-Southend Road, an ideal spot to help road travellers on their journeys to Southend’s beaches or for business purposes (I am sure some Gazette reade’s will tell me the date of the cars or the GPO telephone box type).

What a difference today, with the A13 now taking a northerly route beyond the housing estates, but at the time I think the pub owners, retailers in the Lodge Lane shopping parade and Deneholes Garage moaned about the loss of business!

If you have any further details about the history of the Oak, I would be pleased to learn more.