Where do I start re memories of this pub.
I was taken there when I was 1 month old. My
mum and dad had been going there since 1947. They were members of the
Ilford Road club. Which was a cycling club. The pub was a well known stop
for cycling clubs. Jack Murphy the tenant, I believe was there just before
the war. He use to put on cycling club teas, in a room to the left of the
main bar area as you walked in.
I have got pictures of the cycling club at the
pub here, from those days.
When I was young we had many picnics on
Navestock Heath in front of the pub. And I was frequently taken out there
with my brother in the 1960's during summer evenings. We played cricket on
the heath and me and my brother had orange squash, whilst mum and dad had
something a little stronger. I always liked the big Arrow Root biscuits,
which were 1 (old) penny each. As the years went on they got smaller.
There were always many many young families out
at the Plough in the summer evenings in the 1960's and 1970's. It was a
lovely location with the heath in front.
In the 1960's my father was a member of a
club and they use to arrange a meeting out there once a year in the
1960's, just as the cycling club did in the 1940's, they hired the small
room on the left.
Then there was the time my father decided to
fly a kite from the heath, but it got caught in the power lines. But he
managed to get it down.
Jack Murphy and his wife retired from the
Plough in about 1981.
My dad told me that Jack had kept the pub
virtually as it was when he took it over, as it had not appeared to have
changed since my dad started going there in the late 1940's.
Yes many nice memories of the Plough of
Navestock.
