Landermere Quay, where the land meets the sea, is a tiny hamlet near the village of Thorpe-le-Soken in the Essex marshes. Easier to access by sea than by road, it’s been home to my mother’s family – the Hendersons – since the 1950s when my great-grandparents bought the smugglers’ pub (The Kings Head) and the fishermen’s cottages (Gull Cottages) as a suitable home for my grandparents Nigel and Judith Henderson, who had until then been living in Chisenhale Road, Bethnal Green, with their three children Jo, Justin (my mother) and Ned. Their fourth child Stephen was born when they were living at the Kings Head.
The family moved to Landermere when Justin was eight – at this stage Jo would have been nine and Ned a baby. Steve was born three years later.
Justin died in 2007 so I can’t ask her for any more stories, but I have memories of her telling us that when she was a child there was a pony, possibly a Shetland; and multiple cats (the ones Mum used to talk about especially were called Bouncer and Camilla).
I do know that there were other families living at Landermere. Judith (my grandmother) was an anthropologist who was involved in the Mass Observation project in the East End after the second world war. Her project was called Discover Your Neighbour – and her part revolved around the family who lived next door in Chisenhale Road, Leslie and Doreen Samuels and their seven boys. When Nigel and Judith moved to Landermere, they took the Samuels family with them and gave them one of the cottages to live in – it’s still owned by Peter Samuels (one of the seven sons) now.
Nigel was one of the foremost artists of the Independent Group, and his colleague and friend Eduardo Paolozzi also moved to Landermere with his wife Freda; between them they formed Hammer Prints, which was run largely from the Kings Head.
There are lots of other stories about Landermere from before I was born – hopefully I’ll dredge the memory banks at some stage – but if you have any memories or photographs of Landermere you’d like to share, please let me know and I’ll happily publish them.
Landermere Memories 
I vaguely remember a story about a little postman that was routinely chased by a permanently enraged heron called Hank, who lived in the outside loo. I think Jo is the custodian of that particular story!
Ooh, I’ll have to ask her! Thanks Sis 🙂 xx
Another resident at Landermere at one time was (Sir) Basil Spence, architect of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral; and don’t forget the placard on the end cottage showing that it once belonged to Sir William Withey Gull, physician to Queen Victoria and at one time suspected of being Jack the Ripper. He is buried in the village churchyard.
Hank was the heron found by Francis Morland having fallen from his nest. His major place of residence was on the seat of the outside lavatory where the conservatory is today, and would give visitors a shock if they mistook it’s door for the entrance to the King’s Head; great glee for our family if we were lucky enough to see it. Hank was about as tall as our postie, Jackie, who was a dwarf and was fair game for Hank. Jackie could just see over the stable door into the house and we always knew he was around because of his amazing whistling abilities.
I had a friend, Dick Mayhew, who moved to no 8 Gull Cottages in about 1976. He had been taught by Paolozzi. Unfortunately I lost touch with Dick and have never been able to find what happened to him.
I’m not in touch with him, but I know my mum knew him and I have met him. I think you might find him here: https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/day-of-protest-at-container-port-plan-1-64462
Sorry forgot to mark pose notify boxes on last comment.
I’ve just found your lovely site and thought I would share my memories of Landermere.
My family Alfred and June Thorne) holidayed at number 9 Gull Cottages and then number 8 for 5 summers, starting in 1969. I was 7 and my brother 5 . Judith rented us the cottages for 3 weeks each summer ( I think she sadly passed away during this period. )
I remember arriving in our estate car, packed to the gunwales, towing a dingy with outboard and dog ( very naughty beagle!!)
I remember The Samuels , we looked after their ferrets one year while they went away. They had a huge bear like dog called Bjarn . We played with Emma Paolozzi one summer and the grandchildren of The Crosses who lived in the house further down the lane , overlooking the landing stage. My Dad helped dig the mud by the landing stage, to deepen it I think.
We had so many adventures and my childhood memories are dominated by our summers there.
We visit when we can but were last there in 2018 for a celebratory picnic.
Hi Fran, how lovely to hear from you! The Samuels family still have the cottage next door – you may remember Peter, whose grown-up children are the ones who mostly use it now. And my sister and I used to play with Louise Paolozzi’s daughter Ella when we were little. Judith died in 1972 so you’re spot on with the dates.
Hi Nell
Thank you for your welcome. I am finding all the snippets of Landermere memories really enjoyable. I’ve also found a book which I’ve ordered called Stories of my childhood by Karin Tesdorf. Looking forward to reading that. Guess she is your great grandmother??
Do you still visit or do you live there too? Think Stephen and family were living at Kings Head ? Assume they still are, who would ever want to leave???
I do remember a big Samuels family and am glad Peter is still there. I remember playing with a girl called Teresa I think , she lived in the bend of the lane going away from Landermere uni e if the brown semis ( farmer workers cottages maybe) We all got stubble cuts from playing in the cut cornfields that year.
Happy days and you very lucky to spend time in such a beautiful, special place. My mum calls it a ‘ thin space’ . Where heaven and earth are in very close parallel.
Glad you’re enjoying it, I’ve been here full time for the last few months (not a bad place to quarantine!) and I’ve been taking lots of photos which I should put up.
Karin Tesdorf is no relation actually – just a shared first name. Mum’s “Granny Karin” was Karin Stephen, nee Costelloe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Stephen)
Stephen and family are indeed still at the Kings Head, but the farm workers’ cottages are now privately rented.
My Mother, Hilary Cotton was a friend of Nigel & Judith. I spent much of my early childhood at Landermere in and around the Kings Head. Happy memories!
I have vague memories of a Hilary, I wonder if I’m remembering your mother. Could she have been around in the early 80s?
Hello Nellmead, just discovered your excellent website. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to contact Stephen recently. But now I’m able to write to you.
I could give you many memories of the Kings Head because my family used to drive your great granny’s car, our close friend Karen’s, from London in the 1940’s and 50’s. I remember when Justin’s (your mother I think) family arrived for holidays from Bethnal Green in a posse of East End energy, often on bikes with friends.
You’ll no doubt know that one of my Mother’s books, Jean MacGibbon’s ‘Liz’, was based in the Hamford and the characters are based on your mother’s generation of Hendersons..
And much, much more sometime…which I’d love to share.
Meantime, can you help me contact Stephen or maybe we could talk. I have plans for a holiday there in 2021.
One of my sons wants to base his Wayfarer near by if possible.
You have my email and or my phone number here in London, 0207267 2757, or 077 99 621 443.
With anticipation, Robert.
Hi Robert, how lovely to hear from you! I’ve just passed your details onto Steve and asked him to contact you… and no, I didn’t actually know about your mother’s book, but I’ve just gone onto Amazon and bought it, so I look forward to reading it during the next lockdown, what fun, thank you!
Best, Nell
Thanks…..and maybe sometime I can riminess about a lot more of the 1940s and 50s.
Hello Nell, Why I am trying to contact Stephen is because I am thinking of basing a summer holiday for some of my family on the Hamford with a few sailing dinghies. Does anyone at Landermere rent accommodation/cottage these days, as a base with/without tents too ?
Yrs, Robert.
Hi
I had a friend called Dick Mayhew who lived in 8 Gull Cottages in the late 1970s. I wondered if anyone on here knew him and what happened to him.
Hi David, I did my best to answer this before. We’re not in touch, but I think he might be in Harwich? I found this: https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/day-of-protest-at-container-port-plan-1-64462
Nell
I found in the article you pointed me at that Dick lived in Dovercourt and was an artist (I knew the latter). I contacted the Dovercourt art society and several people knew him. It appears he now has dementia and wouldn’t know anybody so I am too late. But at least I know what has happened to him. So thanks again for getting back to me. really helpful.
David
Hi David
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, I didn’t know. That’s incredibly sad news. Thanks for letting me know.
Best, Nell
Sadly Dick Mayhew (Artist) recently passed away. Last week a small memorial was held for family and friends in Harwich where some of his work was exhibited.
Nell, Sorry I missed your last reply and thank you very much for finding this reference to Dick. I couldn’t finf anything in my searches. This very much sounds like Dick. When I met him he ran a TV repair shop on the Archway Road in London (Mick and Dick TV Repairs). But he studied under Paolozzi and he once introduced me to Ben Nicholson in a pub. I am afraid to say I was too callow to know who he was. I will do a bit more searching. Dick would be in his mid to late 70s bow and would not have led the most abstemious life but you never know. Thanks again for getting back to me.
David Quinn.
Nellmead,
So, we’re going back over 60 years here. My brother Peter and I lived at Kentshill Farm up on the hill behind Landermere. My parents moved there in 1946, and my mother would often take us down to Landermere to swim. I was about 7 when your grandparents moved to the Kings Head. My mother, Barbara Webbe, became good friends with Judith . I regret to say my memories of the house were mainly culinary – Judith made amazing fried bread, and at the house I was also introduced to apple crumble. I also remember frenetic sessions of Racing Demon.
Seems to me Peter and I spent a lot of time with Drusilla and Justin, both at Landermere and at Kentshill. It was on Peter the Pony that I learned to ride. Peter had during his long career (he was then 25) pulled a baker’s cart and given rides on the beach. Prior to coming to Landermere he had belonged to a girl who allowed him to come into the house and he found it hard to understand that this was no longer permitted. Later Peter came to live with us at Kentshill. I think he was into his 30s when a mare was put into the field next door and Peter damaged himself badly trying to get to her through the hedge and that unfortunately was his lot.
Picking up on other comments – Lillie – I think the postman you are referring to was Jackie, who if I remember rightly married Dawn Mayhew. The Mayhews used to live in a cottage at Kentshill. When Mr. Mayhew died, Mrs. Mayhew moved to Byng Crescent with Dawn and her brother Peter.
Perry Jones – you mention Hilary Cotton – could that be the Hilary Cotton who was married to Donald Cotton who wrote scripts for Dr Who ?. They lived for a time in one of the cottages at Kentshill.
My brother Peter still lives locally, but I flew the coup 50 years ago – the last 35 years I’ve been living in New Jersey. Good to dig into the memory bank occasionally – please let me know if you have any questions you think I might be able to answer
Best regards
Kit Webbe
Hi Kit, thank you so much, this is so interesting, I love hearing all the old stories. Peter (the pony) sounds like a real character.
The Dansie family now live at Kentshill, so it’s still very connected with Landermere. And Mum (Justin) was always obsessed with Racing Demon, and taught us both when we were very small.
Nell x
Dear Nell, we stayed occasionally at Landermere with the Dansies in the 50s and 60s as our parents Simon and Hylda Bennett were huge bird-watchers and loved taking us on cold, windy walks to look for birds. Oliver Dansie was our doctor in Old Welwyn in Hertfordshire and I used to baby-sit his children. We also visited Eduardo and Freda whenever we were there and I remember the Hendersons too. Sadly our parents passed in 2012 and I believe Oliver passed away before them. Jane Norris (now living in Oregon in the US)
Hi Nell, I’m Kit’s brother. My first knowledge of Landermere was at the age of 2. My parents had been invited to drinks by Col Balfour. My mother was drinking scotch and left it on the floor. Being mobile I decided to try some. I was carried home on my father’s back but wasn’t sick.
Drusilla, me, Justin and kit played together in the mid fifties and Peter the pony was bought by my mother because there wasn’t enough grazing in the orchard and we had plenty. He was in excess of 30 and would escape once a year. On this occasion I was looking for him in Landermere at dusk. As the light faded I could see someone coming towards me with a lit cigarette. I said and did nothing as passed within 2 feet of me, had I done so I’m sure his bum would have gone from 6 pence to half a crown.
They were wonderful times bathing, especially in the evenings when the water came in over the hot estuary mud making it feel more like bath time. A contemporary of your mother would have been Betsy Bearder whom I announced to my mother that I was in love with. Yes dear was her only reply.
Another occupant of Gull cottage was John Hutton, the designer of Coventry Cathedral’s glass.
Did you by any chance go to gymnastic class at Landermere school? I’m sure that there was a Henderson hat went there, could be one of Steve’s.
Thank so much for your web page, it has brought back many happy memories.
Peter Webbe
Hi Peter, lovely to hear from you, thank you for the comment! I think I got drunk at Landermere for the first time aged 2 as well… Mum (Justin) left her glass of red wine on my high chair, and apparently I thought it was Ribena and necked it. She didn’t notice until I started meowing!
I didn’t go to Landermere School – Mum was the Henderson, not me. When are you talking? As you say, could have been one of Steve’s!
Hi Nell. So glad I found your website. Landermere is one of the most treasured places in my life. My parents. the Dunbar’s, rented one of Gull Cottages in the mid 60’s and we spent most weekends there for a couple of years before they found Marsh House, a bigger place beyond the dump in Kirby le Soken. Please send my love to Ned, he was a special mate I sadly lost touch with after Judith died. The Kings Head was an amazing place to be in the 60’s: Lou Paolozzi who was my first girlfriend; Ned and I renovating Justin’s abandoned Lambretta – Justin was a mod “face”, Dusty Springfield’ish & very stylish; Lamb roasts and fireworks on the beach at Guy Fawkes; Ned and I spending an entire summer sanding and painting a dinghy only for his cousin Tom to impale it on one of the jetty’s uprights seconds after it’s first launch; endless football on the lawn – Ned and I v my bothers Nathan & Sean and Paul Samuels; moonlit football on a stubble field Christmas 1968 and us stopping to try to spot Apollo 8 orbiting the moon; Nigel’s poison plant garden; The White album, Satanic Majesties Request; Every Picture Tells a Story ; Peter, Doreen and Les, Bjarn; Les playing piano at parties, Francis Moreland building a fibre-glass boat – legally used to shoot the Snow Goose and not connected to luxury cars in any way; Dick Mayhew cooking multicoloured rice & Laughing Gravy, his ferret. Nigel teaching Ned and I how to dev and print; Mud, mud, mud – and the only warm bath available; 2 BBC chaps scouting the King’s Head as a location who Nigel plied with enough home-made rice wine to induce them to go bathing in the creek in winter – at low tide. Following the Kinks; Weeley festival – selling underground papers for Jo and her husband. Happy times.
Much love to you and all your family.
Rob Dunbar
Oh my god, this is wonderful. I grew up knowing your name, but I had no idea it was attached to a real person. You know how the Hendersons love wordplay? Welll, in our house, “Rob Dunbar” became bastardised (and immortalised) into “wrong number”. So the phone would ring, Mum (Justin) would answer it and put it down: “who was it?” “oh, Rob Dunbar. Again.”
So lovely to hear from you, and you clearly have a million stories. Would you be up for providing the site with the odd post, maybe? I will certainly pass your love to Ned, who’s now Norfolk based, and a grandfather of three! 🙂
Hi Nell
I hope you do not mind me contacting you.
I am a passionate fan of the BBC’s 1971 television production of Paul Gallico’s “The Snow Goose” , and over the years have been attempting to create an archive of photographs as my personal tribute to the actors and crew who made this, now sadly forgotten movie, such an unforgettable experience for me.
Landermere was one of the locations used for the filming of “The Snow Goose”, so if you know of anyone who took photos during its production in June 1971, please would it be possible for them to contact me ?
Any assistance that you, or anyone else, can give in my quest would be greatly appreciated.
Kindest regards.
Dave Curtis
Nell,
I was a schoolfriend of Steve and am determined to meet up with him again because your stories and those of people close to your lovely Mum and Ned and Steve bring so many warm memories flooding back to me.
I remember not only fantastic moonlit excursions with Steve over the mars, mudfights in the summer with hundreds of combatants, late night gin rummy marathons, summer parties with a James Taylor lookalike singing You’ve Got a Friend with a guitar (I hope somebody recalls his name) but even more I remember breakfast before the world was awake by the Aga with Steve, honey on the comb (on toast) and Steve’s lovely Springer Spaniel Jess. There are many more stories and perhaps Steve doesn’t know how much of an impression your family had on me as a teenager. Your Mum was always lovely to me and made an awkward teenage boy feel like he was more grown up than he really was. Ned was crazy and so much fun and Steve was, and probably still is one of the most honest and true people I have ever met. How did we ever grow apart?
I lived in one of the cottages around 1970 when I was a student at Essex. Nigel actually was a big influence on my life. I also remember Steve and Justin. I actually saw some of Steve’s sculptures at a gallery in Essex or Suffolk not that many years ago. Landermere Quay was a magnificently wild and splendid place, I had a friend with a boat who sailed round and anchored there and picked me up in a rowboat.
Hello Nell, my name is Steve Morris. My family and I used to stay at Landermere in one of the coastgard cottages in the early fifty’s, as they were friends of your great grandmother Karen, having met in London in the circle of Psychoanalysts at the Institute. Dad (Ben Morris) had tried to become an analyst but became ill and went into Education, becoming a professor at Bristol University. Your grandmother used to come and stay with us in Essex sometimes, and taught me some card games, like Patience, and ‘Strip Jack Naked (Pontoon). I was about four onwards in this friendship. I have memories of her in her sailing Dingy with my brother and the Hutton boys, Kaily and Wocky (Spelling?) and Judith, her daughter. There are photographs of all this in the publication ‘Moving and Growing’, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1952 with photographs taken by Mrs.E.Tudor Hart. If you can find a copy I’m the little lad in short trousers holding out my hands to catch a ball. If it is unobtainable I can scan and send some. Your great grandmother’s dog also figures in one.
Much later I went to Landermere to take photos and write some poems, and stayed with Nigel and Judith for two nights. They were very hospitable. On my second day there a young man came to look at the landscape with the idea of filming the Snow Goose, and I remember the lunch vividly.
I used to trot down the road when I was little, to call on Alison, who gave me chocolate. I remember the name Col. Balfour, but have no memory of this personage, just the sense that he must be impressive.
More later perhaps. I now live in Gloucestershire, and work as a psychotherapist.
Best wishes, Steve Morris
I to have wonderful memories of Landermere albeit of the early years of 1940 wartime and early post war years. As young boys and girls Landamere was the only access to the water for us as the local beaches were forbidden areas for us to swim both heavily guarded and fenced off . I lived with my parents Stanley and Lillian Jarrold and younger brother David at the Follies, Frinton road Thorpe le Soken and until l was eleven years of age attended Rolph School in the village, the Head master Mr Corket very much a disciplinarian. My father worked for the Somerlite Oil Company a Colchester firm owned by by
Charles Brown and Son with his depot in the High street Thorpe le Soken. I can remember being a Saturday assistant ! helping to deliver paraffin heating oil plus candles, washing soap flakes, candles and matches to the local villages and the cottages at the Landermere .
I remember Colonel Balfour who lived at the Quay side as the Honorary Colonel of the local Army Cadet Force that l was a member of based in Station road Thorpe le Soken. In the summer holidays we Camped in his garden in ex army tents and cooking baked potatoes over a open fire, wonderful times.
Jackie the Postman was the local
” postie” out in all weathers always with a smile and laugh.
In later years when we visited the Cinema , the Essoldo or Century in Clacton of a weekend Jackie always came with us village lads who kept a weather eye out for him.
I have very special memories of days spent swimming and exploring both Landermere and Beaumont Cut another adventure was to Skippers Island. I also learnt to sail there with a local returned army veteran in a home made dinghy he made from redundant Tea Cases and Tar paper, he was a carpenter then working for Wardleys the Builders, Frinton on Sea.
My brother David was apprenticed to Strutt and Parker who farmed the surrounding country side. I believe his home the was Kent’s hall cottages and his son Nicholas still lives at the top of New Hall lan, he also spent his working life with Strutt and Parker. I am so pleased to find these articles and hope you do not mind me sharing my memories with you. I do have a war time tale of a USAAF P38 aircraft crash landing in the field close by if any one is interested . Thank you.
Roland Jarrold ( Roly)
Hi Roland , thank you for your lovely memories. I believe that there was a gun emplacement near to the king’s head intended to try to bring down ‘doodle bugs’ if they over shot their intended target of Harwich docks which are visible from Landermere, can you remember where the guns were or any more stories of that time? Troops were stationed in the kings head during the war and when they left they deposited masses of glass in the mud close to the house and I’ve still got the scar !