Title:
Interview with Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne
Level: Category
Sound Archive
Level: Fonds
ESSEX RECORD OFFICE
Level: Series
Headline History
Scope and Content:
Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne (b.1930) and Mrs Thelma Payne (b.1931) talk to Stephen Hussey about Canvey Island and the 1953 floods.

(0:20) Thelma born in Greenwich. Donald born in Reading. Donald moved to Canvey Island aged 3. Thelma worked in London. Stayed in Canvey for a holiday. Donald on leave from Army. Met on the seafront. Will be their Golden Wedding in 2001. (3:20) Canvey used to be fields. Had to pay a penny for water at the village pump. Donald remembers living at Winter Gardens in a tin bungalow. Donald’s family splitting up. Father was in Royal Artillery in First World War. Mother bringing up seven children alone. Moving about six times as a child. (6:20) Mother being rescued from bungalow during the floods. Pushing Donald in a pushchair to Benfleet every Friday to get 2 pounds 6 shillings worth of coupons. Donald called up in 1948. Stationed at Portsmouth. (10:20) A lot of people having holidays on Canvey. A lot of farms. Council houses being built on Thames Crescent and North Avenue. The seawall being changed after the floods. The seafront and seawall during the floods. (13:50) Getting out of the bungalow. Remembering the water coming in and the cold. Thelma was seven months pregnant. Getting into house next door. People shouting for help. Putting Thelma in a tin bath. (18:20) Looting on Canvey. Donald trying to salvage things. (21:00) Remembering it being a terrible gale. Having a premonition. Two days beforehand the British Railways steamer, The Princess Victoria, sank in the Irish Sea. Combination of being a full moon, the gales and spring tides. Most properties were holiday chalets. People dying from drowning but mostly from exposure. (25:00) Talks about Reggie Morgan, a taxi driver, and his family dying. Donald rowing to Reggie’s bungalow. Finding about £14 in there. (28:00) Staying with Thelma’s father in Mottingham, South East London. Daughter, Janet, born in Farnborough, Kent. Remembering animals being drowned. Troops filling up sandbags. ‘The King Canute’ being headquarters for troops. Not realising the danger of the seawall. The Thames Barrier protecting London from being flooded.

Dates of Creation:
12 November 1999
Extent:
32 minutes
Archivist Note:
Synopsis prepared by Carol Sudkamp.
Copyright:
Copyright: Essex Record Office, 2000
Originals Location:
Essex Sound and Video Archive
Publication Notes:
Some excerpts from the interview can be heard on the audio CD which accompanies the book, 'Headline History: One hundred years of Essex history from the pages of the Essex Chronicle newspaper' - Essex Record Office Publication No.142 (Essex County Council, 2000).

Key terms

TypeKey termsDescription
Subjects Floods Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne, 1999
Subjects Weather Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne, 1999
Place Names Canvey Island Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne, 1999
Place Names Canvey Island Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne, 1999
Document Types Sound recording Headline History Project – Mr Donald Payne and Mrs Thelma Payne, 1999