CWRA 50th anniversary

In August 2023, CWRA celebrated its 50th anniversary, and marked the occasion in style with a special lunchtime event at Chalkwell Hall in Chalkwell Park.

The event, which focused on the history of not only the Association, but also Chalkwell itself, was attended by the Mayor of Southend, Cllr Stephen Habermel and his wife, Tracy, the Mayoress.

Several people gave generously of their time and skills to help put together a wonderful snapshot of Chalkwell through the years. Local genealogist Kate Sansom researched and wrote for us an illustrated booklet on the history of Chalkwell, Simon Deacon, local surveyor and collector of historic local photographs gave a slideshow and video producer Chris Izod put together a specially commissioned video recording the memories of longstanding Chalkwell residents of their time living here. 

The celebration also included a display of local historic photographs and historic press cuttings, as well as mounted boards recording brief written memories of growing up in Chalkwell. Alongside the Chalkwell history, each guest was presented with a short history of the Association, from its beginnings in 1973 to the present day. The SS9 Bakery of Leigh-on-Sea created a beautiful cake for the occasion, and Bite Delight Canapes of Southend provided lots of beautiful and tasty canapes to accompany the free-flowing wine.

Downloads of both booklets are available via the Documents page of the website.

Any other enquiries should be made via the Contact page of our website.

Pictures from the event, below, all courtesy of John Hendry: