A new social network for Walton-on-the-Naze has just been initiated by a young lady named Marie.

I am proud to be member number two and very pleased to say that after only one day of being live online it has already attracted six members.

If you have an interest in Walton-on-the-Naze why not give it a look and perhaps join the group. It’s FREE and more members will hopefully lead to more messages, ideas and discussions. If you have friends with a similar interest please send them an invite to join too.

I receive lots of questions about Walton past and present and am always pleased to assist when I can, but maybe a question on the network will open it up to a wider and more knowledgeable audience.

Take a look right now at http://walton-on-the-naze.ning.com/ 

Now this has to be the biggest and best ‘tale’ so far on this Walton Tales blog.

On the front page of this week’s Frinton & Walton Gazette there appeared this story and photo.

Apparently the new owners of The Singing Kettle restaurant in Walton’s High Street have been troubled by spirits (no – not by over imbibing them) and a ‘psychic photographer’ armed with a ‘specialist camera’ was called in to investigate. Within 30 seconds of having gone into a bathroom, apparently by himself. he emerged with the above image ‘captured on film’. According to the press report he immediately showed the picture to the restaurant owner saying “Look what I’ve got”.

Now, I’ve been taking photographs in this area for the past 50 years and although I’ve never owned a specialist ghost hunting camera, I think that I may have just bumped into an apparition somewhere during that time. I Googled for details of these ‘special cameras’ and only came up with this one

As the image was immediately viewable the photographer was obviously using a digital camera (not film). I guess that it would not take me too long to work out a way of replicating this effect.

The press article goes on to say that as the owners are new to the area they do not know the history of the site and would like to hear from anyone about its past. So here goes -

Early photographs show this plot of land to be just gardens. This picture from the church tower was taken c1900 

My earliest memory is when it was known as The Canada Bar run by Mr. Joe Collier. A favourite haunt for the local youth when a cup of coffee and a juke box was a good night out.

From memory, it later became part of the adjacent Belmont Garage where they attempted to sell power boats before reverting to a cafe/restaurant as an extension of the next-door Singing Kettle. To my knowledge nothing devious has ever happened here to encourage these so called ghostly goings on. Every ghost needs a good story to go with it. This picture was taken in 1967. If you can spot a ghost or three – let me know!

But I must extend my congratulations to the new owners for getting free, front page publicity. Now, a new spooky menu could create a rush of ghost hunter clients.   O.K. I accept that I am an old sceptic.

It was the 56th anniversary of the East Coast Floods last night. The flooding which devastated a large part of the East Coast happened during the night-time period of 31st January and 1st February 1953. 307 people died and around 24,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Walton-on-the-Naze was hit severely with the surge of water bursting the banks of the backwaters and encroaching into many homes. Walton School was flooded to a considerable depth and schoolchildren including myself were dispersed  to various locations around the town for lessons in the following weeks while the school building was being cleaned and dried out.

You can see many pictures taken in Walton on the day after the flood in the Walton Archive.

This humorous memory of the event was written by my brother Owen and is included in the book, “Memories of Walton-on-the-Naze 1900 – 1980 by those who lived here”, published recently to raise money for the restoration of All Saints Parish Church.

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Wow! I’ve just looked at the stats for the Walton Archive web site and am both pleased and amazed to learn that in the past 30 days it has received over 3,000 visits. I know this is a small amount compared to the big boys, but for me it is magnificent.

It gives me much pleasure to know that my efforts to share pictures and memories of Walton-on-the-Naze with other people are clearly worthwhile.

What’s more, looking at the map of recent visitors, my endeavours are reaching folk worldwide.