FOOTLOOSE IN ESSEX - SOME LOCKDOWN ARTICLES REMEMBERING SPECIAL PEOPLE

Charles & Gilbert Lowe in their Barbers' Shop

So the corona virus lockdown continues around the world and hopefully, folk have been observing the stay-at-home rules.  I haven't been out for more than six weeks, but this has not stopped the keyboard working hard. I have been renewing contacts with people whom I interviewed more than twenty years ago.  Many of them posed for pictures then which I included in some of my books and I was able to eventually return some of their voice recordings to their families.

What a joy to catch up with people who spoke about their lives growing up in Essex and for some of them, they began writing their own memory books which were published for their families.

We can still read about them in my regular on-line column entitled ENJOY BRENTWOOD MORE! There are also printed magazines under that title.

Here is the latest edition, which is number 34 in the series and mentions the Lowe brothers, Charles and Gilbert whose grandfather Morris Lowe came to Brentwood at the end of the 19th century and began started a dynasty of hairdressing and barber shops, both in the High Street and the Parade close to Brentwood station.

It was a privilege to interview Mr Lowe's grandsons in the mid-1980s just before the work started on the demolition of their shop and the start of the mighty Kingsgate office complex.