Rye House

A long time ago - in the 1970s - I worked for an Essex garage company during my university vacations. Most of the time I was on the till at the main edge-of-town location, a six-pump (or was it eight?) self-service Mobil garage in Brentwood. Some of the time I was looking after a small old town centre garage with two pumps on the forecourt, and an ancient cash register in a small office. This wasn't self-service: I had to dispense the fuel, offer to check the oil, and take the customer's money. There was one more location I worked at, a garage in Cranham in outer London, a few miles away. Why am I telling you all this? Well ... one of the workshop mechanics used to go stock car racing at Rye House Speedway, and another of the mechanics did drag racing* in a (modified, naturally) E-type Jaguar.


We passed Rye House Junction three times on our recent cruise; at the junction is the Rye House karting track. I think the speedway is next door.


A karting session was in progress as we passed.


For good measure, here's Rye House Power Station, or as much of it as I could see from the Lee.



*the drag racing would have been at Santa Pod