William Stevens has a fifty year association with Jaywick. Originally from Colchester, William’s full time association with Jaywick began when he married Pam, the daughter of the owner of Dot’s news agents, the famous landmark in Jaywick.
Mr William Stevens chats to the students
“My first impressions of Jaywick when I used to come here originally as a young boy was it was very busy. It was vastly different to what it is today.”
William took on Dot’s newsagents when his father-in-law passed away and it is still very much a staple ingredient of the Broadway in Jaywick. But Dot’s wasn’t always based on the Broadway. It started out as a beach hut along the seafront. William’s father-in-law had a sister called Dot who’d been quite ill and she needed something to do. Jaywick was then developing; it was only barely a year old. His father-in-law rented a hut on the beach for ten pounds a month in 1930 for the first location of Dot’s. Dorothy managed the shop and it became fondly known as ‘Dot’s’ by everyone in Jaywick. Dot’s grew and grew until what it’s become today. Of course there has been a war, floods and ups and downs in between that’s affected it over the years.
A little known fact about Dot’s the newsagents is it was the first building in the Clacton area to have a television set. “My father-in-law with his father had an electrical business in Clacton. Televisions were in their infancy in the 1950s and they thought they’d try it out and take advantage of their high building. In 1954 they put a 90ft Ariel on top and got the first television pictures in Jaywick. They had quite a crowd in front room to look at them. The TV picture was interrupted by signal interference every time a car drove past and this was the case up until the 1960s when cars had suppressors put in them.
Mr Stevens is the Chairman for the local history society in Jaywick and they house a magnificent collection of old photographs, including one of the TV Ariel. He would be happy for anyone to contact him for further information or if you wish to donate pictures to the archive.
http://jaywicklocalhistorysociety.co.uk/
