He may now live in Cornwall, but Trevor Robinson keeps up with the news of his home town of Burnham.

But he was surprised to see, in cuttings from the Standard sent from his cousin in Burnham, two photographs in our Standard Memories section with links to his family.

Mr Robinson, who will be 76 this year, said: “The small boy in both photographs is my brother, who is 82 years of age this year. I have no ‘rewind’ of the man on his motorbike or his delivery van.

“The ‘hair of the dog’ photograph is of the inside of the old post office, which dad converted for his bottles of wine, etc. I had something to do with the shelving, being still an apprentice at W King and Sons boatbuilders on the quayside.

“When my parents gave up the shop, my father’s brother David took over. He had the Jolly Sailor close to the harbour in Maldon.”

Mr Robinson, from Truro, also sent us an old photograph of his father and grandfather.

“Dad is standing on the footplate of his engine and grandfather has his hand on the engine’s front wheel. I have very old photos of them replacing/rebuilding a boiler in one of their steam engines which were used for steam ploughing and for threshing machines at harvest times.

During a rail strike, father was called to run the local train from Southminster to Wickford,” he said.

“Father’s blacksmith yard was known locally by its original name AJ Robinson and Sons. Father was wellknown for his skilled work in making mast bands for R J Prior and Sons boatbuilding yard and gas welding for the Navy, which was based in the River Crouch.

“Grandfather and dad worked at steam ploughing at local farms and I also remember father being ‘made’ to lay electric cables around what was then Bradwell aerodrome early in the Second World War.”