Yesterday, P and I thought we'd have a rare day out and go and visit Leigh on Sea. We've never been there and I'd heard good reports of the town, and especially of its charity shops. Things, however, did not entirely go to plan. It was a much hotter day than either of us had expected, the traffic was terrible (I seriously had no idea there'd be THAT many cars on the road on a Friday morning,) and to top it all, when we eventually got to Leigh on Sea we couldn't find any of the car parks listed on the road map. At this point I was having serious trouble reading the A-Z but when I could see Southend pier hoving rapidly into view, I knew we'd gone just a bit too far. Eventually we gave up the idea of Leigh on Sea and visited Westcliff-on-Sea instead.
Luckily, there you could park quite easily along the esplanade but we didn't hang around to look at the sea, we headed up the hill to the town centre. After a rather tasty pub lunch and a long, cool drink I carried on in my search of the charity shops. Two of those listed on the Charity Shop Locator website had closed down but I managed to find another that wasn't listed as yet.
I had a couple of good finds including this Knitting Patterns for Dummies book which gives lots of basic patterns for all sorts of items with ideas of how to size them up or down or make changes to customise the patterns - my ideal sort of knitting instructions, ie not too detailed.
In the same charity shop - Sue Ryder - I also got the chunkiest pair of knitting needles I've ever seen, 20mm thick and 40cm long. I'm pretty sure they'll come in useful one day. I also found a couple of Ann Harvey tops for £1.00 each on the reduced rail in another charity shop, which made the day out a lot more worthwhile for me. They're both in the wash at the moment but one of them should be lovely in the autumn.
Thankfully, the journey home was a lot less uneventful as we headed directly for A127 and just followed that back to Nevendon - which was just as well as both of us by this time were hot, bothered and ready to leave the ferocious amount of traffic well behind us.
Oh what a shame! I'm originally from Southend and can vouch that the charity shops in Leigh can be great. There's also one in Southend that can be good too. My mum is an expert on them all and regularly sends me little parcels!
Posted by: Catherine | 08/06/2011 at 02:06 PM
Leigh is a hidden gem and hidden indeed it is! It's taken me loads of trips to finally get it nailed and find a little tucked away car park. You really must go back though and if you go on the 14th September the vintage and handmade fair will be on which is truly amazing, 3 times the size of the chipping sodbury one!!!
Posted by: clairemackaness | 08/06/2011 at 02:10 PM
Speaking of the Charity Shop Locator, have you ever looked at Ipswich. There seriously are a tonne there, a lot within the town centre and along one particular road.
It's been a while since I have actually been there, and I remember there being a lot of them, although not so many as on the Charity Shop Locator. They weren't too expensive then either.`
Posted by: Andy Austin | 08/06/2011 at 06:21 PM
Those are awesome finds!
Posted by: kathleen | 08/07/2011 at 04:59 AM
Good buys; I swear by the 'Knitting for Dummies' book, its been a real lifesaver for me!
Posted by: Vintage Knitter | 08/07/2011 at 05:35 PM
Those needles will be brilliant for knitting cotton shopping bags. I can't remember the pattern name but Lion cotton has a great "eco-friendly" shopping bag on line somewhere. My son's gf has the pattern so I don't have the link.
Posted by: Linda | 08/08/2011 at 06:18 PM
I loathe Leigh - I go with high hopes and am always disappointed. Admittedly, I don't go to the charity shops there, and the fabric shop is fab, but the parking is atrocious, there are far too many shops selling posh tat, the cafes have so-so service and in the final insult, the butcher refused to joint a rabbit for me. I am miserable after nearly every visit, and have stopped going.
Posted by: Ponytail | 08/12/2011 at 09:07 AM