Meet the Dockers: Helen Tredoux

Helen Tredoux is the Director of Community Transport Waltham Forest (CTWF), an organisation that provides vital transport services for people with mobility challenges, community groups, and others in need of support across Newham and Waltham Forest.

In this Meet the Dockers interview, Helen shares insights into these essential services aimed at reducing social isolation among local residents. She also discusses her team’s collaboration in creating Charabancs and Cadillacs, a magical time capsule exploring Newham’s transport history, featured as part of Royal Docks Originals, a free arts festival running in the Royal Docks until 4 October 2025.

Can you tell us about Charabancs and Cadillacs and what inspired the creation of this heritage reminiscence project?
Community Transport Waltham Forest has been delivering assisted transport services in Newham since 2011. As a transport service we felt that we were an appropriate organisation to design and deliver a transport related heritage project especially as Newham boasts so many transport connections ranging from DLR to tube connections, an airport and the IFS Cable Car.

As an area that has welcomed waves of immigration over the centuries via the docks and railway construction, we wanted to highlight the significance of a trunk, symbolising how many people arrived with just a suitcase to start a new life. It’s also a way to celebrate the diverse communities and migrant narratives that have shaped Newham and the Royal Docks.

What was the process like collecting and curating the artefacts and photographs featured in the time capsule?
We used reminiscence sessions and oral histories to collect the stories contained in the collection including visits to local care homes, working with several community organisations in Newham. We also delivered a series of heritage lunches which triggered some great memories as well as trips to places of interest including Epping and Ongar Railway, London Transport Museum, trips to seaside, Cockney Museum and Milestone Museum. All our sessions were documented through evaluations and photographic records. The memorabilia displayed in the trunk was obtained through kind donations and topped up with specialist items.

How do these objects help tell the story of Newham’s transport history and its impact on people’s lives?
Our collection has been carefully assembled based on the memories and stories shared by individual participants. It covers a rich variety of themes, including immigration from St Lucia to London and the experience of many individuals who immigrated and then served overseas in the army. It also explores the history of air travel, package holidays, and trips abroad, alongside nostalgic reflections on days and evenings out, including the heyday of dressing up for a night out.

The collection highlights traditional seaside holidays, the practice of taking souvenirs home, and the popular holiday camps like Butlins, as well as caravans and camping. Childhood memories come alive with street games, skates, and skipping in Newham, while ferry memorabilia recalls journeys across the waves. Navigating London is also captured through the London A-Z and stories of travel on buses, trains, trams, and the Tube. Plus, it traces the evolution of early passenger transport through Charabancs and Cadillacs, connecting to Community Transport and the glamorous American cars of the 1950s.

What are some of the most surprising or meaningful discoveries you made while working on this project?
Hidden talents have emerged through the project, for example, one participant who is a keen writer had written her childhood history in Newham but never published it. We were able to collaborate with Newham Talking Newspaper to produce a recording of her book, which is now included in our trunk and on the website. She was proud as punch at the launch of the Trunk event, with family members in attendance. Later in the project, we discovered a colleague whose father had been a rag-and-bone man in Canning Town, and we recorded her memories, stories that might never have been captured if it weren’t for Charabancs and Cadillacs.

How have local people responded to seeing these everyday items and memories from the past seven decades?
The trunk has provided an opportunity for viewers to discuss and recollect their own memories. The tour is providing to be very popular with a wide range of organisations from schools to clubs requesting a visit. The collection has been well received.