I was joined once again today by MIKE DAVIES, chairman of RAYLEIGH TOWN MUSEUM who has previously explained the reason for opening the museum and why he was especially keen to promote the town of Rayleigh, which was, of course the site of the only castle in Essex dating back to the time of the Domesday Book.

And the subject chosen by Mike today is one close to my heart as he was talking about the pubs of Rayleigh.

Preparing for our chat today my research revealed that over the years Rayleigh had been home to no less than 14 hostelries, some of which were not all in the centre of town, some of which like THE BULL was pretty notorious.

Anyway you can listen here to what Mike had to say about many of these establishments: –

Later in today’s programme we wondered what it must feel like to suddenly find yourself rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Now it never ceases to amaze me how some people come up with ideas that somehow catapult them into becoming the mega rich.

But incredibly 27-year old, Johnny Boufarhat achieved this status just as the country went into he first coronavirus lockdown, by launching a conferencing app called “Hopin”.

Although he’d had the idea for his app two years earlier he wasn’t able to get sufficient investment to get things moving. But by August 2021 the company had raised £335m in funding, co-led by investors. 

Mr Boufarhat said that “Hopin” started with the goal of giving people more options for meaningful seamless connection to experiences for live events and beyond, by being wherever important conversations and connections happen.

The Zoom-style app enables staff to communicate remotely and speak via video calls. It also lets companies stream live conferences over the internet.

He set up the company from his girlfriend’s bedroom after a lightbulb moment, and from there the amount of users sky-rocketed across 80,000 organisations.

And recently he made another £100m by selling part of his stake in the business.

I started out by saying that it amazes me how people come up with these ideas, but even knowing what he he did, I still can’t get my head around the concept or what makes this app stand out from the rest.

Maybe you can and if so, who knows but you could be the next major entrepreneur.

It won’t be me so expect to see me again tomorrow,
Scott