Maura Benham [Sir W Gurney Benham's daughter] came down to Bourne Mill this morning to see Bob in his “winter plumage”. As I had Nick [a horse temporarily stabled at Bourne Mill] there in the ralli, I suggested we should go over to Fingringhoe to see Hervey [Maura's brother], which we did, but Hervey had gone down to Mersea. We drove back and I left her at Bourne Mill to collect her cycle. Within a few minutes Nick bolted at the end of Morant Road, and crashed the trap into Paxman’s fence. He went down flat on the ground, and I flew out over his head, whereupon he promptly jumped over me, dragged the trap over my legs and body, and vanished round the corner of the pigstyes. I waited for an ear-splitting crash when he tried to get the trap into the stable, but he didn’t. He stopped quietly just outside!
Both shafts are split, one hub gone, wing broken, and near side step bent back double. If I had not left Maura at Bourne Mill, she would undoubtedly have been pitched into the barbed wire on Paxman’s fence. As it is about 15 feet of the fence has come down.
To tea at Rose’s tonight, feeling so sore I don't know where to sit.
Paxman's is a major engineering firm in Colchester and was responsible for the design and manufacture of a range of diesel engines that were utilised for the war effort.
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