5th November 1941

Not a Guy to be seen anywhere today [for Guy Fawkes Night]. Spent a lot of time searching through photos at the “Essex County Standard” tonight – a saddening job, to be reminded of many scenes with which I was familiar when I was young.

When I went to the little café tonight for supper, I thought as I walked along the cobble paving by All Saint’s Churchyard that William Wire must have walked along this very pavement. It is almost the last piece in Colchester, and shows clearly in a photo of 1858.

Lovely moonlight night, cold and still. Standing on the Castle roof, I could hear the machines at Paxman’s and Bracketts [factories], humming in the distance. No planes over.

All Saint's Church now houses Colchester's Natural History Museum. Can anyone tell me if the cobble paving that EJR mentions above remains near the Churchyard?

William Wire was a 19th century antiquarian who kept a diary of archaeological finds in Colchester from 1842-1857. EJR's decision to keep a journal had been influenced by his knowledge of Wire's diary.

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