24th November 1942

Tuesday

Cloudy but fine at first, and a lovely sunny morning later on.  

Mr and Mrs Parrington went to Needham Market today to take a pig to be cured.  The old bacon factory there is still working, although in ruins, but one drying house survives and 2 or 3 tanks.  There is no roof.  The houses opposite are down.  One bomb hit the road and bounced along, just as the one did at Essex Street.  Mr. Quinton, the proprietor of the factory actually saw it coming, and was knocked unconscious by the explosion.  Few people were hurt because most of the houses nearby were timber framed and did not collapse.  

While the Parringtons were in the factory, a plane came over very low.  A little boy working there said rather anxiously “Is that one of ours?”  The foreman reassured him, and remarked “You must excuse us being a bit bomb-shy here.”  It turned out that the boy had been buried in the factory ruins and dug out almost unhurt.