27th October 1939

Work began yesterday taking down the old house in Culver Street. At first they allowed the ARP Demolition men to go at it like mad bulls, smashing and crashing with axes and hammers. I went to see Orchard (of Colchester Borough Corporation's Engineer's Department) and told him that this would not do, so he agreed, with bad grace to employ carpenters when it comes to taking down the actual hall.

The [Museum] Committee have agreed that the hall timbers may be stored in the Castle, where they will no doubt make an untidy pile for years to come.

2 comments:

Jane said...

I believe these timbers are still displayed to this day in the Castle on the ground floor!

E J Rudsdale said...

Thanks Jane, you are quite right about this and the blog will be revealing more details on this over the next few weeks. CP