16th May 1943

Sunday

Slept from 12 till 6, and again until 8.  Busy all morning.  

I hear that the damage at Chelmsford is very bad, several hundred houses down.  No telephones working yet, except official calls.  Some people say about 30 dead and 60 in hospital.

Saw Hill Farm, West Bergholt, this afternoon, which was quite demolished.  Only the end room remains.  Mr and Mrs Evans had gone into a shelter only 10 minutes before, but the maid stayed in the house, in the room which is still standing.  W. Bergholt has had 8 or 9 lots of bombs since 1940.  I suppose they must aim at the Brewery.

Yesterday Emerson the blacksmith came in, and said his appeal to the Ministry of Labour had been turned down, and he is forbidden to leave Paxman’s.  By this insane decision the Board has turned a good hard working craftsman into an embittered slacker, and has deprived the farmers of the Bergholt area of a much needed service.  How many times must this case be multiplied up and down the country?