Three alarms today, 9.30-10, 1.25-1.50, (right in my lunch hour), and 6.30-6.45, which caught me in Jacklin’s having tea, which I had to leave unfinished. Very few people came in for any of these.
Attended a meeting tonight in the Mayor’s Parlour on Horse ARP. All the prominent horse owners in the town were present (and me!) and we sat from 7pm till half past 9 listening to Murphy [the vet in charge of ARP arrangements for animals], Orchard and Rendell talking the most utter rubbish I have ever heard.
The Mayor sat there like a hero, never showing the slightest sign of the boredom and annoyance which he must have felt. Finally he got Orchard down from £100 to £25 for the job of fixing 60 or 70 iron rings in various pub yards. The total cost for the whole job should not be more than £5, but the Borough Engineer’s Dept. now has the matter in hand, which makes a slight difference. No doubt this will be one of those useful little jobs which can be used as a “cover” for the deficiencies in other jobs.
There was a great argument about the number of horses in Colchester. Murphy said he could only trace 137, (including 60 on the Co-op), but I said there were at least 300, and was quite unbelieved. However, as soon as I got home I looked up my old notes on horses, and found I was right, although there have been sad losses in the last few years, but against them not a few fresh horses have come in.
From the tone of this meeting it is obvious that Murphy, aided and abetted by Nicholson of Drury Farm, are going to obstruct as much as possible. It was agreed to levy a charge of so much per horse from each owner, to pay Orchard’s £25 and the cost of printing cards giving a list of all stables available for shelter.
Rang Parrington tonight about flails and corn chaff.
[EJR included an estimated list of the number of horses and ponies in Colchester in September 1940 at the end of his diary entry for today as follows]:
Brewers (and Mineral water manufacturers): 8
Builders: 3
Butchers: 2
Carters: 25
Coal-merchants: 45
Forage merchants: 70
Grocers/Bakers: 32
Milkmen: 23
and c.40 farm horses and c.60 Co-op horses
For more information on Eric's campaign to gain air raid protection for horses see his previous diary entry for 10th July 1940.
4th September 1940
There was an alarm at 9am, and bombs fell in the distance towards the South. Another at 9.30 tonight, lasting on to just after midnight.
3rd September 1940
There was an alarm from 10.15 – 11am, only 78 came in. Another alarm 9 – 10.30pm. Only 8 in, and they did not stay. Beautiful fine hot day. Park crowded.
2nd September 1940
Found the [railway] line at Shenfield is likely to be blocked for a day or two, [owing to an unexploded bomb].
An alarm this afternoon from 4.45 – 5.30. 137 people came in. We get quite big crowds in daytime. “All Clear” sounded conveniently in time for tea.
An alarm this afternoon from 4.45 – 5.30. 137 people came in. We get quite big crowds in daytime. “All Clear” sounded conveniently in time for tea.
1st September 1940
This morning Maitland [Eric's cousin] and I walked down by the River [at Maidenhead], watching boats go through Bouter’s Lock, and after lunch went over to say goodbye to Margery [Eric's cousin] at Shurlock Row.
Margery’s cousins from Chelmsford were there, and it was an impressive fact that [there was] not a single person present but what had been too near to a bomb for comfort. Even Shurlock Row has continual planes over every night looking for Waltham Aerodrome. So far as I know they have only hit it once. Chelmsford has had two or three people killed, and several bombs right in the town.
We all sat in the garden for half an hour in the sunshine, and I ate plums fallen on the grass, as I used to do as a child. Then we all left, and back to Maidenhead to tea and then down to the station.
The train [from London] stopped at every station [the journey was diverted to avoid an unexploded bomb on the railway line at Brentwood], and we did not reach Colchester until 9.30pm.
Margery’s cousins from Chelmsford were there, and it was an impressive fact that [there was] not a single person present but what had been too near to a bomb for comfort. Even Shurlock Row has continual planes over every night looking for Waltham Aerodrome. So far as I know they have only hit it once. Chelmsford has had two or three people killed, and several bombs right in the town.
We all sat in the garden for half an hour in the sunshine, and I ate plums fallen on the grass, as I used to do as a child. Then we all left, and back to Maidenhead to tea and then down to the station.
The train [from London] stopped at every station [the journey was diverted to avoid an unexploded bomb on the railway line at Brentwood], and we did not reach Colchester until 9.30pm.
31st August 1940
My day to go to Maidenhead. Awakened by sirens at 8 o’clock, so I rushed up to the Castle unwashed and unfed. While I was on the roof a big flock of planes came over from the W. at a great height, and I could hear machine gun fire, and suddenly in the midst of it the scream of falling bombs.
One bomb had fallen slap in the middle [of Roman Road] at the top end, near Castle Road, right outside the house where Councillor Cross lives. The next bomb fell on two old timber cottages in Land Lane, next to Maydays, and demolished them, though miraculously without injuring the occupants. A third bomb was in a yard at the back of Boast’s, the Coach builder, on East Hill, which damaged a house on East Hill and slightly injured a woman. [Later note]: (She died about a year later). A fourth bomb was in a field in Whitehall Road, and a fifth on the Sewage Works, where a pipe was broken.
Scores of incendiary bombs also fell, doing little damage, at the bottom of Brook St. Others were in Land Lane and Magdalene St. and Barrack St., all quite harmless.
As soon as we got an All Clear I went off to see the damage, and then went round to Rose’s to get some breakfast. Having heard of incendiary bombs near Paxman’s, I decided to go down to see if the stables were damaged, but no sooner had I got there then the sirens went again, so back to the Castle. ...
I decided to catch the 5.35 to London, but found it had been cancelled. The next was the 6.13, but at 6 o’clock there was another alarm, and all passengers were made to shelter in the new subways. Jack Geerneant was there going back from a fortnight’s leave from Stanmore Aerodrome. The London train came in, so we travelled together in company with a private in the Coldstream Guards and a very drunk Scottish engineer in the R.N.V.R. The train crawled along at 15 m.p.h. as far as Ingatestone, where an All-Clear was given, and finally got to Liverpool Street at 8.30. I went to have a drink with Jack, and got across to Paddington at 9.15, to find no train before 10.5, and that would not get to Maidenhead before 11. I tried to ring Aunt’s next door neighbour to explain this, but could not get through, and almost at once a dreadful amplifier arrangement in the roof announced another raid.
The train left sharp on time. At Taplow we could see searchlights wandering all over the sky, and leaving Maidenhead Station I heard with a sinking heart the familiar hum of a German plane. Even here there was no escape from them.
Events on 31st August 1940 marked the largest operation to date by the Luftwaffe in the course of the Battle of Britain. For more detail on events in the Battle of Britain for 31st August 1940 see the Battle of Britain Diary Day by Day and the Battle of Britain Memorial website. CP
30th August 1940
Alarm today at 4.15pm when more than 200 people came into the Vaults. Hot day.
For more detail on events in the Battle of Britain for 30th August 1940 see the Battle of Britain Diary Day by Day and the Battle of Britain Memorial website. CP
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