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The Village in Wartime

This story was submitted by Allen Buckroyd, who compiled ‘Great Baddow Oral History’, published in December 2003. The book contained this contribution from Rosemary Hill and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions.

Rosemary Hill - Troops in Great Baddow

During the war a number of soldiers, who were billeted here, took over the old brewery on the Southend Road, which had been derelict for a while. We used to get different groups coming in but not Americans. The ‘Yanks’ just used to come to the village for dances. There were quite a lot of soldiers about. We went to church on Sunday mornings and there was always a church parade when the soldiers were here. Several of the girls got married to the soldiers when they were billeted in the district. A friend of mine married a soldier who came from Cumbria. Then the soldiers were posted abroad.

Rosemary Hill - Explosions in Great Baddow

The loudest noise in my life was a land mine that exploded a few feet above ground in Southend Road. Father was on duty in West Hanningfield Road, and the explosion occurred between his post and our house, and he agonised over whether we had been hit, and wanted to come home and verify that we were all right.
There was another explosion in a field near here on the right hand side of Galleywood Road, an area they called the ‘bomb-hole’.

I remember some bombs being dropped in Molrams Lane. There were six or eight. I was home with my mother and lying on the floor under the table, or else we went in the cupboard under the stairs if there was an air raid and listened to the bombs getting louder. They weren’t huge bombs. They dropped them in Molrams Lane on the other side to where the houses are now. I don’t know whether they were just dotting them. It was at night. We had Marconi Research Labs here, which was a target.

Hoffman’s was unlucky when V2 rockets landed on it. I can remember watching the doodlebugs coming over from the east, as we had a lovely open sky. There was then an awful silence before they came down.
Later on after the war my husband Roland worked at Hoffman’s.

[Allen: Hoffman’s was a ball-bearing factory in Chelmsford, making products used in military vehicles of all kinds].

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