Les Thorington's memories

of Stambridge and Rochford

At the outbreak of the second war, I was evacuated from Prittlewell with my parents to Hampton Barnes farm Great Stambridge where my grandfather Arthur Bannister was the foreman.

I attended Stambridge school with Rosemary, Valerie & Victor Mayle. Their father was the head cowman. Herman Bacon, the head horseman, was my grandmother’s brother.  My grandparents son, also Arthur Bannister, was the tractor driver.

A lot of military aircraft  activity took place over the farm during the Battle of Britain. There were German bombing raids over the farm. The worst was the incendiary raid on the nearby Barton Hall farm where 6 horses were burnt alive causing a lot of distress I can still remember seeing the bombs leaving the aircraft before going into the shelter.

Another incident was a summer Sunday evening when a stray German plane flew across the farm with machine guns blasting away, luckily no one was hurt. I remember going outside and seeing the rainwater butt looking like a colander, with the water pouring out of the holes. In the mornings on the way to school we used to collect shrapnel in the fields.

We survived and went on to Rochford secondary school which I left in 1947. Then I went to work for F W Willians grocers in West Street Rochford until January 1952 when I left to join the Army when I ended up in Korea. That’s another story.

In  1958 I married Jean Dolby and we set up home in Rectory Road Rochford for 10 years before moving to Leigh.

As told to Mave Sipple by Mr. Thorington, aged 80.