ID: PH01_SRP / Elaine Barker

TitleSome Record of the Parish of Peldon
AbstractBook in Essex Record Office Reference D/P 287/28/6 (not digitised)

This volume was begun by the Rev C.R. Harrison who was the rector of St Mary's Church, Peldon between 1855 and 1867. During his incumbency he wrote of the parish records, church lands, churchwardens, school, rectory house, the Manor of Peldon Rectory and the restoration of the church in 1858-9.

The following rector, The Reverend Carter Hall, who was incumbent between 1867 and 1895, wrote of the evening school in the village, enlarging the school building (1872-3) and of the damage suffered in the village as a result of the 1884 earthquake.

A number of entries were made by the Reverend Wilson who was incumbent during the years of WW2 between 1939 and 1948. In it he lists those who served in the Royal Navy, Army, RAF, Merchant Navy, ARP, Fire Service, First Aid Service, Home Guard, Soldiers' Canteen and Women's Land Army. He lists committee and participants in the Welcome Home Fund and states the intention to have a plaque erected to commemorate the four men who lost their lives in the war.

Later entries include newspaper cuttings relating to the church and village of Peldon with the final entry being for 1970.

ARP SERVICES

J.E.F. Walker Haxells Farm Senior Warden and Warden of Sector (went to Tiptree 1943)
E.A. Scales Harveys Farm Warden of Sector
W. Greenleaf Newholme Warden of Sector, Senior Warden 1943
N.O.R. Serjeant Tronoh House, Warden (telephone)
W. Fenn Hazeldene Warden
M. Wooldridge Kemps Farm Warden (reserve)
W. Mason Norfolk Cottage Warden (transferred to Home Guard on formation)
F. Durrant Hall Cottages Demolition & decontamination subsequently ranked as Warden
C. Fletcher Lodge Cottage Demolition & decontamination subsequently ranked as Warden (went to Abberton)

These men all originally joined in September 1938 & officially ranked Trained Warden

From 1 July 1939

P. Golding Peldon Lodge Warden (became Veterinary ARP Steward went to Mersea 1943)
R. Baldwin Butcher's View Messenger joined ATC & subsequently RAF

N. Baldwin Butcher's View Messenger Warden 2/1943
Miss Mary Walker Messenger
Miss J. Walker Messenger
Miss M. Scales Messenger 1940 Warden December 1943

In World War 2 the Reverend Wilson wrote a list of the men who had joined the Home Guard at the outset. Not all of these remained in the Home Guard, some having been called up in the meantime.

HOME GUARD

B I Pullen Rose Inn
A.E. Osborne Peldon Nurseries
L. Mole Council Houses
G. Scales Harveys Farm (subsequently transferred to Suffolk)
J. Scales Harveys Farm (subsequently joined RAF)
P. Ponder
J. O'Riley Games Farm
W. Mason Norfolk Cottage
F. Purtell Hillside Cottages
Coates
G. Bars Brick House Farm
Puxley, Mill House Cottages
B. Swallow Mersea Road (subsequently called up for Army)
L. Smith Forge Cottage
Inman, Wayside
P. Miller Tronoh Bungalow
C. Smith (served with Mersea Contingent)
J. Knight

The Women's Land Army hostel accommodated women from out of the area from March 1942, many coming to Essex from London, but there were local women, who stayed living at home, and were to work on the land, in some cases on their own family's farm as in the case of Dora Wooldridge.

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY

M. Scales [Maud]
Jean Ponder
Ruby Balls
Muriel Greenleaf
Josephine Booth
Dora Wooldridge (became Dora Banfield 1943)
Joyce Thursby
Diana Wenlock

FIRST AID SERVICE

Mrs Golding
Mrs Walker
Mrs G Baldwin, Lodge Cottage
Mrs Fletcher
Mrs Scales Mrs Harris, Thistledown
Miss Dora Wooldridge
Miss M Golding, Peldon Lodge [Meg]
Mrs Durrant, Hall Cottages
Miss E.M Wooldridge (subsequently married and left parish)

During World War 2, there was a volunteer fire service in Peldon. Their headquarters were in a Nissan hut situated where the Hosplant building is now at the bottom of St Ives Hill. Reginald Coan worked as a volunteer for the fire service and his sons relate that the firemen practised rescuing dummies from the top of the vicarage.

FIRE SERVICE

L. Harvey Ives Farm, Leader
R. Brand Council Houses
L. Mallett Council Houses
R. Coan Mersea Road
E. Wopling Mersea Road
E. Wyncoll Mersea Road

The Reverend Wilson also wrote of the Soldiers' Canteen

This was brought into being in June of 1940 when a detachment of Pioneers and a company of the KOSB [King's Own Scottish Borderers] were quartered or under canvas in the village. Later in the summer these were replaced by detachments of the 8th Battalion, Royal Scots, of which Battalion 'B', 'C' and'D' had their headquarters in the village at various times.

Thanks were written by J E Molesham Lieutenant Colonel of the 8th Battalion

Your canteen was a veritable oasis in a very quiet spot to the Companies all of whom are town dwellers, who would otherwise have found Peldon's peace just a little irksome

ROLL OF HONOUR DECEMBER 15TH 1946

Four people lost their lives serving their country in WW2 (1939 -1945)

Petty Officer W. Heap Royal Navy     [ OOD_034 ]
Private J. Hodson Army[ OOD_114 ]
Pilot Officer J. Scales RAF[ OOD_209 ]
C. Mason Merchant Navy[ WW2_CCM ]

Elaine Barker
Peldon History Project

AuthorElaine Barker
SourceMersea Museum
IDPH01_SRP