Laindon School

A Memory of Laindon.

I was 14 years old and I worked for Matthew & Sons Corn Merchants of Brentwood. My job was to go round the local villages with a horse and cart selling our produce to the local people, which mainly consisted of chocolate biscuits, plain & self raising flour & animal feedstuffs. This particular day I had a horse that had not been broken in properly and was rather skittish, he also had a sore mouth where the straight bit went in. We were just approaching the Fortune of War pub when a v.2 rocket went off further up the southend road near Childerditch. Well it frightens the life out of the horse and it bolted. I tried my hardest to stop it, I put the foot brake on as hard as I could and pulled on the rains hard but to no avail. We shot over the Southend Road & started to head towards Laindon School all the kids were coming down the road from the school. My hair stood on end - I pulled hard on the right rein & managed to jump off the cart. The horse hit a stink pipe which came crashing down which also tore down the telegraph wires. The horse and cart end up in a ditch with the horse's leg over the shafts. The police arrived and they had the horse taken away, which was later put down. At least it did not run on and injure any children that were coming down the road.