Evacuated To Mountnessing

A Memory of Mountnessing.

During the Blitz, my mother, Gladys Lane and her sister Rose were evacuated from Chadwell Heath to Mountnessing where they stayed at a house called St Leonards. This is the house next to the school, for they stayed with Mr Walter Reed, who was the Headmaster there for many years (he used to boast he had never been off for a single day!). His wife was called Myra and she appears to have been a lively member of village life. The Reeds were second cousins of my grandmother, nee Rose Reed, and other members of the family lived in Barking and Rayleigh.
Neither Gladys nor Rose Lane attended Mountnessing School as at the outbreak of war my mother had passed her 11 plus to Romford County High. I believe she used to cycle from Mountnessing to Romford and once on the journey heard a V1 'doodlebug' rocket cutting out. Launching herself and her bicycle into a handy ditch to take cover, she was amazed to find it already occupied by other people she hadn't even seen on the road up to that point! Luckily it must have exploded some distance away.
My mother also remembered that from Mountnessing it was possible to witness the glow in the sky to the west as the London Docks went up in the Blitz.
I would love to hear from anyone who was taught by Mr Reed, or who remembers Myra or their two evacuees, and also to hear whether the Reeds are buried at Mountnessing churchyard.

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