17th October 1939

Air Raid Alarm at 1.35pm today. For some reason I was too excited to feel frightened when the siren sounded. I had the Vaults open in a second, and 156 people came in. ... The all-clear was at 2.05pm. No planes came over. I went up on the roof twice, but there was nothing to be seen. ...

Museum Committee this afternoon. The ancient house in Culver Street is finally doomed – no further efforts are to be made, and it is to be demolished forthwith. Our fight for 6 years has been lost.

The ancient 15th century house in Culver Street was a timber-framed hall-type building, which Rudsdale had argued should be preserved for its historical and architectural merit.



The skeleton of the ancient house in Culver Street, prior to demolition (Courtesy of Essex Record Office)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great shame that this building was demolished

E J Rudsdale said...

Many thanks for your comment, it was indeed a great shame that this building was demolished. More details will be revealed about the fate of this building in forthcoming blogs so keep reading - CP