Air Raid Damage Logbook (Photocopy)

I have in my possession a photocopy Logbook of the Air Raid damage in the Brentwood Division, Essex from the start of WW2 for a few years (It definately doesn't go to the end off WW2).

Has anyone got any ideas where I may be able to donate this record to, so that it doesn't get lost or thrown away by accident.
It is very interesting reading and I may scan it onto a couple of disks before it goes, so there is a copy if anything happens to the logbook.

I may if there is enough interest in it, produce copies on CD's or DVD's for members to purchase (it is not for profit, or anything above what it costs me will go to charity).

If you have any suggestions please leave a message on here and I will check back occasionally.

I was born in Mill Hill at the start of WW2, a stone's throw from Brentwood so I am interested. Could you possibly provide a sample page?

Peter, are you getting your Brents mixed up?

I would have thought that Brentwoods Historical Society might be interested ( www.essexinfo.net/brentwoodhistorical/ )
I was given a handwritten note on bombs that dropped in the Nazeing area of Essex. Compiled by a school child, it listed the location and type of bombs dropped and the damage they caused. I donated this to the Nazeing historical group who were pleased to have such a document. Unless the original is in their hands, I should imagine Brentwood HS would be delighted to recieve it.
It should not stop you from making copies of the copies though!

Ouch. I read the post to quickly. Brentwood ESSEX not Middlesex; but, I used to be able to throw a stone a very long way.....

Many thanks to you Petertheeater and Denis. Yes it is a good idea to post a copy of a couple of pages uploaded onto here, as long as there is no objections to me doing it by the site team.

The log book starts on page 1 from 21.11.39 to page 119 dated 9.12.44. there is also 4 pages about "Crashed Aircraft" which contains some information about the crew including their names, where known.

One thing I didn't say on the first post was that this log covers Brentwood, Essex to Foulness basically from Chelmsford southwards, and villages, but does not cover the old Southend they must have had their own logs (as Southend always seems to have done, Independence until they had to merge with Essex County).

I will do this copying within the next few days as I have noticed that the print has started to deteriate on the pages. I will scan the whole lot onto my PC and also a dvd so that I do have a good copy of it.
I will contact the Brentwood Society to see if they know of any WW2 group or similar group in the Essex Area, so that this record does not get lost and can be displayed somewhere for all to view.

If anyone else can think of any other location or group to consider then please do either leave a reply on here or you can e-mail me direct at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mine just looks like this!
Not much of a log, just a page in a school exercise book!

Nice one Denis, well I should think that a full record would have taken a few exercise books to enter everything in... can you imagine how big the ones from london would have been..... I wonder how many volumes... and who had to write it all down... I can imagine it was given to the lowest ranking civilain (the one that had dirty boots on, or was late for parade that day.. )

This is the sort of thing that needs to be saved, they are information that was recorded and just being thrown away. When I was a serving fireman in Essex, the senior officers decided to have a clear out of the cupboards etc to make more room to put junk into, and as I was going to my car to go off duty (I was parked next to the skip) I noticed a book, A4 size, looked old so I asked the guv if I could have a look through the skip and he said, yeah it goes in the morning so do it now, everything is rubbish so if there is anything you want then just keep it... so I picked up this book and it turned out it was the accounts book for the Canvey Island Fire Brigade around 1929's and two sheets of charges at that time. Well I grabbed this quick and have kept it safe, but I think I may donate it to the Fire Service Musuem in Essex, as its history, something that will never happen again, I have already given my daughter (for my grandson) my bits of uniform and rank marking and buttons that I have, my pride and joy was the Bell, complete with clanger on a leather strap and the original mount from the appliance that I trained on in 1973 I have a photo of that appliance too, talk about it pays to be nosey...she will look after them and pass them on hopefully to his children..

If the Mods will permit?
Is there, in fact, any database which shows Luftwaffe bomb impact locations? I am concerned, primarily, with 8 Oct 1940 in the area of Holborn/Chancery Lane. The Guardian newspaper said it was going to produce, daily, a plot of bomb impact points during the 70th anniversary of The Blitz. This data purported to come from the London Fire Brigade records. I don't take The Guardian, so I never saw any of their maps. I was referred to the London Fire Brigade. The London Fire Brigade denied all knowledge of such a database. They referred me to the Local Authority (now Camden Council). I'd been (by email) to them a year, or so, ago. They referred me to the London Fire Brigade!! The traditional "circular reference" (I used to do lots of those when I first started programming on a BBC B computer!!!!!).
Question 1; Is there such a database?
Question 2; How may it be accessed?
Thank you Mods for your forebearance.
Rgds
Resmoroh

Hi Resmoroh
I would very much doubt that London Fire Brigade would have a log like that, it would probably be in something like I have above, this lists location, damage, injuries even names where known, and mine was found in a skip by me when the brass decided to have a clearout at the station (it was something to do with us finding Digestive Biscuits in the "Emergency Locker" at Grays Fire Station in the '70's the expiry date was 1958, so they had lasted well... they actually tasted fine...... but getting back to the message, if someone has retrieved them like I did them I would imagine that they have been destroyed or lost..... another thing is that a few years back the London Fire Brigade gave all the perimeter stations back to the counties around london area, which they had taken over before. So they could have got lost during that upheaval as well. I would think that these logs were made by Air Raid wardens or someone like that, and one thing I did try and do was to get an old map of the area out and try and plot where the damage, HE's and IB's were dropped, but a big problem was that a lot of the old names of houses, cottages and streets had been destroyed and there was no easiliy available map showing these things.... a prime example is to the east point of Canvey Island in the Thames is a place called "Chapman Anchorage", it was then is is still now, a mooring for ships carrying explosives, rather than let them go further inland up the Thames it was safer to off load them off Canvey Island. Now If I had not served in the Fire Service and been based, initially at Grays (which was then a divisional control room) and then actually served on Canvey Island then I probably would not have know about Chapman Anchorage.

So over the years local knowledge has been lost, places knocked down and built over so all this information gets lost....

And with regards to me saying "as long as the Mods are happy" this was done out of courtesy as some groups who have moderators who are there to ensure that members don't post anything which could result in giving the group a bad name or even legal action taken against them for something someone may find objectionable or libelous.