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HYLANDS REMEMBERS - June 2004

Hylands House & Tank

In 2004 we held a D Day Remembered Show in conjunction with Chelmsford Borough Council at Hylands House, Chelmsford Here is a selection of some of the sights.

Vehicles

Displays

Personalities

More Personalities

Following on from our 2003 display at Hylands House, a house now owned and run by Chelmsford Borough Council, of almost stately home proportions with several hundred acres of ground, Hylands House at Night the Essex Branch were invited back to assist with the organisation and take part in a larger show commemorating this year's 60th anniversary of D Day. Hylands House has military connections through both world wars being used as a hospital in the first and originally requisitioned by the navy in the second. However, they did not use it and it was home to various Royal Artillery and Anti Aircraft units.

It's main claim to fame though was it's use by the SAS and possibly some other covert organisations of the period. The SAS battalions formed and trained there prior to going to Normandy. The Grounds were used for training and explained several odd shaped trees, which were used for explosives practice! The SAS Hero and founder Paddy Maine was based there. Paddy Maine was the most highly decorated man in the army at the time and also something of a "character". The story that has gone down in the legend is after having a "little" too much to drink he decided to go upstairs in the house…….in a jeep; he drove the Jeep up the staircase where it promptly got stuck on a bend and the next day had to be dismantled in order to extricate it. Having seen the staircase the definition of a "little" too much to drink might have to be redefined!

The show organisation started as they always do as a series of meetings, the fact that almost no one in the Council had ever been to a military vehicle show made organisation interesting. At first, restrictions were placed on the event, which would have severely curtailed our activities, however this was all sorted out and the Council representatives were really helpful and cooperative and organisation went ahead as a two-day event with the Squadronaires booked for the Saturday evening. As the time drew nearer and the D Day commemorations came more to the media forefront so the event became bigger and initially we were informed the Mayor would attend. This however expanded until eventually we had 50 VIP's with every Mayor in Essex either there or represented, in addition to the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, the High Sheriff of Essex, two Air Vice Marshalls and the Bishop of Chelmsford. A commemoration parade and service were also planned including a Drumhead Service using the Essex Regiments priceless solid silver drums taken out from the regimental museum for the event. Things were getting bigger! We had no budget for the event so publicity was kept as high profile as possible without spending money! A note to show organisers - try that sometime its fun! With this in mind we had no idea as to how many vehicles would attend so we were really pleased to have nearly a hundred booked in including some heavy stuff.

The Council organisers and ourselves wanted to make it as much an experience for visitors as possible so the emphasis was on displays and being interesting and accessible as possible to talk to visitors, veterans and VIP's alike. Hylands House & Vehicles Almost all the area in front of the house our members put on some form of display of equipment with their vehicles. In Hylands House itself was a Home Front exhibition organised by the Ladies in the Branch which was a special request of the Council following on from the one seen at the Tilbury event which brought back memories to many; many thanks to Marion, Margaret, Crystal, Nora and Davy. Also an excellent model display, focusing on D Day related vehicles and aircraft, by members of the Chelmsford Model Club was in the House. The displays included a display by Mark Lucas and some of his very extensive military radio collection, as Chelmsford is known as the home of radio, Marconi made the first ever radio transmission from here, it was a particularly apt display and drew a lot of interest. The WW2 Group's display was as ever excellent, Richard Knight and friends with their Vickers Gun display drew a lot of well deserved attention, Barry's tanks looked the part located under the trees and Mike Davies's Chaffee always looks good. The Airborne displays looked great, as did the many others.

The Saturday evening we staged the BBQ and ended up feeding the band and helpers as well as the Club members the newspaper photographers were in attendance and having the mickey taken out of them by our very own "Arnhem" Pathe news team following them about! it worked though, they ended up with their pictures in the paper as well!

The following day was a busy one with many visitors in attendance and the little gem of being asked to talk to the VIP's and tell them about the MVT, our hobby and vehicles, many thanks also to Davan Winch and Barry Knee who also helped out giving talks about their living history group and vehicle collection respectively. Also a big thank you to those vehicle owners who volunteered to transport the 50 VIP's round the show in their vehicles.

The show ended with a speech taken by our own Dennis Buston describing the role of the Essex Regiment in France and also presented a message of thanks from the people of Tilly Sur Selles from whom he had just returned from a liberation commemoration ceremony, to the people of Essex. followed by the Drumhead Service and parade of British Legion Standards.