Butlers Farm is located between Bakers Hall and the Colne Road.

Nurses Wood was once a remnant of the oak forests that spread across East Anglia.

A concrete loop road can be seen to the south of the farm.

During the war years this loop road was well inside the boundary of Nurses Wood. sadly torn down during 1947 in order to increase food production.

Butlers Farm and the existing Huts are PRIVATE PROPERTY.

This text was derived from an interview with Mrs "Busky" Laurie, who lived at the farm during the war.

The day war broke out in 1939, Arthur Beaumont from the local Bures Radio Shop came and installed a radio. Mrs Laurie snr was furious, as she thought it would contaminate her childrens mind. However, Mr Laurie ruled the day and it was left working.

The first sacrifice of war came early in the autumn. A cavalry remount officer called at the house one day when Father was out, and demanded to see any horses we had. I took him across the meadow to where they were grazing several small ponies, my 15-hand mare Gene and Booter the thoroughbred were also in the field.
The uniformed visitor cast a cold, experienced eye over the horses. He was only interested in Booter. He then drove away.
Soon fathers treasured mount was taken away. We heard later that he had been shipped out to Palestine, and we never saw him again.

During 1942 or `43 the Americans arrived and with no consultation whatsoever with my parents, took over the task of building roads and clearing the wood ready for the import of munitions. My mother was furious, she even tried to stop the diggers tearing up the land, unfortunately nobody took any notice of her pleas.
It was mainly Negro servicemen who constructed the roads. On very hot days the "Negro" labourers would queue up at Butlers Farm for a drink of water, The farm worker used to man the pump in order to supply enough water. Sometimes, they secretly left "oranges" to say thankyou.
Some of them would stand their open mouthed looking at the barn roof. They had never seen a Thatched roof before

Busky Laurie, recalls on the 6th Feb 1944 (diary entry) she saw her very first coloured gentleman. She was out riding in the wood one day when she came across a parked American lorry. All she could see was a pair of white eyes staring out of the cab window.

Once the roads were layed, the bombs and boxes of ammunition arrived. Large 2000lb bombs stored everywhere and checked every hour by USAAF personnel on a jeep. Nurses wood full of bombs mainly incendiaries. The dense wood provided excellent camouflage

Nurses Wood was taken over. The military saw it as the ideal site for the storage of ammunition, providing perfect camouflage against detection from the air. So it was linked up with a wide network of roadside and woodland dumping grounds.

The GI of the United States Army Airforce arrived in droves. First they laid a concrete roadway well inside its boundary of Nurses Wood. Then they unloaded great stacks of khaki- coloured bombs and mountains of brown ammunition crates at intervals along the roadway on widened bomb bays.
For the rest of the war the wood was occupied territory, patrolled day and night by soldiers in jeeps. Army trucks bore loads of ammunition away to the nearby airfields and as constantly returned to replenish the stocks. A great mountain of scrap rose up near the sawdust pond -metal bands, boxes and cans. We got used to the wolf whistles from passing trucks, and to thirsty Yanks knocking at the back door asking for water to fill their billy cans.

Cranes used to work mainly at night loading the munitions onto trucks which were the transported to the local airfields.

"Security Pass" required to get to farm, shown at the Ferriers corner Guard Post.

"Busky" Laurie used to ride her pony around the farm and sometimes a Sgt Leonard Hartman would ride the animal. He also brought oranges to the house for the family.

Searchlight on the corner of the Pebmarsh Road had a nameplate "Wisteria Cottage"

Residents at the farm often used to hear bombs drop. The Germans were guided to Bures by the Stoke by Nayland Church. This was confirmed by Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) on the radio one day.

Mary Laurie aged 20 worked at the 121st station hospital of the USAAF in Braintree. She would cycle to White Colne and get a bus to Halstead and a further bus to Braintree. This was an arduous journey for a young girl considering the blackout and the lack of reliable transport during the war years.

During 2007. the current landowner discovered writing in one of the concrete roads presumably made with a stick or someone's finger. Although now heavily worn, they have been highlighted by chalk and now read:

HORACE WASHINGTON

PAVED BY 3 PLATOON
CO "F" 1330 ENG RMT
FEB - MAR 45

This was confirmed by the USAAF as being authentic.(see further foot of page)
"1330" has been found elsewhere in the immediate vicinity.

Company "F" of the 1330th Engineer General Service Regiment (Coloured) arrived in the
UK on 7 January 1945

1330th, Engineer General Service Regiments- redesignated as battalions at Camp Clairborne, Louisiana.
The 1330th, were also staged at Camp Shanks, New York
.

The concrete loop road is still clearly visible in 2007.

This would have completely encircled Nurses Wood which housed mainly Incendiary Bombs. These would have been well hidden from the eyes of the Luftwaffe.

The wood was described in 1940 as:-
a typical oak wood, with a lot of hazel throughout , ash, elm, lime, elder, willow and maple, and a belt of wild cherry near the garden. Undergrowth consisted mainly of bramble of a species that bore particularly luscious fruit; so abundant that for several years before the war groups of pickers were recruited and the blackberries were sent by rail to Covent Garden.