Nazeing History Workshop was founded in 1993 to discover, record and share Nazeing village’s history. Nazeing has a rich history dating back to the seventh century, when it was one of the first places to be settled by the Anglo-Saxons. The word ‘naze’ has the same root as nose, as in Walton-on-the-Naze, and refers to a spur of land projecting into water. In Nazeing the water is the Lea, and the feature would have been far more obvious to those early settlers than it is to us. The Lea in those days was wide, slow-moving and marshy, and the spur, in this case gravel, would have given relatively easy access to rich farmland behind.

In 2000 and 2002 we produced our Story of Nazeing in two volumes, which were joint runners-up in the Essex History Book Awards. Since then, the online revolution of family history websites and the release of many new sources has meant much more material is available. In 2018 we used them for our third book: A Purely Agricultural Parish? – Nazeing before and during the First World War. All three books are still available at £10 each via our website or contact us via our Facebook page. The books are also available at Epping Forest Museum in Waltham Abbey.

Thus far, we have published three books and cooperated in the publication of several others.

Nazeing History Workshop: WW2 – VE and VJ Memories

This summer, with the 80th anniversary of the ending of WW2 and the renewed interest it has instilled, Nazeing History Workshop wanted to share the story of what the residents of Nazeing went through during the last conflict.

This period of history had originally been covered in our book The History of Nazeing Part 2 – Seventeen Miles From Town. Since then, we have acquired more personal testimonies from newspapers, diaries, or through online and oral projects. As a young person growing up in a post-war village, these stories were about people and places I knew well. I felt it was my duty to make sure that this and future generations understood what life was like in a small village during this difficult time.

In these series of eight blogs published between VE and VJ Day 2025, we wanted to concentrate on the human element — how national and international events affected those who were living, working and visiting our village of Nazeing at this time of uncertainty. We looked at the social, strategic and physical changes brought about by the war. We also asked readers if they had any personal testimonies or stories relating to Nazeing and the war that we could add to our records.

We called this series of blogs “Two Aerodromes and a Dragon’s Tooth – Nazeing at War”.

The first blog dealt with the threat of invasion, the second with the physical remains of the Outer London Defence Ring which cut the village in two.

The third blog was called Two Aerodromes. Nazeing is just a small village, yet on its western boundary was an active aerodrome as well as a decoy on the common. In 1950 the then vicar, Reverend Sutherland, wrote a booklet called History of Nazeing, and in the back was a list provided by the senior ARP warden of all the 244 bombs and numerous incendiaries, their location and date. This was the subject of the fourth blog. Our fifth blog tells the story, from several firsthand accounts, of the V2 rocket which killed 10 villagers, five of them children. Many of those killed and injured had come from London and thought they would be safe in a small Essex village.

Blogs six and seven cover the activities of those who stayed in the village and formed the different branches of Civil Defence, and the incomers, many of whom settled in the village, who kept food production going. Our final blog was about the arrival of peace and post-war life in the village.

We hope you will log on to our website and read all about Nazeing during WW2. Simply follow this link: Two Aerodromes and a Dragon’s Tooth – Nazeing at War.

Like many organisations, our numbers have dwindled, but we are still active and hope to engage with a wider circle of readers and history enthusiasts via these blogs. We are very pleased that this has proved the case. We advertised each blog as it was released on local Facebook pages, as well as our own: https://www.facebook.com/nazeinghistoryworkshop.

We are now well under way with our next book, which will cover the remarkable growth of Nazeing between the wars.

Jacky Cooper – October 2025

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.