JEERING, booing anti-nuclear weapon and pro-Labour Party demonstrators faced off against a phalanx of reinvigorated Tory supporters when Margaret Thatcher visited Brentwood in 1981 – just two years after she became PM.
It was just after midday on January 23, 1981, that demonstrations roared into life as Mrs Thatcher's black Daimler, flanked by police motorcyclists, approached the now demolished Meads Ballroom, on Ongar Road, 15 minutes late after she had opened a home for disabled children in Chigwell.
More than 100 police were on the alert while an army of stern-faced security men clustered round the car as it pulled up outside the hall, which has now been replaced by a string of shops including Amy Childs Boutique.
Once inside, most of the 50 or so protestors, along with 200 supporters, drifted away, returning later to shout: "Tories, out, out, out."
Apart from their noisy reception the protestors were well behaved, with only the briefest of verbal slanging matches developing between Jimmy Johns, co-ordinator of the Chelmsford CND and an elderly lady from Chigwell who declared that she didn't care for people yelling slogans and that she had travelled to Brentwood to support a wonderful woman.
Mr Johns said later that "that wonderful woman is ruining my life". He added: "She has made this country a number one nuclear target."
Earlier Brentwood and Ongar MP Robert McCrindle and his wife Myra had arrived 40 minutes before Mrs Thatcher amid a crescendo of boos.
Because protestors had taken up most of the best viewing positions, Thatcher supporters had been unable to see the PM.
"If it had been the Queen arriving, said a Brentwood School pupil at the time, "Her supporters would have waited in vain.
"She would have gone on a walkabout.
"All we saw of Mrs Thatcher was nothing more than a blue streak."
