May 2021 Chaddleworth News In this edition… RAF Welford RAF Welford news and history, Located within the North Wessex Downs updates from West Berkshire Council, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the latest news from the people and organisations (AONB) is RAF Welford and we are very local to our Chaddleworth community… blessed to be able to operate in such a beautiful location. The base is keen to maintain a quality The Ibex Inn THANK YOU to everyone relationship with the surrounding area, and has recently who has popped out and supported us over been working with the AONB committee to discuss the view the recent days! It is great to see so many across the base following some construction work. The of you. AONB committee would like to preserve the skyline We can safely seat 70 people in our garden following the erection of lightning protection poles and it has and have a heated marquee. Booking is advised but not been agreed that RAF Welford will plant 384 trees, in order essential. Currently, because of the current government to obscure the new construction. The trees will include 23 restrictions, we are only able to provide table service. wild cherry trees, and the rest are mainly Field Maple and Not booked and just fancied popping in? Email Beech. The tree planting is set for later in the Fall when the saplings of appropriate size are available. We are very [email protected] or call 01488 639052 pleased to maintain our relationships and ensure that the base remains in keeping with the surrounding area. Meetings took place in March with Welford Historical Society members who run the RAF Welford Museum, to discuss the future of the Museum. Our goal is to keep the Museum in a configuration that is both safer for patrons and easier to manage for the organisations who manage it; FFVW (Families, Friends & Veterans of Welford) and RMARG (Ridgeway Military Aviation Research Group). The RAF Welford leadership team sees the museum as irreplaceable and vital to community relations with our host nation partners. Have you signed up to our newsletter? We give exclusive offers, discounts and keep you up to date in whats coming up in your Chaddleworth village pub. Sign up now at www.ibexinn.com Gavin, Nathan and The Ibex Team Chaddleworth Cricket Club The weather seems to be improving just in time for the start of our cricket season. The day after May Day sees us travel to East Hendred for the opening game. Then away again on the 9th at On 31st March 1944, an RAF Lancaster Bomber from the Hampstead Norreys. Two beautiful grounds, although not 101 Squadron crashed at RAF Welford, and all crew as picturesque as Chaddleworth! members died in the crash. In conjunction with the RAF We have decided, due in part to the ongoing restrictions, to Welford Museum, the base has held many memorial postpone the memorial match for our Ken until Saturday services for the crew on or around the anniversary of the 26th June. This will allow us to hold a much better attended crash. Unfortunately, the current Covid restrictions meant event with more people as the restrictions will have been the annual Memorial Service was unable to take place again lifted by then. this year, but the day was marked by the laying of wreaths on behalf of the families who lost their relatives. Also required, as ever, are players! If you’re interested please email [email protected] for details. Jenny Collyer, Community Relations Adviser, Jim Wilson [email protected], 01285 714965. www.chaddleworth.net • [email protected] Co-Editors: David Jennings & Grahame Murphy Distribution Team: John Ballard, Anne Bunn, Ray Doncaster, Joe Mills, Grahame Murphy, Christine Patterson, Sue Ridgeway Printing costs are paid for by Chaddleworth Parish Council. Electronic colour PDF copy available on the village website The History Bit – RAF Welford it). There is a monk who wanders about the house and has been seen and heard by the MH’s. During the 1920’s, he From the beginning it was a shocking day in August 1940 tells us, when carrying out repairs the skeleton of a chicken when Mr and Mrs Meredith–Hardy were visited by a was found in the wall of a room at the top of the stairs, it had Government Representative and an RAF Officer to be told laid an egg before it died (which they still have!) In the that their farm and land was to be requisitioned for the ‘War 16th/17th centuries there was a belief that if you had a Effort’ (this is an important designation as you will see ‘troublesome ghost’ you ‘walled up a laying pullet’ when it further on). They were given 21 days to get out! All the farm laid an egg before it died then the ghost would be laid too. workers had to be laid off, all the livestock and farm This is too cruel to imagine and thank goodness it doesn’t equipment was to be sold in ‘pretty short order’. As you can happen any more. imagine they didn’t get a fair price for any of it and the compensation from the Government came many years later A very pertinent point about RAF Welford is that it was on a ‘take it or leave it basis’. ‘requisitioned’ and if the station ever becomes de- commisioned the land will revert to the original owners and The airfield itself took 3 years to build and came into service all the buildings and runways will need to be removed. in 1943. It was used from that year and a huge number of Bassdown Copse would then become part of Chaddleworth allied gliders were towed for the D Day landings, the WACO common land as it was before 1940. James Puxley’s (USAF) gliders were taken by Douglas C-47 Skytrains (Welford Park/snowdrops) father wrote to me in the early (‘Dakotas’) and the Horsa’s (UK) by mainly Halifax and eighties and he was at the time still very bitter about how a Albermarles converted from ‘bomber duties. lot of his land had been requisitioned and looked forward to getting it back some day! Grahame Murphy (member of the Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group (RMARG) and Friends Families and Veterans of Welford (FFVW) ) Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) Horsa glider at Welford, May 1944 It’s all fun and games exploring a USAF active weapons storage base, until your The Meredith-Hardy’s (MH) bought the property as a more engine cuts out. Thankfully the British or less derelict farm in 1918. They set about modernising it military police have a great sense of and Mrs MH created a beautiful garden over 10 years. In humour and were keen to chat about those far off days Welford was amazingly remote hardly Paramotoring. Paul was still arrested however for having anyone had a car and the bus went into Newbury once per bad hair. week on Market Day. Otherwise you had to rely on the ‘local carrier’ who trawled around the farms once a week. Orders were placed the week before and you would get them, depending on availability the next week. The farm was designated as being in Poughley and the nearest habitation was Chaddleworth. Mr MH was a barrister in the ‘Temple’ and drove down from London at the weekends to be ‘on the farm’. Some parts of the house were sold off before the MH’s bought it and some of the medieval stained glass was bought by Mr Palmer of ‘Huntley and Palmers’ biscuit fame in Reading. Going way back when the house/farm was a monastery (during the reformation) a lot of the stone was carted off to build Christchurch College in Oxford and some was used to repair St Andrews Church in Chaddleworth. If you’ve seen anything suspicious please speak to our officers when you see them, or email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. Your information, no matter how small, could make a big difference to keeping our communities safe or preventing crime. Your information is always in the strictest confidence and will only be shared with our policing partners at Thames Valley Police. In an emergency please always dial 999. It is an emergency when a crime is being committed, someone is at risk of being injured, or there is a risk of serious damage to property. If any residents need any advice or have any An interesting feature of the house is the very real ghost concerns then please do contact us. Ian (according to the MH’s son Michael who wrote to us about Chaddleworth St Andrew's and Great Shefford Under Fives Shefford C.E. Federated Primary Pre-School, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Schools 9:15am to 2:45pm: The spring term ended with a whole day in the woods as a Forest Having taken a break over the Easter Pre-School; we built a shelter, lit a fire-pit, cooked pancakes holidays, we are now diving straight back into our learning. for a snack and then hotdogs for lunch. The children chose Our INSET day this week was a particularly productive one. what they wanted to do and were quickly absorbed in their We started with our vision ‘Going the Extra Mile’ and what play as they explored the area, climbed trees and dug for this looks like in school. How do we know that the children mini-beasts. We also had an Easter Egg hunt as we felt sure are going the extra mile? Do they all go the extra mile in we’d seen the Easter bunny hopping round the woods! learning? Can all the children describe what ‘going the extra mile’ looks like in class? On the playground? At home? We think they can but are looking really closely over the next few weeks to spot examples of ‘Going the extra mile’.