wolds historian 2006 - hoap · careful sketches were made of buildings to be demolished, and...

Contents

Chairman's report 2005 1

The airfield in our midst 2

Polish camp revisited 19

Wymeswold's wells 20

Village life in nineteenth century Hoton 21

Will of Joan Groves of Wymeswold 27

Burton's heritage lost in 2006 28

The Wolds Historian is edited by Joan Shaw andBob Trubshaw and published by the

Wolds Historical Organisation.

Contents copyright individual authors and illustrators© 2006.

Uncredited contributions by the editors.The moral rights of the authors and illustrators have

been asserted.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

or by any means without prior written permissionfrom the Wolds Historical Organisation except for

brief passages quoted in reviews.

Contact: 2 Cross Hill Close, Wymeswold,Loughborough, LE12 6UJ

telephone: 01509 880725 email: [email protected]

Chairman’s report 2006Welcome to this the third issue of The WoldsHistorian. One of the articles reveals that muchheritage is being lost as a result of village growth. Itherefore make a plea for all ‘at risk’ features to berecorded and photographed so that informationwill not be lost to future generations of localhistorians. Articles, short or long, based on suchfeatures throughout the Wolds are most welcomefor publication in future issues of The WoldsHistorian.

The Wolds Historical Organisation meetsregularly on the third Tuesday in the month(except July and August) with a variety of speakersand a walk in June. This year WHO member ColinLines gave an excellent insight into the steamfairground rides of Frederick Savage; Jack Smirfittenlightened members about framework knitting,followed by a visit to Ruddington FrameworkKnitting Museum; Thomas Leafe’s talk onnineteenth century pit boys made us aware of howeasy life is today; Ernest Miller explained thehistory of ancient board games, with membershoning their practical playing skills with NineMens’ Morris; while Helen Boynton instructed usin the geology of Charnwood Forest and theunique fossils in the old rocks.

Anyone with an interest in local and wider historyis most welcome to attend WHO meetings. Afterthe summer recess these include a talk onSouthwell workhouse (19th September), thehistoric parks and gardens of Leicestershire andRutland (17th October), and an update on theongoing archaeological excavations nearLeicester’s High Street (21st November).

As Chairman I thank, on behalf of the members,Joan Shaw and Bob Trubshaw for producing thisissue of The Wolds Historian, Bob Trubshaw forhis work as Vice-Chairman, David Marshall asefficient Treasurer, David Keene as Secretary, withColin Lines, Viv Marshall, Albert Sleigh andDebby Bilham as committee members for all theirhard work and support.

Finally, thanks to all members for continuedsupport and attending meetings, as without themthere would be no WHO.

Patricia Baker

Front cover: The front cover of the souvenirprogramme for the open day at RAF Wymeswold

on Saturday 15th September 1956 (original incolour, kindly loaned by David Putt.

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The beginning

In World War I the 38th Squadron of the RoyalFlying Corps Home Defence Unit, based atMelton Mowbray and charged with defending theMidlands from the German Zeppelins, wassupported by a landing strip at Horse Leys Farm inBurton on the Wolds. The memorial hall in thecentre of Burton was closed for socials and dancesand fitted with beds for injured Belgian andCanadian soldiers. Twenty-three years later, withBritain again at war with Germany, Burton, alongwith neighbouring Hoton, Prestwold andWymeswold, was called upon once more.

The early military airfields and landing strips wereof a temporary nature and quicklydecommissioned at the end of hostilities but in the1930s the RAF began to expand and a standard

pattern of airfield was devised with metalledrunways and durable buildings.

Potential sites were chosen by the Airfield Board,after which the Directorate of Works made adetailed survey. To begin with, the requirementsof the RAF were simply for an area of land inwhich a circle of 1,100 yards could be described;the flight paths were dictated by the location ofexisting buildings. From 1938, developments inflying necessitated the laying down of definiteflying lanes for each airfield and this resulted inthe formation of the Aerodrome ImprovementBoard which worked with the Directorate.Preliminary reports were drawn up outlining thecivil engineering and siting aspects and includingsuch relevant details as soil, drainage, access,amenities, services, levelling and obstructions.

The Airfield in our MidstJoan and Peter Shaw

Ordnance Survey map of 1885, surveyed 1883,with location of the World War I landing strip

superimposed. Lang's Restaurant now occupiespart of Horse Leys Farm.

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From these and the accompanying plans the RoyalAir Force made a decision as to a site’s suitability.

Burton on the Wolds, Hoton, Prestwold andWymeswold, bordered an area of plantations,park and farmland belonging to Sir EdwardHussey Packe of Prestwold Hall. This land waslisted by the Airfield Board with a view to itspossible use as a military airfield.

The economy of the four parishes was basedlargely on agriculture and in the early 1930s theirinhabitants totalled less than 1400. The plans thatwere afoot by the beginning of World War IIwould increase the population by almost 200percent and change the landscape forever. SirEdward and Lady Packe would, in the words ofLady Packe’s sister Lady Victor Paget, have anaerodrome up to their ‘front door’.

Four possible locations were chosen for this partof the East Midlands: Ragdale, Derby,Wymeswold and Castle Donington. Mr FredBailey, whose father occupied Gorse Farm atHoton, in the centre of the proposed site,recollects that the initial surveys were carried outfrom the cockpit of a low-flying Avro Anson.

The Air Ministry decided against the Ragdale andDerby sites, leaving Wymeswold as the favouredparent airfield with Castle Donington (later tobecome East Midlands Airport) as its satellite.

There was acrimonious debate between SirArchibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, andthe Minister of Agriculture, mainly due to the highquality of land at Castle Donington. In view of theurgency, no objections were raised regardingWymeswold, where less than two-thirds wereunder the plough and the land was not of the best.Agreement was finally reached and the schemewent ahead.

The airfield itself lay within the parishes of Hotonand Prestwold; living and communal huts were ondispersed sites around Burton village. Only theinstruction site was in Wymeswold parish(between West View and Cliff Farm).

The village nearest to the airfield was Hoton, but itwas designated RAF Wymeswold to preventconfusion with Hooton Park in Cheshire.

Preparation

The Air Ministry Lands Officer was Mr N.W.Wood. Sir Edward’s agents were Woolleys and

Noel of Rectory Place in Loughborough. Thesurveyor on the ground is not named on thedocumentation, but Mr Bailey says that GorseFarm and the surrounding area was surveyed byTeddy Turner.

Plans and inventories are precise. Careful sketcheswere made of buildings to be demolished, andphotographs taken. Fields, drains, and watersources were mapped, condition of land and itscurrent use was recorded, heights of hedges anddepths of ditches were noted, and the fences andgates were described down to the last missinghinge or broken rail.

At the outset RAF Wymeswold was to be anOperational Bomber Airfield but it was laterdecided that these would be in Yorkshire,Lincolnshire and East Anglia; the Midlands wouldbe home to the Operational Training Units.

The airfield was built to the typical RAF threerunway design, the main cement runway, 2,000by 50 yards, running parallel to the Hoton-Wymeswold road and intersected by twosubsidiary runways running roughly north to south(1,250 by 50 yards) and south-east to north-west(1,250 by 50 yards).

The surveyors set their trig. point at 278 feet abovesea level. The western end of the main runwaywas 227 ft and the eastern end 257 ft. The overallgradient was 1:207.

Permanent landmarks identified were the town ofLoughborough and the Brush Electrical works.

The Avro Anson.

Overleaf:Drainage plan of land requisitioned from

Sir Edward Hussey Packe. Reproduced by kindpermission of the Record Office for Leicestershire,

Leicester and Rutland (DE1346/527); detailsclarified by Jack Shaw.

The Wolds Historian No.3 2006

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The landscape

Sir Archibald Sinclair and Sir Edward HusseyPacke were personal friends but it is obvious fromtheir correspondence that Sir Edward wasawarded no special favours. ‘He merely adheresto the official ruling’, wrote Sir Edward in a letterto the Central Landowners Association.

The first piece of land, 37.363 acres attached toGorse Farm and let at an annual rent of £55, wasrequisitioned on 16th April 1941. On 23rd August ofthe same year the Air Ministry took possession of38.750 acres, including Ice House Field, and partsof the park and Old Wood which had brought in£65.15s.0d. Two cottages and land from HomeField, New Covert and Old Wood, totalling22.250 acres, were also taken. Sir Edward agreedto sell the trees felled prior to 18th February 1942for the sum of £5,984.1s. 4d.

The total value of timber felled was estimated at£16,000. Since coming to Prestwold in theseventeenth century the Packe family had plantedmany trees and Prestwold was renowned for itswoods and plantations. The Loughborough Echoof June 8th 1934 published a photograph of OldWood where the rhododendrons were in fullbloom, ‘a wonderful picture’. After the war,replanting was one of Sir Edward’s priorities andhis personal accounts for 19th April 1946 show£219.7s.0d paid to William Barrow and Son Ltd‘being the balance due for replanting Old Woodand replacing trees.’

The planned location for the bomb dump wasalmost touching the house of Sir Edward’s headgardener and an alternative had to be found.Three Nissen huts and two brick buildings for thepurpose were erected in New Covert, north of theHoton-Wymeswold road. (During the war,ammunition stores were scattered throughout thecounty; the wide verges around Six Hills werelined with them and The Wolds Historian 2005tells about three young Wymeswold lads whofound themselves in court after stealing corditefrom Wysall Lane.)

The airfield cut into a bridle road that ran fromBurton to the Hoton-Wymeswold road, a path thatran alongside the road, footpaths linking NewCovert with Burton and Prestwold, and a footpathfrom Burton to Hoton’s Parsonage Lane. GorseSpinney and Dales Spinney lay within the runwayarea and were completely flattened. The WaterFurrows, Churchman’s Gorse, Mill Nook andNether Mill Nook disappeared, along withLammas Close, Little Ewe Close and several otherfields that had formed part of the Prestwold Estate.

Gorse Farm had been erected in 1887. No gas orelectricity was laid and there was no well or waterpump but it was a substantial house in very goodcondition. Mr Bailey’s father had occupied thefarm for twenty years. In addition to losing theland, his house and associated outbuildings weredemolished. There were seven children and theywere given just three weeks’ notice. Mr Bailey,


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Overleaf:RAF Wymeswold Record Site Plan

(Aerodrome Site) 17, HQ-940A with the location of Sister's Well superimposed.

Crown Copyright Royal Air Force Museum,reproduced with the permission of the

Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

who later farmed at Burton, says the family wassplit up. Even his parents were separated, hisfather returning to his old home at Wymeswold.

Drinking water for Gorse Farm had been carriedfrom Sisters’ Well (or Shepherd Jacob’s Well). TheWell was in Spring Close and it was covered whenthe perimeter track was laid. Sisters’ Well featuresin local folklore. In Prestwold Church there is analabaster table tomb with effigies of two latemedieval ladies, said to be a monument to theLacey sisters who, at a time of drought, discoveredthis miraculous well that never ran dry. The storywas told by Philip White in the WHO Newsletter2001. (Burton later lost a piece of its history whenremains of the ‘Grange Stone’ to the east of thevillage were smashed and used as a rockeryaround the sergeants’ mess.)

The two cottages – ‘a pair of the best’ – were onPrestwold Lane in Hoton. They were not on theairfield site, but deemed an obstruction since theywere in line with the main runway. They wererequisitioned in December 1941 but could not bedemolished until May 1942 when the tenants hadfound alternative accommodation. One of thetenants, Mrs Moore, was offered a house by theCountess of Huntingdon of Burton Hall, andmoved to Spinney Cottage in Barrow Road.

Sir Edward had been told the cottages would berebuilt but he had to settle for compensationinstead. By March 1945 the site was still derelictand unusable with ‘old broken up foundations,brick ends, rubbish and half the old outhouses.’

Demolished along with the cottages were a barnand a concrete water tower. The water tower hadbeen erected by Barrow Rural District Council inSeptember 1936 on 500 square yards of landrented from Sir Edward for £2 per annum, tosupply water to Hoton. As recently as March 1939the Council had taken out a ninety-nine year leaseat a higher rent of £3 per annum. The tower stoodadjacent to existing water tanks and the barn,within an orchard, the whole being protected by a‘good and sufficient unclimbable iron fence’. Thewater tower was not reinstated, but in March 1946Barrow RDC again assumed responsibility, payingSir Edward £3 for the enclosure.

Numerous pasture and arable fields in Burton,Cotes, Hoton and Prestwold were dug up for thelaying of land drains, sewage and water pipes andpower cables, as was an orchard and some schoolallotments. Poles to carry overhead cables wereerected at Hoton and in Prestwold Old Wood.

Land requisitioned was not restricted to that in thevicinity of the airfield itself. Living quarters wereon scattered plots north, south, east and west ofBurton village, the communal site was in TownEnd Plantation behind Walter Sleigh’s farm, onland belonging to Lady Huntingdon. The Air

Opposite and above: Gorse Farm just prior to demolition. Reproduced by kind permission of theRecord Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland (DE1346/589/1 and 2).


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Ministry sewage works were built on Mr Towle’sland at Manor Farm. The hospital was located atRose Cottage in Deepdales.

Mrs J.M. Easter, who was based in themeteorology office at the control tower from 1944to 1946, recollects: ‘the women’s sleepingquarters were quite a way from the men’s in thewoods which have probably been cut down now.We used to have lots of twigs falling on the tinroofs and little field mice running all over theplace.’ The WAAF site was at HusterdalePlantation near the hospital, and Mrs Easter isright: the plantation is no more.

The south end of The Countess’s FishpondPlantation was felled because it was in line withone of the runways.

It is impossible to quantify the exact acreage ofeach parish that was given over to the needs of theairfield. Approximately 340 acres in Hoton parishwas requisitioned, 145 acres in Prestwold, 50acres in Burton and nine acres in Wymeswold, butthere are no figures for the land rendered unusablebut not formally acquired by the Air Ministry.

Construction

Information about the construction of World WarII airfields is not easy to find.

Large civilian companies involved include suchwell-known names as Tarmac, Costains, Wimpeyand McAlpine and there were also several militaryorganisations: the RAF Airfield ConstructionBranch, the Royal Engineers, and units fromAmerica and Canada. Mr Bailey says one of thecompanies working at RAF Wymeswold wasBradshaws of Leicester. Local men found work,among them Warner and Bill Wootton ofWymeswold, and women too. Sue Elliott ofBurton tells us that her mother worked on thehangers, alongside many others.

In 1938–9 Government spending on defence was£250 million, by 1940–1 it had risen to £3 billion.In 1942 sixty thousand men were employed inconstructing airfields for the RAF and US AirForce. As soon as each airfield was finished theteam moved on to the next. Military airfields werecoming on line at the rate of three or four a weekand at D-Day there were 812.

Quiet country villages became small towns in amatter of months.

Conditions during construction were often chaoticwith several different contractors on site and workon runways, roads and buildings going on at thesame time. Earth moving machines and lorrieschurned up mud until the whole place was aquagmire. Despite this, things were generallyplanned and managed well. Efforts at camouflage,however, were less successful

Accommodation for the Wymeswold contractorswas in six brick huts close to Hoton on the southside of the Wymeswold Lane. The site had its ownentrance and when the huts became redundantthey were used by a local farmer.

There was tragedy within a few weeks of workcommencing. Frederick Kenneth Deacon ofLeicester was killed while helping to clear trees atHoton. The trees themselves were cut down andthen charges were laid to blow up the roots. MrDeacon was caught in an explosion despite thebrave efforts of his workmate, Michael Gallagher,to warn him of the danger.

Not surprisingly the construction work causedproblems for local people. In November 1941 SirEdward Packe reported to the Public HealthCommittee of the Barrow Rural District Councilthat there was insufficient sanitaryaccommodation for employees at the aerodrome.The woods at Hoton and land at the rear of LadyHuntingdon’s property were in a shockingcondition. The Clerk informed the Air Ministry ofthe situation but there is no evidence it was dealtwith.

In the December, the Public Health Committeewas informed that water from Burton pond wasbeing used by the airfield contractors, and it wasresolved to ask them to find another source. Thetown pond, where parishioners watered theircattle, and the adjoining sheep-dip, was in thecentre of Burton, close to the village hall. It wasfed by the overflow from the lion’s mouth fountainand ran off into Burton Brook.

The visual impact

The villages of Burton and Wymeswold nestleddeep in their valleys, Prestwold was hidden bytrees. The new airfield was on an elevated spot,open and exposed.

A high water tower with a capacity of 100,000gallons was erected on the technical site in the


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south-east corner. The control tower, a two storeybrick building with a timber control room, waslocated north west of the technical site. There wasa 90 feet wooden VHF radio tower north of theHoton-Wymeswold road near the bomb store.

A gated entrance was created from the Burton-Wymeswold lane with the guard house, firetender house and fire party rest hut on the northside. A fuel store, comprising six tanks above theground each capable of holding 12,000 gallons,was positioned a few yards to the north.

There were four T2 hangars (240 by 113 feet) andone B1 hangar (227 x 120 feet) and thirtyhardstandings 125 feet in diameter. All buildingswere described as ‘temporary’.

The majority of the aprons and hardstandingswere on the north side of the Hoton-Wymeswoldroad and four taxiways crossed the road renderingit useless for its true purpose. Both Wymeswoldand Hoton Parish Councils were incensed. MrTaylor of Wymeswold, seconded by Mr Bartram,made a proposal that they send a protest to theCounty Council and this was agreed. Hoton hadeven more to lose than Wymeswold. The roadsidewaste, which had ‘from time immemorial’ been letby auction at the Hoton parish meeting, was lost.Mr W.H. Walker, clerk to the Parish, wrote to theAir Ministry for compensation: “I am to say that

the average sum for which this has been let for thelast thirty years is £7.11s.9d”. In reply to the AirMinistry’s request for further details, Mr Walkersaid there was waste on both sides of the road,extending to seven acres in all, with a pond for thestock to drink. It belonged either to the Lord of theManor or the adjoining owner, but for the lastseventy years had been let for the benefit of theParish. Due to the recent work, the turf had beencompletely destroyed and although the AirMinistry had not formally requisitioned the land,they had, in effect, taken possession.Correspondence between the Clerk and the AirMinistry continued for some time but eventually acompromise was reached and the parties agreedon a figure of £6.0s.0d (nevertheless, the questionof rent for the Hoton wayside waste was raisedagain in the 1950s).

It soon became clear that the ‘Queen Marys’ – thelong articulated trucks that carried the aeroplanewings and bodies – would have great difficultynegotiating the sharp bend close to West Cottageon the road from Burton to Wymeswold. On 8th

December 1943 a notice was posted on the doorsof St Andrew’s Church and the Prestwold SundaySchool to the effect that the Prestwold ParishMeeting had given consent, under the HighwayAct of 1835, to the stopping up of approximately100 yards of the old road ‘such road having


A 'Queen Mary' transporter at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East Kirkby.Photograph by Peter Shaw.

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become unnecessary by reason of theconstruction of a new section.’

The main beacon was east of the perimeter fenceclose to a small group of allotment gardens. Ahouse in Parsonage Lane, Hoton, still has its wartime beacon (see Wolds Historian 2005), anotherbeacon was set on the site of the Hoton cottagesand four Air Ministry poles at Glovers Farm onBarrow Road in Burton may also have supportedsome kind of approach lights. There was asearchlight battery between Burton and Six Hillsand there were searchlights at Burton BandellsFarm.

Air Ministry records describe the lighting at RAFWymeswold as ‘Mark II’ though we have beentold that the runways themselves were lit with‘goosenecks’ of burning oil.

Posts and other obstacles were put on openground to deter enemy aircraft. One Burtonresident recalls that piles of logs served the

purpose on land between the village and theairfield.

RAF Wymeswold 1942-1957

RAF Wymeswold became operational in May1942. Three Wellington bombers, flying information, circled and landed on the brand newrunway. On 1st June, Group Captain J.R. Bell DFC(a World War I pilot) took over as CommandingOfficer, a post he held throughout the War.

RAF Wymeswold continued as a training stationuntil October 1944 when it became home to RAFTransport Command and the Wellingtons werereplaced by Dakotas.

Transport Command left Wymeswold after threeyears and the station closed. (It is perhaps best notto dwell on what became of some of the fixturesand fittings!)

In September 1947, the 5th Battalion the RoyalLeicestershire Regiment camped on the airfield,


The plan to remove the sharp bends close to West Cottage on the road from Burton to Wymeswold.Reproduced by kind permission of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland

(QS48/1/1328/5).

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Notice of road diversion signed by Sir Edward Hussey Packe.Reproduced by kind permission of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland

(QS48/1/328/8).


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some of the men using the shooting range at SixHills (the shooting range was the main reason forRagdale not being chosen as an airfield site),others receiving motor cycle and carrier trainingin a field lent by Burton farmer, Harry Seal.

On 3rd May 1949 Spitfires of 504 Royal AuxiliaryAir Force Squadron arrived. The following yearRAF Wymeswold was transferred to No.12 GroupFighter Command. No. 7107 Reserve Flight wasformed in July 1954 and this was joined byNo.1969 (Air Observation Post) Flight.

In August 1955 No. 56 Squadron came for sixweeks, during which time its Meteors werereplaced by Hunters. 1956 saw the arrival of 257and 263 Squadrons.

RAF Wymeswold finally closed in 1957. The AirMinistry disposed of the site in 1986.

Living in the shadow of a war-time airfield

In Spring 1942 the whirr and throb of theWellington engines quickly became a familiarsound but local people soon began to recogniseother aircraft too. RAF Wymeswold offered ahaven to many pilots whose planes were damagedor who were unable to make their home base. Onone occasion, 25 Lancasters returning fromGermany were forced to land at Wymeswold. Aspecial site catered for visiting crews at all times ofthe day and night. (Three aircraft from RAFWymeswold, crewed by some of the moreexperienced trainees, took part in the first ‘1,000bomber’ raid over Bremmen.)


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An entry for 10th July 1942 in the Burton school logbook reads, “Many children, particularly theyounger ones, have shown undoubted signs oftiredness, on account of lack of sleep due to nightflying operations of the nearby Air Force. Theheadmaster himself has felt the same effects. Theoperations take place from eleven p.m. until fouror five am the next morning”.

There are no further comments regarding airfieldactivities throughout the War.

Noise was not the only problem. No less thanfourteen aeroplanes went down in the areabounded by Walton on the Wolds, Wymeswold,Rempstone and Cotes: six Wellingtons, oneHavard, one Lancaster, one Defiant, one Halifax,one unspecified allied aircraft, a pair of Spitfiresthat had collided in mid-air, and a GermanDornier. (The eagle in the wall of the WymeswoldPharmacy was created by Russell Hubbardaround twenty years ago as a memorial to thecrew of a Wellington bomber that crashed nearbyon 25th November 1943; it is thought the planewas using the church tower to line up anemergency approach to the runway at RAFWymeswold. Mr Hubbard recollects the noiseand intensity of the ensuing fire. He says it was

bitterly cold and he and other children wentaround the village collecting food for the men setto guard the wreckage.)

At least 47 high explosive bombs and threeclusters of incendiary bombs were dropped in thesame area. Thankfully most fell on open land, butat 10.59 p.m. on the 23rd August 1942 highexplosives blew out the windows of a woodenbungalow at Glovers Farm in Barrow Road,Burton.

It seems strange that these villages wereconsidered safe enough for evacuees.

In the south-east corner of Burton Cemetery aresixteen war graves. Those buried are all men of theRoyal Air Force or the Royal Canadian Air Forcein their late teens or early twenties. Fifteen of themdied during the war years.

The local community

From the time the contractors had moved in,Burton, Hoton, Prestwold and Wymeswold hadceased to be quiet rural villages. In 1943, LadyMary’s nephew wrote ‘How are you all atPrestwold. I suppose your aerodrome is a frightfulnuisance by now’ and in 1944, when Sir Edward

Opposite: Newspaper cutting the Loughborough Echo 26th July 1945.Above: RAF personnel with staff of the Greyhound, Burton (date probably 1945) with licenseeRalph Ward and Mrs Ward centre. Reproduced by kind permission of Graham Watson of the

Greyhound Inn.


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was ill, he was concerned that they should havethis extra burden to bear. However, Sir Edwardand Lady Mary were very hospitable, and GeoffWilkes, who was stationed at Castle Donington,remembers taking aircrews to use the swimmingpool at Prestwold Hall.

Denis Minkley of Burton recalls that most of theladies in the village took in washing for theairmen. Volunteers ran a service club and canteenin Burton Village Hall where hot drinks andsandwiches were served. There was countycirculating library, and games of billiards, tabletennis, darts and other amusements wereprovided. We understand the Village Hall atWymeswold was also made available toservicemen and women. A purpose-built RedShield Club was opened on the communal site bythe Salvation Army but not until March 1945.

Villagers were allowed to use the daily bus thatran from the aerodrome to Loughborough. Thiswas much to the delight of some of the local lassesthough the shyer ones found the company of theairmen rather intimidating.

Men and women from the airfield held parties atthe ‘The Dog’ in Burton (rightly ‘The Greyhound’)where landlord Ward made them very welcome.(Geoff Wilkes says The Greyhound was inWymeswold village; it was probably difficult forthe servicemen to know exactly where they werewith no signposts to help them.)

Also very popular were the local dances,particularly those held twice weekly in SilebyVillage Hall.

Service personnel formed their own band(members and instruments will have varied overthe years but at one stage it comprised a pilotinstructor, a New Zealand navigator instructorand a wireless operator all on sax, a transportdriver on trumpet, the mechanic in charge on bassand one of the WAAFs playing the piano andaccordion). Together with the station concertparty the band entertained at dances and socialevents on the camp and around the widerLoughborough area, often in aid of charity. InMany Fingers in the Pie Ellen Smith recollects theRAF giving a concert at one of the children’sparties organised by the Wymeswold Women’sInstitute during the War.

A very different leisure pursuit ended in tragedyfor one young man. In early September 1944

Squadron Leader Leonard Charles Pipkin, DFCand Bar, was accidentally shot while he was outrabbit shooting with a gun he had borrowed fromfarmer Harry Seal.

The RAF chapel was at the top of Sowters Lane inBurton. Some of the service personnel also usedBurton’s little mission church at the corner ofBarrow Road. Mr Lee from the aerodrome tookservices there and the RAF male voice choir sangon special occasions.

Ten RAF marriages took place at St Andrewsbetween1942 and the end of the war, the firstbeing that of William Ellis and Lilian Griffiths.George Orchard of the RAF and Frieda Wilkinsonof the WAAF were married at Wymeswold in May1945 and the wedding of LAC John Brand andGertrude Walker of Brook Street, Wymeswold,took place at Hoton in 1946. Several servicemenmarried local girls. Ron Crust, who still lives inWymeswold, came to the aerodrome in 1944 andmet and married Hilda Spencer of Burton. Therewere three RAF christenings at Prestwold duringthe war years and several children identified asbeing from “the RAF Garrison” were christened atWymeswold in the 1950s.

Not everyone lived on camp. Sid and Ellen Smithhad several service families living with them atWysall Lane End Farm during the time RAFWymeswold was open. (One little Wymeswoldgirl whose mother had died was adopted by anairman and his wife.) David Langhan, who didnational service at Wymeswold in 1953, wasallowed to live in Loughborough with his wife’sfamily, travelling back and forth to the camp bymotorcycle.

Sid and Ellen were invited to parties at the officers’mess along with other local people, and in herbook Memories of a Country Girlhood Ellendescribes the magnificence and abundance offood laid out for them. ‘I have never been to adance before or since where there were suchquantities of gorgeous food’, she writes. She alsocomments that, not surprisingly, many visitorswere wrapping food in their serviettes andslipping it into their handbags.

It is said that one Wymeswold farmer reared awhole herd of pigs solely on waste collected fromthe airfield.

Close links were forged between Wymeswold and504 Squadron who moved on to the airfield in


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1949. The Wymeswold vicar, Rev LawrenceJackson, acted as station chaplain and servicemen and women put on a concert in the villagehall to raise money for the fund set up to convertthe church organ to electricity. The colours of 504Squadron still hang in St Mary’s Church.

When the War ended the people of Burton,Hoton, Prestwold and Wymeswold were able tofully explore the airfield for themselves. InSeptember 1945 RAF Wymeswold held its firstopen day and 8,000 people came to see close athand the Lancaster, Halifax, Stirling, Liberator,Mosquito, Typhoon, Spitfire and Dakota. Livingquarters, messes and training departments wereall open for inspection and RAF officers patientlyanswered a barrage of questions.

In September 1947 an open day was held to markthe seventh anniversary of the Battle of Britain.The highlights were flying displays by Dakotas,Harvards and Lincoln Heavy Bombers. The eventwas marred when a Mosquito from RAF Witteringtaking part crashed in a ploughed field betweenRempstone and Stanford Hall but thankfully thetwo officers concerned escaped major injury.

In September 1956 RAF Wymeswold was oncemore ‘At Home’. This event was in support of theRAF Benevolent Fund. The audience was treatedto the thrills of aerobatics and formation flying andthere were several displays on the ground.Twenty-five different aircraft took part.

Wider consequences

Not until after the War was mains water piped tothe villages of Wymeswold and Burton on theWolds, but a water main was laid fromLoughborough to the airfield and a fewhouseholds were able to link into it. For BurtonSchool which had been struggling for years withcontaminated well water and broken pumps itwas little short of a miracle.

To begin with, there were proposals to feed thesewers from the WAAF site into the sewage farmto the west of Burton. This was old and hardlyadequate even for a small village and had ahistory of contaminating Burton Brook. Theproject was abandoned but in the early years theAir Ministry’s own sewage works causedproblems by polluting Walton Brook. BarrowRural District Council bought the Air Ministrysewage works in 1951 at a cost of £1,800.

The local Burton coal merchant took over theairfield’s coal yard in Sowters Lane.

Although RAF Wymeswold closed in 1957, thefield continued its association with flying for someyears. Field Aircraft carried out major overhaulson Viscounts there, Harrier Jump Jets were tested,and Provosts from Syerston used the runways topractise ‘circuits and bumps’ (a brief history ofRAF Wymeswold was told by Sonia Bate in WHONewsletter 1997). In 1960 the headmaster ofBurton School was once again forced to complainabout noise from planes flying overhead.

The last record of planes flying from WymeswoldAirfield appears to be 1995 when CastleDonington-based East West Aviation used it forrefuelling and minor repairs to their Russian-builtAntonovs.

An industrial estate has developed around themain entrance to the airfield on WymeswoldLane, leisure activities have been introduced atthe Prestwold end. Over the years theinstructional site has been home to severalengineering companies. There is a poultry farm onthe communal site and a motor repair businessoccupies the old RAF chapel and gymnasium.

In 1986 Costains put forward a scheme to build2,700 homes on the airfield. The ‘Blot on theWolds’ campaign was launched by local peopleand there was a high level enquiry. Eventuallyplanning permission was refused.

Not only did the building and operation of RAFWymeswold have a big impact on thesurrounding area, as far as Burton on the Wolds is

Station name-board from RAF Wymeswold, untilrecently in the possession of Birstall Air Cadets

and donated to the Wolds HistoricalOrganisation. Now in the care of Leics CountyCouncil Environment and Heritage Services.


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concerned, it played a large part in shaping thepresent village.

As a result of the continued use of the airfield bythe RAF after the War, permanentaccommodation was built in Sowters Lane andthree officers’ houses off Barrow Road. Oldaccommodation huts were upgraded and used byPolish refugees (see 2000 Years of the Woldspublished by the Wolds Historical Organisation2003). In 1951 the populations of Hoton andPrestwold and Wymeswold were roughly whatthey had been in 1931 (there was no census takenin 1941); the population of Burton had risen from297 to 938.

There is no precise breakdown of figures but theAir Ministry had estimated that that up to 550servicemen would be retained at the airfield andexpected a similar number of Poles to move to thevillage. When Burton school reopened after the1957 summer holidays, the headmaster noted inhis log book the large drop in numbers due to thesquadron being withdrawn from RAFWymeswold. By 1960 most of the Polish refugeeshad also left the village.

Once RAF Wymeswold closed, service personnelfrom other stations moved into the Air Ministryhouses on Sowters Lane. When these becameredundant, they were sold off, giving severalyounger people an opportunity to acquire a homeof their own close to families and friends.

Huts were demolished over the years, some of theland being returned to agriculture and some soldoff for building. Both Somerset Close andSpringfield Close were built on land that oncehoused servicemen from RAF Wymeswold.

Conclusion

We have endeavoured to put our local airfield ‘onthe map’, show what was here before it was built,and give some idea of its effect on localcommunities. RAF Wymeswold has a long andnoble history but it was never our intention todetail the part it played in the defence of therealm. Neither have we attempted to show theimpact that World War II had on our four villagesthough we know the people suffered deprivationand hardship just like every man, woman andchild in Britain, and contributed, each in his or herown way, to our victory.

There is plenty of evidence of RAF Wymeswoldon the ground. Some huts still stand after sixtyyears – despite their 1942 ‘temporary’ description,there are vestiges of taxiways and ‘frying pans’along the Hoton to Wymeswold road, the controltower and runways are still there, and the watertower has become a local landmark.

Acknowledgements

We thank Peter Elliott of the Royal Air ForceMuseum Hendon, Charles Sewell of Royal AirForce Airfield Construction Branch Associationand Group Captain S.J. Lloyd of the RAF AirHistorical Branch for their help and advice. Wethank the staff of companies, national and local,who have replied to emails, letters and phonecalls with such patience and good humour. Last,but by no means least, we thank the local peoplewho have taken time and trouble to talk to usabout the project.

Other sources consulted

Packe papers and other documents in the RecordOffice for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland

Burton on the Wolds School log books

Local newspaper reports in Loughborough Library

'Airfield Historical Project' produced in 1976 byBrian Axon and the 1947 Squadron (Birstall)Cadets.

Bonser, R., 2001, Aviation in Leicestershire andRutland, Midland Counties PublicationsCartwright, Terence C, 2002, Bird’s Eye Wartime

Leicestershire 1939–45, T.C.C. PublicationsHalpenny, Bruce Barrymore, 1991, Action

Stations: Military Airfields of Lincolnshire andthe East Midlands, Vol.2 , Patrick Stephens

Ritchie, Berry, 1999, The Story of Tarmac, Jamesand James (Publishers)

Smith, David J., 1989, Britain’s Military Airfields1939–45, Patrick Stephens Ltd

Smith, Ellen, Memories of a Country Girlhood,published by the author 1983.

Smith, Ellen, Many Fingers in the Pie publishedby the author 1985.

Wilkes, Geoff, 1997, East Midlands Airport inWar Time, The Pentland Press

Much remains to be told. Were you there? Doyou have family stories to impart? We lookforward to hearing from you. The Editors


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Polish camp revisited

To the Wolds Historical Organisation

8th November 2005

Dear Editor

By sheer luck I came across your very interestingmagazine 2000 Years of the Wolds. It caught myattention because my Polish-born wife and myselffound a home at the Polish Camp in Burton-on-the-Wolds from 1952-1958. Our son was born inBurton and he attended the village school. TheSadowskis (Mr Sadowski was the liaison officer atthe camp) were our next-door neighbours andlifelong friends. Stan (Stanislaw) Sadowskieventually settled in Canada. He was decoratedwith the highest Polish civilian decoration(Polonia Restituta) by the then president ofPoland, Lech Walesa, in recognition of helping32,000 Polish escapees in pre-solidarity time(early 1980s) to find work and settle in Canada.

One Pole living at Burton Camp, site 10, wasFranciszek Malik, SAS codename Piorun(lightening), who was parachuted into Warsaw in1944 at the start of the Warsaw Rising. Inrecognition of his military bravery, the WarsawCity Council named one of the City SquaresZaremba Piorun to commemorate the two sectorleaders from that part of the City. When Zarembawas shot, Piorun (F. Malik) took over command.So there is in fact a link between Burton on theWolds and Warsaw.

My uncle, K. Zerebecki DFC, served with the RAF305 Wellington Squadron from 1940, and wasstationed at Syerston near Newark until he wasshot down over Germany in June 1941. It wouldhave been nice to read in your notes on Poles thatsome 16,000 Polish Airmen were stationed in theUK, thinking of Poland but actually fighting forthis country.

Another observation that could be of interest isthat well over fifty percent of the Polish childrenfrom Burton went on to further education. Indeedin many families one member would work(perhaps picking potatoes for Mr Seal a localfarmer) solely for this purpose. The hundred or soPolish families at the Burton camp, where the

number of Polish graduates could be counted onone hand, produced many British graduates,including a professor and half a dozen lecturers atLoughborough College (later the University), fouror five doctors of medicine, two architects, andseveral teachers, factory directors and managers.The Poles placed great importance on enablingtheir children to integrate and achieve the sort ofliving that had been denied to those of my owngeneration who had been cheated out of ourhomeland. In my case, my birthplace was takenover by the Soviet Union, then annexed toGermany, then taken back by the Soviets, andfinally incorporated into what is now known asthe Ukraine.

At the start of the 21st century I began to ask peopleof various social standing to write short essays ontheir experiences. These notes were published inthe Polish language under the heading of “Poloniain Loughborough”. They are in four parts:Historical Notes (including Burton Camp),Military notes (which lead to Burton Camp),Organisation of the Polish Community, and Thirdgeneration (British born).

It was the great Winston Churchill who, althoughconceding part of Poland to Stalin, allowed us tocome and settle in this country. I think it was avery wise decision and we have proved to begood British citizens, an asset to this locality andthe country in general.

Yours truly

J. R. KowalskiLoughborough

‘The Polish Camp at Burton on the Wolds’ and‘Polish Poppies’, based on memories of Burton’sPolish community, can be found in 2000 Years ofthe Wolds published by the Wolds HistoricalOrganisation in 2003. Reference copies are held

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in Loughborough Library and the Record Officefor Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.

A copy of Polonia in Loughborough is kept in theRecord Office for Leicester, Leicestershire andRutland.

The Negotiator by J.R. Kowalski, published inPolish in 1997 by Caldra House, has a chapter‘England my Adopted Homeland’ which containsreferences to the Polish community at Burton.

We also received a letter from Mrs Mary Kerr ofVictoria, Australia. Mrs Kerr writes: ‘… of specialinterest to us is the chapter on the Polish camp atBurton on the Wolds as we went to live on Site 1on the day we got married and stayed until wemigrated to Melbourne in 1957. In those daysBurton was a sleepy little village and we were sohappy living there.’

Editors


A well once existed near the wall of St Mary'schurchyard, Wymeswold (which is on a naturalmound) between the telephone box and busshelter on the street still known as The Stockwell.The water continues to flow copiously but hasbeen culverted to join the village brook (correctly,the River Mantle) to the south of The Stockwell.

In the late twelfth century there is a reference to'Wulstanwelle', seemingly a dedication toSt Wulstan of Worcester, although suchdedications are otherwise unknown in the county.The location of this well is not known but, if (asBarrie Cox has recently suggested (Cox 2004)) theOld English sense of 'well' in 'stockwell' was'stream' rather than 'spring', then the name'Stockwell' may have referred to a stream crossedby a log (Old English stoc) acting as a footbridge.This would mean that the source of the Stockwellcould at one time have been known as'Wulstanwelle' and the name Stockwelltransferred from the stream to the source after thesaint's dedication was dropped (perhaps at theReformation). By then the original sense of the 'logbridge over a stream' had long been lost and theword 'well' no longer referred to streams but onlyto their source.

Two Sisters' Well (also known as Jacob's Well) ison the perimeter of the disused airfield (see mapon page 9 of this issue of The Wolds Historian). Asimple stone structure with steps down andwooden doors stood until World War II but theflow has now been culverted.

A legend associated with this well tells how,during a three-month long drought, a sixteenthcentury maiden lady called Gertrude Laceydreamed three times in one night of finding astream by sticking a pilgrim's staff from the HolyLand in a specific place. It was located inLangdale Field, and known as Spring Close afterEnclosure. A pilgrim's staff was dug up and, withthe help of her sister Grace, she went off to thelocation. When the staff was stuck in the ground asupply of water was created which 'has never rundry'. A double effigy in Prestwold churchreputedly depicts these two sisters (see PhilipWhite's article in the WHO Newsletter 2001 forfurther details).

Other wells in Wymeswold are:

Cripwell (from the Old English for 'windingstream') which gives its name to a modern farm tothe north of Wymeswold';

Muswell (recorded in 1543 and perhaps from'mouse well') which became corrupted to MushillFarm by 1877;

and a reference, again in 1543, to an otherwiseunknown Fourwell hades ('heads').

Cox, Barrie, 2004, The Place-Names ofLeicestershire: Part Three – East GoscoteHundred, English Place-Name Society

Wolds' Wells

Bob Trubshaw

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Hoton has long been linked with the Packes ofPrestwold, who owned most of the village untilrecent times. At the end of World War II therewere ten farms with large dairy herds, now justtwo remain. Today Hoton has a population ofover three hundred, living in a hundred houses,almost all privately owned.

Hoton’s early history

Hoton, meaning settlement on a heel-shaped hill,dates from Anglo-Saxon times. After the Conquestits 1300 acres were shared between NormansRobert de Jort, with four ploughs and two villeins,and Earl Hugh. Later landowners included the dePrestwolds, the Poutrels, the Neles, the Skipwithsand the Packes.

Hoton was sparsely populated with elevenhouseholds in the 1300s, nine in 1564. By the

Village life in nineteenth century Hoton

Philip White

time the 1666 hearth tax list was drawn up therewere nineteen.

Farming was by the open field strip system, withthree fields of 400 acres: one corn, one peas, andthe other fallow. There was common grazingland, and no hedges or fences. Following the1760 Enclosure Act a pattern of small fields wasestablished, and farming methods changed. Therewas a large increase in population and by 1788seventy households were recorded.

In 1737 a turnpike road from Cotes to Nottinghamwas constructed, passing through Hoton.Completion of the Soar Navigation in 1785coincided with the growing Industrial Revolution.

Changes in population and occupations duringthe nineteenth century

At the beginning of the nineteenth century life inHoton was still centred on agriculture, althoughlater census returns and parish records show adrift from the land.

Map showing Hoton's nineteenth century fieldnames. First published in Wold Reflections

(1997) and reproduced by kind permission ofIan and Rachel Flynn.

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In 1821 Hoton suffered an upheaval and furtherincrease in population when Charles James PackeII bought the Manor of Hoton, with the Rose andCrown alehouse, farm buildings and cottages, andmany people were re-housed there after theoriginal village of Prestwold was cleared. By 1830Hoton’s population included blacksmiths andframework knitters, a carpenter, tailor, baker,butcher, miller, and shoemaker, in addition tofarmers and labourers. There were two girls’boarding schools, two alehouses and an inn.

Charles William Packe succeeded his father in1837.

The 1841 census listed 460 residents, living in 94houses. There was a windmill, two inns, and aWesleyan chapel. By 1881 there were only 308people in 81 houses, with 11 unoccupiedproperties. The 1891 census recorded a furtherfall to 294 people living in 78 houses.

Surprisingly, with agriculture declining in 1891,57 percent of the sixty-five male heads of familyworked in, or were close to farming. Theyincluded drovers, shepherds, market gardeners,an estate foreman, a miller and a corn merchant.Another 19 percent were in supporting trades, i.e.blacksmiths, carpenters, carters, a wheelwrightand a groom, with 14 percent general labourers.The remaining 10 percent were abricklayer/mason, a brickmaker, a tailor, aninnkeeper, a traction engine driver and the vicar.Family members included an engineeringdraughtsman (James Clarke), a sewing machinist(Alice Harriman), a nurse (Millicent Trigg), anauctioneer’s clerk (Henry Bamber), a bank clerk

(William Clarke), a pupil teacher (Julia Trigg) anddressmakers (Anne and Esther Hinds). Boys asyoung as eleven worked as plough boys or cowboys, including Byron Trigg, John Smith, WilliamPlummer and George Bowley, and CatherineShepherd, aged twelve, was a domestic servant.

Of the sixty-five male heads 36 percent were bornin Hoton, 38 percent were from elsewhere inLeicestershire, 15 percent from Nottinghamshireand 11 percent from afar (Ireland, Hampshire,Huntingdon, Lincoln and Cumberland). Almost70 percent were born within a five mile radius ofHoton (Burton, Prestwold, Cotes, Barrow,Rempstone and Loughborough). Only 28 percentof their fifty wives were born in Hoton, 34 percentwere born elsewhere in Leicestershire, 22 percentcame from Nottinghamshire and 16 percent fromScotland, Cumberland, Devon, Lincoln, Derbyand London. Their birthplaces were morewidespread but nearly 60 percent were bornwithin a five mile radius of Hoton (Costock,Willoughby, Wymeswold, Seagrave and EastLeake).

Families were larger than today’s. ShoemakerThomas Thornton had ten children. Several men,including farmer Herbert Hollingshead and parishclerk Haines Walker, had seven, many had five orsix but two to four was more usual.

Longevity is difficult to assess, but marketgardener Henry Spencer was 91, dressmaker AnnHinds 86. Other long-lived men were aged sixty-seven to seventy-eight with women sixty-nine toseventy-nine. Infant mortality was much higherthan today.

Notice of the proposed Enclosure of Hoton from the Leicester Journal August 1759.


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Parish affairs, housing and living conditions

From Elizabeth I’s time until well into the 1800scare of the poor, policing, and maintenance ofroads was in the hands of the parish who levied anannual rate. Parliament decreed that able-bodiedmen give between four and six days’ free labour inrepairing roads (turnpikes were paid for by tolls).

In the early 1800s the parish clerk lived in acottage by Hoton House. William Sharp held thepost in the late 1840s and Haines Walker is listedas parish clerk in the 1861, 1871 and 1881censuses. The versatile Haines was a tailor butlater became a servant and waiter, and in the1890s, a grazier and sub-postmaster. In 1867 MrCooke was the collector of parish dues.

Hoton’s unique mix of properties show thechanges in building design and materials over thecenturies. Entering from Wymeswold, one passesa cluster of timber- framed farmsteads, convertedfarm buildings and cottages, some Tudor and onethatched. A medieval church tower overlooks theturnpike road lined with fine Georgian houses(see views of older buildings and street plan).

Hoton’s farmers and minor gentry, in theirsubstantial houses, had very different livingstandards from the farm labourers. In the early1800s cottages were often badly thatched, ill-furnished hovels with earth floors, open firecooking, no running water and primitivesanitation. C.W. Packe replaced many mud andlath cottages with good brick ones with slateroofs, and refurbished others, includingconverting the workhouse into cottages. His father

had improved the dilapidated coaching inn ‘TheMarquis of Granby’, renaming it ‘The PackeArms’. Allotments were provided, so workerscould grow potatoes and other vegetables,perhaps keep hens or a pig, all important in thehungry 1840s. Clean water was a problem, butparish meetings in 1854-55 decided to buildoutside privies and sink a well. Cottages thenwould have flagged floors and stone sinks, withoil lamps replacing candles.

Sanitation and medical services improved, butchildbirth was hazardous, depending on a self-trained midwife. There were still cases of typhoid,diphtheria and ringworm in the 1880s.

Church and school

Hoton church was the survivor of three chapelriesof Prestwold church (the others were Burton andCotes). It was called St Anne’s until well into thenineteenth century and was subsequentlyrededicated to St Leonard. In 1800 there was justone service a year, but in 1810 BenjaminRowland of Hoton House paid for services everysecond Sunday. In 1830 the Bishop becamealarmed about the validity of marriagessolemnised by licence at Hoton Church (penaltyfor default, transportation). Rev Charles Williamsassured him that baptisms and marriages weresolemnised only at Prestwold Church but by 1831he had left the village.

Weekly services were restored in 1838, after C.W.Packe carried out repairs, built a granite chanceland installed a new bell and clock. Hoton Housebecame the parsonage. There was no fixedparsonage until 1875 when Colonel G.H. Packeprovided a house on South Street. Hoton also hada thriving Wesleyan Chapel.

Most Hoton children had no regular ‘free’schooling until C.W. Packe built a girls’ school onPrestwold Lane in 1837 and a boys’ school at theBurton-Prestwold boundary in 1840. In 1887Hussey Packe enlarged the latter for both boysand girls and the old girls’ school became aSunday school. Truancy was a problem especiallyat harvest time.

Scholars were invited to Prestwold Hall eachsummer for tea and games, and also collectednew boots and clothes from there each Christmas.

Hoton had two boarding schools, each with six totwelve girls, run by the Misses Potter and the


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Misses Cooper. Fees were about eighteen guineasa year.

Street scenes

In 1840 Hoton was described as peaceful butbustling, with fourteen or fifteen stagecoachesrumbling through daily. The turnpike road wassurfaced with broken granite bonded together bythe weight of passing wheels. Minor roads weredirt and gravel, rutted and muddy in winter anddusty in summer.

As well as shoppers, horse riders, farm carts anddelivery wagons, there would be carriages fromthe finer houses. Herds of cattle would passthrough for milking or going to pasture. In lateryears one might meet a crocodile of young ladiesled by Anne or Letitia Potter (listed in 1861 and1871 censuses) or the vicar on his rounds (RevJohn Killick in the 1881 census). Sheep could beseen in the fields with shepherds William Painterand Thomas Marson mentioned in the 1891census, and there would be the familiar sounds ofhorses being shod at the smithy.

Anne and Letitia Potter retired to Weeping AshCottage. Among other interesting residents of theGeorgian houses were Evelyn Faulkner, onceLord Byron’s tutor, and Hacker Parkinson, whowas descended from Cromwellian regicideColonel Hacker.

Dimly-lit streets would not deter visits toalehouses, with wagoner William Phipps and

Opposite: The Packe Arms.Above: Hoton church in 1978.

Right: Timber-framed buildings in Hoton.Bottom right: Hoton House, taken from thechurch tower. Photographs by Philip White.


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labourer Joseph Bramley perhaps frequenting theRose and Crown, and more prosperous drinkerssuch as George Thirlby, corn merchant, and Estateforeman Henry Walker opting for the Packe Arms.

In 1868 Hoton’s main street was observed to bequiet, railways having ousted stagecoaches, withtelegraph wires now a feature.

Holidays were rare but the two annual wakeswere celebrated, St Anne’s feast day on 26th Julyand the Calf Wake around 9th October, as well asvictories at Trafalgar and Waterloo and QueenVictoria’s Coronation and Jubilees.

There would be visits to Loughborough Fair andreligious festivals, especially Christmas, would beenjoyed. Imagine carollers with lanterns in thesnow. Red-coated Quorn hunters might gather atthe Packe for a stirrup cup.

Meeting more of the local people

Church warden and land tax assessor William Gillwas a colourful man. He owned the Bell Inn, builtRose Cottage and was married three timesalthough two of his sons died in infancy. When hedied in 1827 he left his five surviving childrenseveral hundred pounds each. His grandsonThomas employed six men and four boys on his300 acre farm with the large holly tree in front(Hollytree Farm).

Holts farm, with 100 acres, was almost certainlynamed after William Hoult who was there until1879. Henry James, a long-time resident, wasconvinced of this derivation.

John Lacey owned Pear Tree Farm in the early1800s. His son Henry rented the Hollies with 200acres, and in 1871 Robert, Henry's nephew,farmed Pear Tree Farm with 550 acres, employingfifteen men, eight boys and a girl.

Miller, Edward Watkin, built a windmill in Hotonin 1823. In 1891 descendants Edward and familywere living at the Thatch, children Edward,William and Elizabeth continuing there in old ageafter the mill was destroyed by fire.

Robert Sim still farms at Hoton Hills where Johnand Mary Sim came from Cumberland in 1874.

The Packe Arms landlord in 1881, SimpsonAllsop, was quite a character. He used to bribe thedrivers of the steam traction engines that shook up

the beer in his roadside cellars with a gallon of aleto drive on the far side of the road. One drivermay have been Joseph Booth from Vine TreeTerrace.

Descendants of several old families still livelocally, or have lived locally until quite recently.Several Triggs are listed as agricultural labourersin the 1881 and 1891 censuses: George, Samuel,Henry, William, Isaac, Joseph and Byron. Otherswere Noah Lockwood and Edward Plummer.There are still Abels in Hoton. Joseph Abel was awheelwright, Frank and Frederick wereblacksmiths, as were Joel Hardy and John Wood.Joseph Smith, Charles Knight and ThomasShepherd were all carpenters.

Market gardener Henry Spencer, born at the startof the century, remarkably was still listed in 1891.Bartholomew Hall was working with him.

Thomas Thornton, a cordwainer (or shoemaker),was born at Swithland in 1812, and married toElizabeth Stevenson from East Leake. In the 1851census six children, Ann Mary, Elizabeth andMartha (born between 1840 and 1843) andWilliam, John and Thomas (born between 1837and 1848) are listed. In the1861 census four moreboys are named: Herbert, George, Frederick andWalter (all born between 1854 and 1859). About1872 Colonel Packe built a house for Thomas atthe corner of Prestwold Lane and South Street. Atthe time of the 1881 census only Herbert and AnnMary were still at home. By 1891 Herbert, later amarried farmer, was living with his sister andwidowed mother, his father having died in 1889aged 77. Their neighbours at that time werefarmer Henry Bennett and Prestwold vicar RevFrank Sheriff.

In 1871, Martha, by then a widow, was a hotelierand living with her children in Merthyr Tydfil. Herbrother Walter was living with them. Walter latermoved to Edgbaston, then Southwalk. In 1881Thomas Thornton Jnr was a boot and shoesalesman in Doncaster. He died in 1884 and hiswidow and her family moved to Leicester.Elizabeth Thornton married Stephen Simpson, alicensed victualler living in London. By 1891John, George and Frederick were living in MarketHarborough, Oakham and Lincoln, all marriedwith children. No trace can be found of Williamafter 1851 but eight of the others were still alive in1901.


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Souces

1. The Doomsday Book 1086. Penguin Classics2003

2. T. R. Potter Walks Round Loughborough1840, Rambles Around Loughborough 1868.

3. Rachel Flynn. Hoton. A Stroll Round aConservation Village published by the author1992.

July 20th 1521

I Joan Groves of Wymeswold [being] of wholemind and perfect memory make my testamentand last will in manner and form following.

First I bequeath my soul to Almighty God, to ourLady Saint Mary and to all the holy company ofheaven, my body to be buried in the churchyardof Wymeswold. Also I bequeath for my mortuary(1) my best goods after the custom and manner ofthe country. Also I bequeath to our Lady ofLincoln (2) 4 pence. I bequeath to the rood light inthe church of Wymeswold two serges of wax (3)price of 12 pence. Also I bequeath to Brantingbychurch 8d.

I bequeath 10 shillings for to have a trentall (4) ofmasses sung for my husband’s soul and my souland all other souls.

I bequeath to John Humberston 2 pewter platesand a candlestick and a little pot. Also I bequeathto Robert my eldest son a coverlet, a matress a potand a winer and also I bequeath to John my son apan and 2 platters and a kerchief to his wife. Ibequeath to Richard my son, my cow and 2 pairsof sheets and a coverlet.

I bequeath to Agnes my daughter a gown and onekerchief. I bequeath to Joan my daughter a potgown and a kerchief. I bequeath to Elizabeth mydaughter a kirtle a pot and a kerchief. Also Ibequeath to Elizabeth Medylton a pair of sheetsand the residue of all my goods, I give andbequeath to John Humberstone and to Robert myson whom I ordain and make my sole executors

4. Daphne Evans. The History of Hoton Church(unpublished).

5. England Census Returns 1841/1901. WalesCensus Returns 1871/1891 Public RecordOffice.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Mrs Jean Thatcher for help withthe census returns.

they to dispose them for the health of my soul asthey shall find most expedient.

Witness of this my testament I John Holt vicar ofWymeswold, Richard Mores and William Barratt.

Notes

1 Mortuary – money or goods given to the churchto allow for non-payment or underpayment ofdues for the church in one’s lifetime.

2 Our Lady of Lincoln – Lincoln Cathedral; therewas no Leicester Diocese in 1521.

3 Serges – a serge of wax was a large thick candleused in churches.

4 Trentall of masses – 30 masses.

This will was transcribed by the late JessieMoretti, a founder member of the WoldsHistorical Organisation, and the notes are hers.

Brantingby (Brentingby) is south east of MeltonMowbray and may have been the village whereJoan Grove or her husband was born.

There are no records of other members of theGrove family being buried at Wymeswold thougha George Groves married Alice Foxe at theChurch in 1590. The name appears several timesin the early Prestwold registers and another JoanGroves, presumably a granddaughter of theabove, married Gabriel Stapleton at Prestwold in1575.

John Humberston was the vicar of Prestwold.

The Editors.

Will of Joan Groves of Wymeswold, Widow


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Burton's heritage lost in 2006

2006 has not been a good year for Burton.

The old building known as Sunnyside was finallydemolished to make way for new houses. There isgood evidence that this was once Burton’s secondinn, the Anchor. A small area of cobbles at the

entrance to the site has been cleared forlandscaping as has the last traces of the villagepound.

The remaining stretch of the barrier erected bypublic subscription in 1912 to prevent cattlestraying on to the grass verges was dismantledwhen a vehicle ran out of control and mountedthe pavement.

The timber framed east wall of 19 LoughboroughRoad, a listed cottage dating to the late 16th orearly 17th century, needed to be rebuilt because itstimber foundation had rotted. Some timberframing remains on the back wall of the cottage.

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wolds historian 2006 - hoap · careful sketches were made of buildings to be demolished, and...

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