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2024-03-28T21:46:24+00:00text/html2014-12-30T18:04:18+00:00Vieve Forward51.442466587627 -1.922255716063A visit to the derelict former RAF Yatesbury air base
https://www.geograph.org.uk/blog/220
It was one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions that have consequences. That Saturday morning, 6th December 2014, I was off to the annual Christmas Fayre in Devizes, and because the weather was bright and frosty, I decided to make the most of the petrol and go for a walk on my way back. <br />
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I decided on Yatesbury because it was more or less on my route, and because, when I looked at my worn-out OS map covered in pink highlighter, I realised to my surprise that there were grid squares there that I hadn’t geographed yet, quite a few of which were up for TPoints and third or fourth visitor points.<br />
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I have visited Yatesbury many times. One winter, I walked through Yatesbury every Sunday on a route from Broad Hinton to Avebury, but this didn’t take me near the former air base. But I’d been near it on other walks, and the space near a concrete blockhouse close to the junction of The Avenue and the lane to Nolands provides a handy parking spot for walkers. While there, I’d seen the old buildings on the other side of the road. I knew they had something to do with the war, but I’d taken no interest in them. Another geographer, Brian Robert Marshall (BRM), had no doubt already covered them: such things were right up his street, so I left them to him. But instead of starting my walk in Yatesbury, I decided to do a circular walk starting from a layby not far from the Beckhampton roundabout on the south side of the A4.<br />
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Following a track that was once the original London-Bath road through a beautiful beech plantation <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4271346" target="_blank" title="SU0769 : Beech trees, Knoll Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0769 : Beech trees, Knoll Down by Vieve Forward" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/13/4271346_c55ef885_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, I soon emerged at the top of Knoll Down, from where I could see Yatesbury Field spread out to my right down below. I continued for some way along the ridge, until I reached a round barrow that I wanted to photograph. From a distance, I could see a concrete slab protruding from the top of it and a kind of concrete gully coming out of the side. Coming closer, I saw that the concrete in the gully had partly fallen down and it was blocked with weeds, which prevented me from exploring it further. I had no idea what this concrete affair was for, assuming that some farmer had put it there, perhaps as a shelter for lambs, though why he should damage a scheduled monument, I couldn’t think. I took some photos and moved on <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4272064" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Round Barrow with WW2 gun emplacement, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Round Barrow with WW2 gun emplacement, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/20/4272064_bed8729f_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
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From the ridge, I could see Yatesbury air strip <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4286021" target="_blank" title="SU0670 : Wiltshire Microlight Centre, Yatesbury Field by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0670 : Wiltshire Microlight Centre, Yatesbury Field by Vieve Forward" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/60/4286021_7b823b96_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. The windsock told me it was still in use, but I saw no planes taking off, and dismissed it as just another of the tiny leisure airfields in which Wiltshire abounds.<br />
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I was now heading in the direction of Cherhill monument, but at the junction of the track that leads to the Iron Age fort on top of the hill, I turned right to cross the A4 and take the minor road to Yatesbury. Just after the bend in the lane, there were a few buildings that looked as if they might be leftovers from the war, but I hadn’t sufficient interest to photograph them. This is a lesson I am constantly failing to learn: that you should photograph everything that sparks your curiosity, even if you don’t know what it is at the time. They lay beside a drive which was barred by a Private sign, and looked as if they had been commandeered for use as farm buildings.<br />
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Just past this point, I could see the derelict buildings of the former RAF Yatesbury camp in the distance across the fields <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4286022" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/60/4286022_5c0fa158_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. If I had never noticed them before, it was because whenever I had come this way before, it was by car. Now, they looked really interesting: since joining geograph, I have become very interested in derelict buildings, which I consider to have a certain sort of beauty, and a ghostly sort of fascination. Looking at my map and realising that they weren’t accessible from the Juggler’s Lane bridleway, I toyed with the idea of cutting across the fields by way of what I took to be a track. But it turned out on closer examination to be just a field boundary, so I scrapped the idea.<br />
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Further down the lane, and nearing the right-hand bend for Yatesbury village, I could see Hangar 45, a huge redbrick building which I took to be one of the wartime hangars restored <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4286048" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar 45, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar 45, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/60/4286048_e68b629e_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. It was in immaculate condition. The gate was locked, and although it was a Saturday, I could hear a vehicle’s engine running inside. I took some pictures, both of the side and the offices at the back, feeling sure that it had been covered before (and later being proved right), and continued on to the crossroads, where I turned left into Juggler’s Lane. <br />
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To my right were the concrete blockhouse and the patch of empty ground which dog-walkers use for parking. The high metal barriers that had once surrounded the blockhouse were now partly torn down. I didn’t photograph the blockhouse because it looked too ugly (another mistake), and I was sure BRM had already done so. It did cross my mind to wonder why metal security fencing had been erected, though, but I didn’t bother to pursue the thought.<br />
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On the other side of the road, the derelict corrugated iron building seemed to have decayed very much since my last visit. Now there was hardly anything left of it. But as I said, I dismissed it as uninteresting and in any case was sure BRM had already recorded it.<br />
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I thought I would go down Juggler’s Lane a little way, to see if I could get a better view of the derelict buildings I had seen from the road. I walked along an avenue of very tall trees <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4273797" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Poplar avenue, Juggler's Lane, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Poplar avenue, Juggler's Lane, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/37/4273797_09070bc5_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a> until I came upon a pillbox <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279015" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Type 22 pillbox, north perimeter of former RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Type 22 pillbox, north perimeter of former RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279015_b3689732_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> which I didn’t remember seeing when I last passed this way a very long time ago. It had all its orifices blocked with concrete. Despite being pretty sure that BRM would have beaten me to it, I photographed it just in case, and continued a short way along the lane. <br />
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I should explain that there are two tracks running in parallel from the crossroads as far as the pillbox. The one I was on is metalled, while the other is not. It is the other lane that carries the bridleway past the back of the buildings I was approaching, first of which was a large white house which was clearly lived in. I continued along the metalled lane, but just before the house it was blocked by a gate with a Private sign on it. <br />
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To my left, I could see the derelict buildings of the air base. The one nearest was in a terrible state of disrepair and seemed to be on the point of collapse. It looked as if it might have been a hangar <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4275829" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Derelict aircraft hangar, Juggler’s Lane, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Derelict aircraft hangar, Juggler’s Lane, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/58/4275829_9de70da3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, but the roof beams had partly fallen in, and whatever had covered the roof was now missing, leaving the skeletal frame open to the elements. There was a wide band of rough ground to the left of the lane, so I crossed far enough over this to take some photos, making sure I regained the metalled lane before I was spotted.<br />
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Back at the crossroads, I continued towards Yatesbury, taking a photo of the Rectory <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4270847" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : The Old Rectory, The Avenue, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : The Old Rectory, The Avenue, Yatesbury by Vieve Forward" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/08/4270847_1ea9b631_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="72" /></a> as I passed in case I needed it to bag my grid square, then I continued my walk back to my car.<br />
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The following day, I uploaded the photos that would need least research in order to tick off more grid squares and secure more points of one kind or another. Later in the week I began to upload the photographs which required more research, and I came up with quite a few surprises. The first was that the concrete thing in the round barrow on top of Knoll Down turned out not to be something installed by a farmer, but was in fact an anti-aircraft emplacement built during the Second World War. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/artsheritageandlibraries/museumhistoryheritage/wiltshireandswindonhistoricenvironmentrecord/wshermap.htm?a=d&id=27881" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/artsheritageandlibraries/museumhistoryheritage/wiltshireandswindonhistoricenvironmentrecord/wshermap.htm?a=d&id=27881">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> That figured: the round barrow stood on the highest part of the ridge, with a good view for miles both to the north over the Yatesbury plain with its airfield, and to the south over the Marlborough Downs, whence enemy aircraft would have approached from the sea. I wondered if the MoD had had to put in a request to alter the scheduled monument (it had been scheduled in 1925). Perhaps it already had a big gouge dug into the top by the antiquaries of the 19th century, although Wiltshire and Swindon Historic Environment Record makes no mention of the notorious Dean Merewether, and gives no references prior to aerial photographs taken in 1946. While excavating the barrow prior to installing the gun emplacement, fragments of human bone and shale and pottery were found, including a Bronze Age beaker. <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1010133" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1010133">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <br />
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The second surprise was that the dilapidated hangar I had photographed had originally been built during the First World War. Not only that, but it was Grade II* listed. For those who don’t know, many of the most beautiful houses in England only have Grade II listing: to attract Grade II* listing, a building has to be very special indeed. Yet this hangar was practically disintegrating, and looked as if it wouldn’t last another winter. What had been going on to merit all those high metal fences and streamers of black plastic flying in the wind, yet resulting in the apparent complete abandonment of the site? <br />
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As I looked into it more, I discovered that there were three Grade II* listed hangars on the site, including the wreck of a building that I had seen opposite the parking space at the beginning of the drive, and that there had been two air bases, the East and the West Camps, both going back to 1916. I came across some videos on YouTube made by John Grech <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHd4q2pB14" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHd4q2pB14">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> (collections of photos really) of the derelict buildings in the camp, and was fascinated by the eeriness of the place which must once have been teeming with life. From one of these, I discovered that the blockhouse at the junction had been the main guard room for the West Camp. I looked again at BRM’s photograph: he had described it as a blockhouse, so not having a photograph of my own to upload, I put in a suggestion for a change to his description, which he accepted <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/415161" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Former main guardroom, RAF Yatesbury West Camp by Brian Robert Marshall"><img alt="SU0571 : Former main guardroom, RAF Yatesbury West Camp by Brian Robert Marshall" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/photos/41/51/415161_280916ff_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
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The third surprise explained why the site looked as if builders had downed tools one day and gone home, leaving it to rot, with the metal fences falling down, the hangar roofs falling in, and not even taking their scaffolding planks away with them.<br />
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It appeared that a Moroccan businessman by the name of Jamal Khanfer had bought the site in 1998 and planned to convert the former air base buildings into luxury houses and flats, and to build five new houses to the north of the site. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.yatesbury.org/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.yatesbury.org/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> According to his agent Mike Milton, from Milton Architects in Marlborough, Khanfer had bought the site to use for flying before he realised the history behind it. After a lengthy public enquiry, his proposals for development were accepted and he started work, but his plans were thwarted in 2008 when, after the financial crash, his funding was pulled, and work ceased. Although by then he had conserved one hangar of the western pair, he clearly had not provided adequate protection from the elements for the other. (I’m not sure whether he owns the eastern hangar). In March 2014, he re-submitted his plans for developing the site <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/11071335.Housing_plans_for_Yatesbury_airfield/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/11071335.Housing_plans_for_Yatesbury_airfield/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> but since they did not include proposals for the future use of the conserved hangar, revised plans were requested. In the meantime, although he was served by English Heritage with an Urgent Works Notice to arrest further decline in the condition of the derelict western hangar, before the works were implemented there was a substantial roof collapse. English Heritage, seeing that it is beyond repair, has now given permission for its demolition. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/har-2011-registers/acc-sw-HAR-register-2011.pdf" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/har-2011-registers/acc-sw-HAR-register-2011.pdf">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <br />
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I don’t know what made me sadder, Khanfer’s neglect or English Heritage’s failure to protect the hangar. But that would have been the end of the matter as far as I was concerned had it not been for another suggestion I’d made for one of BRM’s photos while I’d perused those he had uploaded for RAF Yatesbury. BRM had contended that the trees in the avenue leading away from the guard room were oaks <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3819161" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Trees, Juggler's Lane, Yatesbury by Brian Robert Marshall"><img alt="SU0571 : Trees, Juggler's Lane, Yatesbury by Brian Robert Marshall" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/81/91/3819161_26f03752_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, but I was sure they were not, and suggested beeches. BRM responded that as no-one could be certain unless they went back there in the summer and identified them from their leaves, and until then he was sticking to his description. The moderator weighed in, saying they were not beeches, because beeches had smooth bark, and suggested ash. This was on the Thursday. It must have been on my mind all day Friday, because when Saturday dawned fine and bright, I decided to go back to Yatesbury and find out. It may have been nearly midwinter, but at least I could guess from the buds on the twigs and the leaves and seeds on the ground what the trees were. Not only that, but I wanted to go back and get a better photograph of the gun emplacement in the round barrow, and if possible, get a closer look at the ruined RAF base.<br />
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So I set off on Saturday morning and, parking in the same layby as before, made my way swiftly up to the round barrow <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277628" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Round Barrow with WW2 gun emplacement, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Round Barrow with WW2 gun emplacement, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/76/4277628_6ddce920_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. This time, I pushed my way past the nettles and rubble and into the gun emplacement itself <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277650" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Entrance to WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Entrance to WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/76/4277650_e0cb5e4f_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. There was another surprise: a little bunker behind the emplacement <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277684" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Entrance to bunker in WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Entrance to bunker in WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/76/4277684_eb641424_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277689" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Entrance to WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Entrance to WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/76/4277689_84ad8daa_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a>, where I imagined the soldiers sheltering from the cold on long winter nights, with what looked like a fireplace too <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277693" target="_blank" title="SU0669 : Fireplace in bunker, WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0669 : Fireplace in bunker, WW2 gun emplacement in round barrow, north of West Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/76/4277693_c7797872_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, though realistically, the bunker may simply have been used to store ammunition. <br />
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When I emerged from the bunker, I looked out over to the south, from where the bombers would have arrived, and thought of those men keeping their spirits up through many a night on that freezing spot on the Downs. I thought how brave they were, and how much we owe to them. I looked in the other direction over the modern Yatesbury airfield, and as if to make my imaginings real, a small plane took off, banked around and flew over the Knoll. <br />
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I went back to the car and drove on to Yatesbury, where I parked opposite what I now knew to be the main guardroom for the West Camp <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4278997" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Former main guardroom, RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Former main guardroom, RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/89/4278997_768f1a50_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. No longer just an ugly blockhouse, it had become the place where sentries would have stood and challenged everyone who wanted to go along the lane. One iron gatepost still remained of the gate which they would have guarded <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4293594" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Entrance to former RAF Yatesbury West Camp by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Entrance to former RAF Yatesbury West Camp by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/35/4293594_659b8e1a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. I took a picture of a hump in the ground behind it, and only realised was a Stanton air raid shelter when I came to upload the photo later <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4293615" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Stanton air raid shelter, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Stanton air raid shelter, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/36/4293615_b4db2b40_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
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My first priority was to have a good look at the hangar nearest the junction. This was in terrible condition. Even though I had never paid it much attention previously, I noticed that it was in a far worse state than on my visits prior to 2014. I clearly remembered a reasonably solid wall clad with green corrugated iron. Now most of it had disappeared, leaving a few of what looked like huts at ground level and some glassless windows above. The roof was entirely missing. <br />
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I was able to get a very close look at what was left of the building and wander round inside it. The vast concrete floor remained, with the iron groove for the hangar doors <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279025" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279025_57859573_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, and the ancillary buildings on either side, but apart from that, it was just a shell of the building <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4287374" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/73/4287374_1dded12e_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4287373" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/73/4287373_8ee35250_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4286918" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangars at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangars at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/69/4286918_9ee732b9_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. How sad that it had survived two world wars and been listed by English Heritage, and yet in the last few years had perished through sheer neglect!<br />
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I walked a little way along what used to be the runway, which extended west in the direction of the other hangars and buildings of West Camp. From there, I could see the hangar I had photographed the previous week more clearly, and also the other hangar in the listing, which was black and looked remarkably intact. I desperately wanted to get closer and have a good look, and contemplated walking along the field boundary. But the ground was very rough, and I might have been seen and stopped, so I decided to return to last week’s viewpoint and try to get a better picture from there.<br />
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I set off along the lane, looking at the trees as I went. What were they? They definitely weren’t oaks – I could tell that from the shape. They weren’t beech: the lack of coppery beech leaves and beech nuts beneath my feet made that clear. But they weren’t ash either: they didn’t have those typical black ash buds. I could see no seeds of any kind lying on the ground but I picked up a leaf. It was more or less triangular, roughly like the ace of spades in shape. I put it in my rucksack together with a twig to take home and identify later.<br />
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Further down the lane, I took another look at the pillbox, which was a hexagonal Type 22 pillbox. The reason for its position here now became clear: its purpose was to defend the northern perimeter of the West Camp and to protect it from anyone who might have managed to get past the guardroom.<br />
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Next I walked over into the rough grass again to try to get a better photograph of the dilapidated hangar. I took some shots with the feeble zoom on my camera, but these turned out to be no better than the shots I had taken the previous week. Besides which, I could see cars parked outside the white house, one of which had its engine running, and I did not wish to be seen. I’d decided that I would try to get into the site from further along Juggler’s Lane, and if I was seen now, that would put an end to my plan. Normally, I don’t so much as deviate from a public footpath, but when as site is as interesting as this, I am prepared to trespass if necessary. If I am seen, I apologise, and sometimes find that the subterfuge was unnecessary; but this time, I was determined to get photos of this site by hook or crook, and I didn’t want to jeopardise my chances from the outset.<br />
<br />
So I retreated to the pillbox. From there, the public bridleway follows the track to the north of it. I passed with the house on my left, and followed a trimmed hedge and fence for a short distance until it gave way to wilder hedgerows beyond. I could glimpse the camp over to my left but the bushes were too dense for me to get through. <br />
<br />
A little further on I came upon another pillbox hidden in the bushes <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279006" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Type 22 pillbox, north perimeter of former RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Type 22 pillbox, north perimeter of former RAF Yatesbury air base, Juggler's Lane by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279006_fc5fb7a9_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> that BRM had missed. It was another Type 22 hexagonal box, but this time the loopholes hadn’t been blocked up and you could see that they were of TF744 066 pattern. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/types-of-pillbox/type-22/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/types-of-pillbox/type-22/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> The whole pillbox was covered in moss which glowed bright green in the afternoon sunshine. <br />
<br />
And then, eureka! Just beyond the pillbox was a well-worn path through the hedge, over a broken-down barbed wire fence, and across the adjacent rough field towards the camp. I had found my way in!<br />
<br />
I get the same thrill from trespassing as I did when I was a child nearly sixty years ago. There is the feeling of butterflies in the stomach at the possibility of getting caught, and the burning excitement to see what you came to see before you are spotted. It is as if a primeval hunting instinct kicks in, and yet you know that as long as you are careful, you are doing no real harm, apart from possibly annoying somebody. And being an adult, you are less likely to take unnecessary risks and put yourself in danger (though I did have some warning shots fired in my direction once), which is partly why I didn’t enter any of the buildings.<br />
<br />
But before I go on, here is an outline of the history of the camp:<br />
<br />
In 1916, the Royal Flying Corps developed two airfields at Yatesbury specialising in training Corps Reconnaissance pilots. Two camps were established, one on each side of the minor road from the A4 to the village itself: this one, the West Camp, comprised the officers’ and men’s quarters with the usual facilities and three large hangars, while the East Camp was adjacent to the A4, where the present airstrip is, and had hangars and workshops. The airfields opened in November 1916 with No. 55 Reserve Squadron arriving from Filton, equipped with the Avro 504A and the Scout D.<br />
<br />
Although the war ended in November 1918, training continued into 1919, when squadrons were sent to Yatesbury to be disbanded. The Station finally closed in early 1920, and the land was returned to its original owners and reverted to farmland until 1936.<br />
<br />
In 1935, Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC), which had been operating a school at Filton in Bristol since 1923, purchased part of the former western airfield and built a flying school, which opened in early 1936. This was the No.10 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School (Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC trained here in 1936). Various facilities were built including an officers’ mess and accommodation blocks. In 1939 the airfield was taken over by the Air Ministry and brought up to wartime standards, which included the construction of the Bellman and Blister hangars, the Stanton air raid shelters, and a Sommerfield Track of steel mesh matting which was laid on the two runways. Training was carried out with Tiger Moth aircraft. This continued until the outbreak of war in September 1939, when pilot training was transferred away to other stations to allow the field to be used for training airborne wireless operators.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, in 1938/9 on the site of the East Camp, the RAF, realising that it would need a large number of radio operators, built the No. 2 Electrical and Wireless School, (later renamed No. 2 Radio School). The theory of wireless and Morse code were taught on the ground and Dominie and Proctor aircraft were used for the aerial training. The trainees were billeted in a large number of wooden huts; over 50,000 men successfully passed out of the school between 1939 and 1945. In 1942 a heavily guarded compound was built at the eastern end of the camp to teach the new top-secret radar. This was originally known as No. 9 RDF School but was later called the No. 9 Radio School. Over 19,000 men and women were trained there.<br />
<br />
At the end of the war air training largely ceased, and the camp was used for basic training for a while. The Flying School at the East Camp was briefly used to train pilots but in 1947 was abandoned. From 1954 to 1958 it was converted to RAF Cherhill, 27 Group Headquarters; with the start of the Cold War the camp had become busy again, mainly with the training of radar operators, mechanics and fitters. Large numbers of men on National Service passed through the camp, but with the end of National Service in 1961 demand reduced. In 1965 the camp was finally closed. During this period, over 70,000 personnel had been successfully trained there. In 1969, the wooden huts were demolished and the land returned to agriculture, with the exception of the gymnasium, the only brick building on the camp; the Flying School and buildings were abandoned and left to rot. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://rafyatesbury.webs.com/stationhistory1.htm" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://rafyatesbury.webs.com/stationhistory1.htm">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1002091&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1002091&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> Now I was about to see for myself how the site had fared since then.<br />
<br />
I crossed the small field of rough ground diagonally towards a gap between the high metal fencing which surrounded the site and the first building on my left. At the time, I didn’t know what each building was used for. Many are identified in John Grech’s videos, but I couldn’t remember which was which, so I just photographed each one as I came to it, hoping to identify them when I got home. To cut a long story short, I will identify them now as I describe my route through the site. <br />
<br />
To my left was the main generator house <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279035" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279035_be66b1f6_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, and between it and me was a high redbrick wall <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4290730" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Main generator house with M/T Section parking bay in front, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Main generator house with M/T Section parking bay in front, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/07/4290730_754c4c06_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, with a space behind it which Grech identifies as the M/T (Motor Transport) Section parking bay, from the original stencilling on the wall <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> although it is not next to the M/T shed as you might expect. Looking at the photos now, I can see that the wall had originally been three sides of a long covered shed, the roof of which has now gone.<br />
<br />
Through the windows in the generator house, I could see a huge rusty metal girder, but I decided not to investigate it now, because I wanted to get as many photographs of the whole site before my presence was discovered. I peered round the corner of the generator house, and found myself on a tarmacked drive, obviously a continuation of the one starting at the main guardroom and running through the gate marked ‘Private’. It was covered with moss which was spongy underfoot. <br />
<br />
Thinking it best to explore the buildings farthest away from the house first, I turned right on to this road, and started to walk up it. On my right was the temporary metal security fence, and on my left was a green space in which were several humps which reminded me of large recently-dug graves or small long barrows <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279063" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Stanton air raid shelter, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Stanton air raid shelter, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279063_cc6794bd_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. At the end of each hump was a concrete box or a construction made of laths covered with plastic. It turned out these were Stanton air raid shelters, <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/other-wwii-defensive-structures/air-raid-shelters/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/other-wwii-defensive-structures/air-raid-shelters/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> each of them big enough for fifty men, the excrescences being either the entrances of the emergency escape hatches (I did not venture close enough to ascertain which).<br />
<br />
Just beyond these on my left was the single-storey concrete-rendered brick block of flight offices <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279068" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Flight offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Flight offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279068_9ba5036d_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. These offices were ranged on either side of a long corridor <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4290850" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Main corridor, flight offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Main corridor, flight offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/08/4290850_a85a2a4d_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
<br />
On my right, beyond the high metal fence, I could see two buildings in the rough field I had crossed earlier <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279075" target="_blank" title="SU0471 : Armoury and firing range, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0471 : Armoury and firing range, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279075_e2afa68b_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. One looked like a redbrick toilet block, but was in fact the small arms armoury. The other, half-covered in ivy, was the small arms firing range.<br />
<br />
Continuing along the mossy drive, and just before the western boundary fence at the end, was what looked like a small swimming pool, but turned out to be the base’s water storage tank <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279081" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Accommodation block and water tank, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Accommodation block and water tank, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279081_1b16780a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, capable of holding 200 gallons (900 litres) of water. This brought to mind a comment by one of the airmen stationed at the East Camp, who had said that the baths were marked with a line and must not be overfilled. Doubtless, with so many men stationed at the camps, water was at a premium, and of course extra was needed in case of fires caused by bombing.<br />
<br />
Looking back to my left, I could see the main accommodation block, a two-story concrete-rendered brick building with metal window-frames <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279083" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Accommodation block, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Accommodation block, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279083_f07b7b22_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a>, built on an E-shaped plan, with the long side facing the afternoon sun.<br />
<br />
Walking to the end of this, I peeped around the far corner, and saw some brick ancillary buildings <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4290873" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Ancillary buildings, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Ancillary buildings, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/08/4290873_8c3861b6_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. Venturing further towards them, I saw on my left, at the end of the office block I had seen earlier, the station’s squash court <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279093" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Squash court, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Squash court, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/90/4279093_46c86f6a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. The roof had originally been glazed to let in the light from above, and when John Grech photographed it in 2010 the interior was preserved in excellent condition. <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span><br />
<br />
Returning to the front of the accommodation block, I carried on until I came to the combined officers’ mess and office building. This was the architectural highlight of RAF Yatesbury West Camp. It was built in 1936 by the architect Cecil Jones from rendered brick with flat roofs and steel-framed windows. The complex was praised by Flight magazine in 1936 as ‘a model school whose pattern few will equal and none better’, and a 2003 report by English Heritage described the building as ‘a crisp modern composition by Cecil Jones, the most significant of all the buildings erected for the 50 Civilian Service Flying Training Schools’. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-469444-combined-officers-mess-and-offices-yates" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-469444-combined-officers-mess-and-offices-yates">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1432187&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1432187&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span><br />
<br />
A billiards room and a mess/ante-room for use by the instructors and officer pupils faced the garden front on the southwest side. Now, of course, it is in a sorry state <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282560" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Officers' mess, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Officers' mess, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/25/4282560_494c4490_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, although its former grandeur can be imagined from its façade <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282552" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Officers' mess, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Officers' mess, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/25/4282552_5a810b7e_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> which faced the evening sun and is marked by a taller projecting block to the centre, which had french windows with fanlights above them set in four recessed semi-circular arches. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-bcxgVJw/A" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-bcxgVJw/A">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> Nowadays, there is a high unruly hedge blocking the view from those windows, but perhaps when the base was in use, you could sit there sipping your gin and watch the sun go down over the Cherhill monument. I couldn’t help noticing that the soil was much softer near the hedge, and wondered whether there had once been an ornamental pond there. <br />
<br />
Turning the corner at the end of the façade, the elevation facing south-east towards the airfield is only slightly less impressive <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282571" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : South elevation, combined officers' mess and offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : South elevation, combined officers' mess and offices, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/25/4282571_afd077fe_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="84" /></a> with its four projecting bay windows. This was the watch office and flying control: here were the offices for the chief flying instructor and time-keeper, and the pilots' changing-rooms. The aircraft control tower is on top of this building. Looking round the far corner of this building, I could see the kitchens at the back of the officers’ mess <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282579" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Officers' mess kitchens, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Officers' mess kitchens, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/25/4282579_78431005_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
<br />
Walking parallel to the façade of the watch office in an easterly direction, I passed another block, this time the operations block <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4280652" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Operations block at former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Operations block at former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/06/4280652_7cf7fe16_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="77" /></a>, which contained more administration offices and the training facilities. I was now walking on the concrete of the disused runway <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4291443" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Disused runway, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Disused runway, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/14/4291443_3a53bf8e_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, which was overgrown with weeds and brambles, and scattered with debris abandoned by the builders when they’d left: bricks, pieces of wood, bits of plastic, and piles of spoil. <br />
<br />
With the operations block on my left, I had a good view of the two hangars <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282619" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangars, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangars, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/26/4282619_8b435d72_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="79" /></a>. The one nearest me had been restored <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282603" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/26/4282603_9e785de0_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, but the other was in a state of almost complete collapse <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282623" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/26/4282623_1f2ead5d_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. I was now not far away from the white house, and I could hear sounds of banging coming from near there. At first I thought the white object in front of the furthest hangar was a car, and that the banging was coming from someone working in the hangar; but the ‘car’ turned out to be a boat, beached miles from the nearest river, and the noise was being made by someone unseen near the house.<br />
<br />
I got as close as I dared to photograph the ruined hangar, then backed off to look at the one that had been restored. It looked as if they had made a reasonable job of conserving it, because the hangar looked watertight, apart from some sheets of corrugated missing from the front; at least it was in no danger of collapsing. But it had not been restored to its original condition, as can be seen by comparison with a photograph taken in 2005 of the eastern hangar <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-ZdpbL5Z/A" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-ZdpbL5Z/A">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> which still appears to have one of its sliding doors partly intact.<br />
<br />
With the hangar’s massive façade on my right, I cut back in toward the shelter of the trees. On the north wall of the restored hangar were the annexes <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4282610" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : North side of restored hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : North side of restored hangar, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/26/4282610_a3d9ec6b_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, still clad in corrugated metal, with their windows now covered with metal also. This was identical to the set-up with the eastern hangar <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4287371" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Hangar at north east corner of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/28/73/4287371_5883759e_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, see <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-QHrkDtw/A" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/i-QHrkDtw/A">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> which shows how the eastern hangar in 2005.<br />
<br />
Off to my left, and quite close to the front of the restored hangar was the aircrew ready room, an evocative name and place if ever there was one <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279539" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Aircrew ready room, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Aircrew ready room, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/95/4279539_553bc8c9_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4291419" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Aircrew ready room, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Aircrew ready room, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/14/4291419_a8460a57_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. John Grech’s collection of photos shows the inside of this building <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> where the aircrews probably sat in two lines facing each other, cheerfully bantering to cover their nerves while they waited to be called.<br />
<br />
Beyond this and to my left were more reminders of the dangers of the place. Two dilapidated buildings to the east of the squash court on the other side of another mossy drive were for use by medics. That on my left, which still bears the faint remains of a red cross in a white oval on its gable, was the sick bay <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279468" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Sick bay, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Sick bay, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/94/4279468_da380a9b_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, while that on my right was another medical building <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4291416" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Medical building, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Medical building, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/14/4291416_b6c1ce85_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. Back along the drive to my right was the ambulance station <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279500" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Motor Transport shed and ambulance shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Motor Transport shed and ambulance shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/95/4279500_0d4f7cf9_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, and further along still, near the entrance, was the fire tender shed <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279521" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Fire tender shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Fire tender shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/95/4279521_b0a3bdb3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. <br />
<br />
To the left of the ambulance station was the four-bayed M/T (Motor Transport) shed <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4279500" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Motor Transport shed and ambulance shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Motor Transport shed and ambulance shed, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/27/95/4279500_0d4f7cf9_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. I was now back on the original mossy drive I had set foot on before circumnavigating the site. Leaving the M/T shed on my right, I walked back to the generator house <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292321" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292321_465599c3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> and went inside. <br />
<br />
Above the door was a giant steel beam, to which a pulley was attached <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292329" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Lifting gantry, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Lifting gantry, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292329_d235ee4b_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. The manufacturer’s name (Herbert Morris Ltd. of Loughborough) was printed on one side of the beam, plus the fact that the pulley was capable of lifting 4 tons (4.064 tonnes) <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292337" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Lifting gantry, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Lifting gantry, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292337_d0961b7d_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. This beam slid back and forth on metal wheels with cogs along another pair of beams on either side of the inside of the building: I had already seen one of these beams through the window. The pulley was used for lifting generators into and out of looked like three huge ceramic baths set into the floor on the right hand side of the building <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292333" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Generator mounts, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Generator mounts, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292333_1b329964_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292341" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Generator mounts, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Generator mounts, main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292341_0f6b2a04_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. (These generator mountings are best seen in John Grech’s collection of photographs <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> where they aren’t covered.) There was another similar, though slightly differently-shaped ceramic pit in the far left corner of the shed <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4292350" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Inside the main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Inside the main generator house, former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/23/4292350_feca9f68_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>.<br />
<br />
By this time, I thought I had hung around too long for my own good, and decided to scarper. I made my way back across the rough ground to the gap in the hedge near the pillbox. I still had a five mile walk planned, so I continued along Juggler’s Lane.<br />
<br />
Not much further along, the hedgerow on the left ended, and I had a good view back over the western end of the camp <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4293120" target="_blank" title="SU0571 : Western boundary of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0571 : Western boundary of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/31/4293120_f17294c7_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, and also over the edge of the escarpment on which it stands. Right over the other side of the field was a small building, but I wasn’t going to plod all that way to see what it was. I photographed it, and later found out that it was another pillbox, this time a Type 27 <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4293112" target="_blank" title="SU0471 : Pillbox in field west of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU0471 : Pillbox in field west of former RAF Yatesbury air base by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/29/31/4293112_290b7698_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1422428&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1422428&sort=4&search=all&criteria=hangar&rational=q&recordsperpage=10&p=28&move=n&nor=311&recfc=0">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/types-of-pillbox/type-27-pillbox/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/index.php/types-of-pillbox/type-27-pillbox/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> Then I went on my way.<br />
<br />
When I got home, the first thing I did was look up my leaf and twig in Prime and Deacock’s 'How to Identify Trees & Shrubs from Leaves or Twigs in Summer or Winter', a little booklet dating from 1942 that I picked up from a car boot sale. It wasn’t much help, but the shape of the leaf was vaguely familiar. Then I realised that it was the same as the leaves of the tree at the end of the garden of the house where I grew up: a poplar. But I will still have to go back in the summer to prove it.<br />
<br />
I also discovered the secrets of Hangar 45: have a look at <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.invisiblestudio.org/selected_work/hangar-45/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.invisiblestudio.org/selected_work/hangar-45/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> to see what the architects envisaged for the inside! Twenty-nine ‘live/work’ units, communal work space, parking, a play space for children, and even a village shop, all under the hangar’s capacious saw-tooth roof. In case you are wondering what a live/work unit is, it is a place where people can work from home, thus reducing their carbon footprint by not commuting, and making use of otherwise awkward buildings such as warehouses and hangars. According to RIBA Journal February 2001 <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.invisiblestudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/70_riba_journa__smallest_file_pt_3.pdf" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.invisiblestudio.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/70_riba_journa__smallest_file_pt_3.pdf">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> Hangar 45 would have housed 29 ‘prefabricated timber live/work ‘cassettes’’ around a central ‘street’, with parking either side. In 2007, Wiltshire County Council Planning Committee discussed architect Mitchell Taylor Workshop’s proposals, raising some objections on the grounds that it was ‘by no means a certainty that the proposed dwellings in this location will be utilised as such [i.e. for people to work from] or provide a totally sustainable community’. <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/Data/Development%20Control%20Committee%20(NWDC)/20070221/Agenda/06-2566-cou.pdf" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/Data/Development%20Control%20Committee%20(NWDC)/20070221/Agenda/06-2566-cou.pdf">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> I don’t know whether the proposal was ultimately passed, though it is clear from events elsewhere that the creation of live/work units was considered to be a slippery slope towards change of use from industrial to purely residential. In 2007, a number of people in Hackney were served with notices to quit their live/work spaces unless they immediately applied for planning permission for change of use. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2007/aug/25/moneysupplement.communities" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2007/aug/25/moneysupplement.communities">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> However, even with my penchant for trespassing, I haven’t the nerve to go snooping around Hangar 45 to discover the outcome.<br />
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More photographs of RAF Yatesbury can be seen at <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=16495#.Ut0AP9JFDs0" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=16495#.Ut0AP9JFDs0">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHd4q2pB14" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yHd4q2pB14">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4fURlSvI">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aNZsd5zMw">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> and <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://klempner69.smugmug.com/Military/Derelict-Buildings/RAF-YatesburyWiltshire/">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> Also see <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/archive/index.php/t-17.html" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/archive/index.php/t-17.html">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <br />
<br />
And for a final treat, watch <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdTELokKfCk" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdTELokKfCk">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> or <span class="nowrap"><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGMsBcx_X5M" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGMsBcx_X5M">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> in which the West Camp features as a set for the video of Doctorin’ the Tardis by the Timelords/KLF (1988). It gives a good view of the concrete runway and the two westernmost hangars, which were then almost intact, as well as being jolly good fun!<br />
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text/html2013-01-09T16:12:22+00:00Vieve Forward51.675933345062 -1.7193910762294A visit to Dudgrove locks, a derelict double lock on the disused Thames and Severn Canal
https://www.geograph.org.uk/blog/169
15th February 2012. It was already late in the day when I set out to nab SU1997. I’d had to come to Lechlade on business, but that would only take a couple of hours, so I’d decided to mop up a few tpoints at the same time. The first was SU1893, where I had to run the gauntlet of angry farmers by walking quarter of a mile down a lane to take a photograph, I hoped, of the place where that lane petered out: a photograph of nothing, in effect. As it was, I found some piles of wood to add interest to the picture. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2805318" target="_blank" title="SU1893 : Farm track near Bydemill Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1893 : Farm track near Bydemill Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/53/2805318_784a449a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
I beat a hasty retreat, having been spotted by a horse rider just as I was about to have a pee. Luckily, I’d seen her dog just in time. I carried on to Lechlade, fulfilled my obligations there, then went and parked up at the garden centre in order to take a walk down the main road in order to tick off a couple more tpoints. This trip proved hazardous, but at least more interesting. I was able to bask in some winter sunshine next to a flooded gravel pit that was now a nature reserve with a sailing club in it. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807742" target="_blank" title="SP1800 : Bowmoor Sailing Club, Coln Country Park, near Lechlade by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SP1800 : Bowmoor Sailing Club, Coln Country Park, near Lechlade by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/77/2807742_ab0ceb95_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
Back at the garden centre, I had a cup of tea, and debated what to do next. I was already tired. There was a choice. I had been going to carry on to Fairford where three more tpoints were available, but there was still one square I hadn’t done near Lechlade. I said to myself, which would you rather do? Do three squares badly or one properly? The Lechlade square was the only tpoint outstanding in that corner of the outer limit of my “territory”, so I plumped for that. I really didn’t want to do it, but I resolved to make myself.<br />
It promised to be another very dull square. The only things I could see in it were a track, a disused canal bed and an enclosure. I wasn’t going to get my hopes up regarding the enclosure, because in my experience, Highworth enclosures (if that’s what it was) were invisible except from the air. So it looked as if I was doomed to walk quite a way in order to take a photograph of just another farm track.<br />
There was also the problem of how to get there. The only public footpath going anywhere near the square would take me to Dudgrove Farm and no further. Even though that seemed to be how my predecessor had got there five years earlier, I did not fancy climbing over a five-barred gate on to a private track in front of a farmer and his wife who were probably sitting down in their parlour having tea. You couldn’t attack it from the east either, because there was the minor inconvenience of the Thames being in the way, with no bridges marked above Inglesham. The only alternative was to go at it from the north: leave Lechlade by the lane to the Roundhouse, then nip over the river Coln there, where it flowed into the Thames, presenting another barrier, borrowing the Roundhouse’s bridge, and head off across country. But when I got there, having had to park back in Lechlade, there being nowhere to park in the lane, I found the gate to the Roundhouse was so heavily fortified with barbed wire that even a skinny urchin would have had trouble getting through. <br />
It didn’t look as if the cottage beside the Roundhouse was inhabited at that moment. I’d noticed on a recent trip that they were renovating the Roundhouse: that was probably the reason for the fortifications, to protect the plant on site. Luckily, I had brought my 1:25,000 scale map (something I frequently do not do), so I could just about make out a bridge over the Coln a little way from the confluence. I retraced my steps to the beginning of the field it was in, then checking to make sure the coast was clear, strode purposefully towards it. <br />
I crossed the bridge, which was made of sleepers, <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807938" target="_blank" title="SU2098 : River Coln, Lechlade by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU2098 : River Coln, Lechlade by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/79/2807938_a84b2355_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> just in time to glimpse a car pulling up at the gate to the Roundhouse. Damn, I thought, wishing I wasn’t wearing my bright green hat. But I carried on, hoping I wouldn’t be noticed, and succeeded in getting out of sight of the Roundhouse when my course took me along the eastern edge of a block of trees. By that time, the Roundhouse was hidden by the trees that surrounded it, and from then on, the course of the old canal was hidden in an over growth of young trees. Further on, my path was blocked with electric fencing, so I crossed over the field, to a gate that was beside the canal. I could see no water in the canal, though a rivulet ran alongside it. Some of the trees had been cleared: later I realised that the restoration of the Roundhouse was continuing this far along the canal, to give a stub that was navigable.<br />
I could see Inglesham Farmhouse to my left on the other side of the river; I wanted to avoid being seen from there, so I carried on down the next field keeping the canal on my left. At the end of the field, a track crossed over the rivulet and canal bed, and I decided to follow it, for fear of getting trapped on the wrong side of the water. So I crossed the canal bed, which at that point was nothing to write home about, and started to follow the line of weed-trees that were covering it towards my goal. <br />
At the end of the next field, a drainage ditch was in my path, and in order to avoid getting diverted away from the canal along its course, I had to cross over on a narrow plank bridge with only one handrail, which nonetheless I grasped with both hands. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806704" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Footbridge next to disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Footbridge next to disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806704_0c15b4bd_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> Back in the dry canal bed again, I found my way out of the overgrowth and followed the field edge, keeping the canal on my right. Along its length here, at the edge of the trees, was a broken down old stone wall. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807367" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Drystone walling alongside disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Drystone walling alongside disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/73/2807367_16865912_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
At a point not much further on, seeing a vague path heading into the undergrowth, I decided to go and have a look at the canal bed to see if there was any water in it here. What I saw came as an unexpected and exciting surprise: a pair of old lock gates, complete with some brackish water at their foot. The gates were very decrepit, and I set about photographing them. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806768" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Derelict lock gate, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Derelict lock gate, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806768_500458d3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> I followed the path, if you could call it that, up past them, and beyond was a deep canal bed and another set of gates. This next set was more intact, and one half still had its balance beam and its winding gear. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806789" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806789_bb531508_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> Trees were growing out of the canal bed here, one growing out of a square hole at the bottom near the gate on the other side. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806775" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806775_f3458218_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a> I snapped away happily, in my element amongst the derelict. <br />
Above the second pair of gates, the canal became narrower and even deeper and was lined with fine brickwork. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806793" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Canal wall, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Canal wall, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806793_e928aa13_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>Here, I had to lie on my stomach to photograph it. The weed-trees were growing everywhere, and I was terrified of tripping and falling, for here no-one would hear me scream. This part of the canal was filled with rusting sheets of corrugated iron and skeins of wire. At the top end of this part of the channel was a finely made shelf (or cill as I discovered it was called), upon which was more undergrowth, and then a low concrete wall truncated the canal. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806798" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Inner wall of disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Inner wall of disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806798_b575d888_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a><br />
I made my way gingerly out from the trees, then dutifully walked up to the track and photographed it, <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807951" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Farm track alongside canal bed, near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Farm track alongside canal bed, near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/79/2807951_5e93491c_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> just to make sure of my tpoint, because I couldn’t be sure which grid square these locks were in, being virtually in the crosshairs of four. Then I returned to the locks, and began photographing them first from the top end, then walking down the other side.<br />
I use the word “top” advisedly, after hours spent back at home trying to make sense of my photographs without the aid of any prior knowledge of canals whatsoever. It took me a good few hours to figure out that there must have been two consecutive locks here, not just one. The area around the concrete wall and cill looked like the start of a lock from which the gates were missing. If that was the case, the gate which was most intact must have been a middle gate, and the first one I saw the bottom gate. After long examination of my photographs, I eventually confirmed that it was a double lock by the simple expedient of looking it up on Wikipedia. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_and_Severn_Canal" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_and_Severn_Canal">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> There, I also discovered that the locks were on the Thames & Severn Canal, were named after the farm I had been avoiding (Dudgrove Farm), and were numbered 42 and 43. Double locks, according to Wikipedia are ones where two narrowboats can enter side by side, although it does concede that the phrase means different things to different people. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(water_transport)#Doubled.2C_paired_or_twinned_locks" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(water_transport)#Doubled.2C_paired_or_twinned_locks">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> At Dudgrove, the arrangement was like a string of sausages, the uppermost lock being the narrowest. I found I could also tell which lock was the highest not only from the contour lines on the map, but also from the fact that the gates opened towards the higher ground, so that when filled, the water would keep them shut.<br />
Walking back to the low concrete wall, then, having photographed the track, I could see that it had been built relatively recently and had a drainage hole in the bottom. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807345" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Derelict lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Derelict lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/73/2807345_a1aa9647_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>Perhaps it had been put there to protect what was left of the lock gates from flooding. Just inside it on either side were culverts shaped like the top half of a D. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807430" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807430_32c003cb_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> Inside the one on my right was what looked like the remains of a sluice. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807406" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807406_d8784e51_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a>The arches and linings of these culverts were built with brick. Almost on a level with the concrete barrier there were vertical, square-sectioned grooves carved into the stone. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807422" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807422_0157aa55_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
I stepped over the low concrete wall in order to get a better look at the culverts and to photograph the upper chamber, looking down towards the middle gate. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807353" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Derelict lock, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Derelict lock, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/73/2807353_0783f16f_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> Beyond the culverts, there was a great deal of ivy forming another low barrier before the drop into the upper chamber. Whether there was anything but ivy, I didn’t think to check, although at the time I guessed that this must have been the location of another gate because of the semi-cylindrical grooves carved in the stone on either side which would allow the gates to swing freely. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807397" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Walling, disused lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Walling, disused lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/73/2807397_5a158390_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
I climbed back over the wall. Above it, the canal bed was a mere groove with a trickle of water in it. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2805690" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Course of old canal, near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Course of old canal, near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/56/2805690_e07d4ec3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> I made my way back down the other, north-western side of the locks, photographing as I went. <br />
The half of the middle gate on this side was the best-preserved of the lot, and still had its balance beam and winding gear. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807476" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Winding gear, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Winding gear, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807476_8da25d67_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807477" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Winding gear, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Winding gear, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807477_7a61950d_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a> I also had a better view of the other, more derelict half, which I photographed. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807482" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Derelict lock gate, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807482_4f49ea15_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a><br />
A little further on, near my “path”, was a hole in the ground through which I could see stones: this may have been an exposed culvert, but again, it was difficult to tell.<br />
Below the middle gate the fine brickwork continued for a few metres on either side and continued at the higher level parallel with the lock gates as a revetment wall, holding up the earth on either side of the lock gates and canal walls. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807469" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Walling, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Walling, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807469_e33c8315_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> On the side I was on, there was a slit in this revetment wall, though whether it was a deliberate feature or whether the brickwork had just weathered into a split there, I couldn’t tell. Below this level, there was a step down in the canal walls on either side; here the brickwork petered out and the walls of the lower chamber were built out of stone. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807456" target="_blank" title="SU1997 : Walling, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1997 : Walling, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/74/2807456_6392331f_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> It was hard not to notice the marked difference between the two chambers (of which more below). <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2807551" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Stonework, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Stonework, disused Thames and Severn Canal near Dudgrove Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/75/2807551_809f6813_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
There was more brickwork around the bottom gate, <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806475" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Derelict lock, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Derelict lock, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/64/2806475_d3496e3a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> and below it, I came across another brick culvert, this time U-shaped, which would have emptied into the canal below the bottom gate on my side. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806657" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Culvert, disused Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/66/2806657_9e5866b8_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>There was some stagnant water in the canal below the bottom gates, but I was able to walk into the middle of the canal bed to photograph the bottom gates from below. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2805723" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Derelict lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Derelict lock, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/57/2805723_2f401497_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>The light was starting to fade, and my camera was telling me to use flash, although the pictures I took without it turned out better.<br />
I had lost track of time wandering around the locks, and when I emerged from the trees, I decided I’d better get a move on if I didn’t want to drive home in the dark. I retraced my steps, careless now of being seen, and got back to my car at about half past four. <br />
<br />
Back home, I soon realised that I needed to study the photographs very carefully in order to understand what I had seen. My lack of any knowledge of canals didn’t help. I struggled to upload the photographs, changing my titles and descriptions several times, until I came to the interpretation I have set out so far. There is very little on the internet regarding Dudgrove Locks, but the comments of Ken Burgin, on the Stroudwater website <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/inglesham.html" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/inglesham.html">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> were interesting: “Dudgrove Double Lock is one of the strangest structures on the T&S Canal. Its top chamber is identical in design to many of the other T&S locks being of mainly brick construction with stone quoins. There is even an overflow weir outlet in the wall below the middle gates. Its fall is similar to those at Siddington, South Cerney and Latton.<br />
“The bottom chamber is very different and has all the feeling of an afterthought. It is about 135 ft long and 27 ft wide. The bottom gates are situated in brick narrows of the normal width but the rest of the chamber walls are of dry stone. <br />
“At the time of writing [2002], the lower and middle gates are still in situ and one of the middle gates is more or less complete with paddle gear and balance beam in place - it will even open and close but is now getting very fragile with age. The upper gates have at some point in the past been replaced by a low concrete wall but due to the infilling of the canal bed upstream, water no longer comes down this part of the canal and the upper paddles are no longer in place although until recently, one of the top ground paddle racks was still there.<br />
“This lock is very overgrown and therefore difficult to photograph but remains one of the most complete T&S locks with much of its timber work still in place. Its remote location on private land has largely been responsible for this.” <br />
<br />
I later found some useful information in Michael Handford and David Viner’s book, “Stroudwater and Thames and Severn Canals Towpath Guide”, published by Alan Sutton in 1984. Though out of date, much of the information is still valid, and I quote in full the paragraphs on Dudgrove locks. The authors describe approaching from Dudgrove Farm, from where “with permission [their italics] it is possible to walk on down the track to the site of Dudgrove Bridge, now levelled for agricultural access.<br />
“Above this bridge the canal line survives from Hamfield Bridge to the west although now very overgrown. A swing bridge still remains but it has now settled onto the canal bed [I saw no trace of this, but don’t think I walked far enough up the track], so that access to the canal is now by a track alongside it, which soon ends just short of the Dudgrove Double Lock [the track now curls off to the south-east]. Access to this isolated and dangerous spot must be obtained from Dudgrove Farm [their italics again – I should have read this book before I left]. The milepost just above the locks still survives [I did not see it] and its mileage plate WALBRIDGE 28 INGLESHAM ¾ was removed in 1959 to the Waterways Museum at Stoke Bruerne. There are no other points of interest on this section which makes its way across isolated land, devoid of houses and road, in a north-easterly direction to reach the lock.<br />
“Dudgrove Double Lock is the only example of its type on the whole length of the Thames & Severn. The upper chamber is a normal red brick deep lock with a 9’ fall and typical of so many locks along the line. However, it leads directly into a roughly-built lower chamber constructed of loose stone walling with only a 2’6” fall. The story behind this is an interesting one. The canal had been built this far by the early months of 1789 but this final section to join the Thames had yet to be agreed or even marked out on the ground. The cause of the dispute was the state of the upper reaches of the river, a notoriously ill-kept section and difficult for navigation. Fearful of achieving so much and then running into problems of this kind, the canal proprietors sought alternative solutions, including even a direct cut from Dudgrove to Abingdon. This reminds us very forcibly of the solution later offered to this same problem by the alternative North Wilts and Wilts & Berks routes to Abingdon, and helps to explain the willingness of the Thames & Severn authorities to dispense so readily with the whole of this eastern section in due course. But the problem in the year in which the canal was opened was indeed a pressing one, and the only solution was to cut the approved line to join the river at Inglesham. This meant that at Dudgrove a further fall was required, hence the afterthought which the lower lock represents. The nature of its construction also suggests that perhaps hopes lingered for a better solution and a new line in due course.<br />
“At this point the river is very close and remains so as far as Inglesham. The actual point of contact with the river was also under discussion; a junction at Inglesham avoided the shallow stretches known to exist immediately above, and was also of course the junction of the rivers Coln and Thames, thus ensuring deeper waters. At the upper chamber remains of the gates include the bottom pair almost closed, but they are very decayed and the balance beams have collapsed onto the lockside. In the lower chamber the rough unmortared sloping sides are in complete contrast to any other lock masonry along the canal; again the bottom gates are still in position but very decayed. It must be said that both chambers remain in good condition.”<br />
<br />
I add to this Ken Burgin’s comments on the Stroudwater website <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/inglesham.html" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/inglesham.html">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> <br />
“The lock here [at Inglesham] has a fall of only 6ft 2in but may have originally been intended to have a 9ft fall to match that of the conventional upper part of Dudgrove Double Lock. This last part of the canal was started very late in the project and it may simply have been the case that the canal builders found that they would have had to import a lot of additional material to build the slight embankment to maintain equal falls - but not until after they had already built the upper chamber at Dudgrove. Another theory is that the Proprietors were expecting to extend the canal eastwards to Abingdon to bypass the upper part of the Thames. If this was the case, crossing the Thames at anything other than on the level would have proved an interesting problem as a right of navigation did, and still does, exist on the Thames to Cricklade. Thus a low headroom aqueduct would not have been permitted and the higher level of the canal which would have been caused by the omission of the lower chamber at Dudgrove would not have made much difference.” The website also has two pictures of Dudgrove locks in the 1940s and 1980s, which I am unable to reproduce here. <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/gallery.htm" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://www.stroudwater.co.uk/t&scanal/inglesham/gallery.htm">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span><br />
text/html2013-01-03T20:54:43+00:00Vieve ForwardOne year, one hectad, 100 tpoints
https://www.geograph.org.uk/blog/168
A mishap with a pistachio nut leading to an astronomical dental bill meant that I was prevented from using some of my savings spending Christmas on the Marlborough Downs and Cotswolds topping up my geograph tpoint score. Instead, on limited petrol and no budget for tea and cakes, and approaching the anniversary of my joining geograph, I resolved to finish my first hectad and nudge my tpoint score up to 100. As the hectad in question was centred on Swindon, and rain was forecast for the duration, I foresaw dull greyness as being my lot. However, now that I have achieved both of my goals, and am waiting for that pleasing red square to complete itself in my profile, I can say that geographing worked its magic again, and each grid square accomplished was, as usual, an adventure.<br />
When I first joined geograph on exactly a year ago, I was so excited by my new hobby that I wrote a blog in my head extolling its virtues. I never wrote it in reality at the time because I thought it would be presumptuous and I thought my initial enthusiasm would die pretty quickly. But the enthusiasm is still there intact, even after a fortnight photographing Swindon in the rain, so I think I can safely say I’m here to stay, and can now put that blog online.<br />
I discovered geograph through my brother, Tristan Forward <a title="https://www.geograph.ie/profile/24385" href="https://www.geograph.ie/profile/24385">Link</a> who has been a member for some years, and who must have told me at some point about this peculiar website where you enter a photograph for every grid square. After Christmas 2011, I was experiencing the usual post-Christmas anti-climax: I had spent every day out somewhere different since 21st December in an effort to avoid the Christmas blues, and had thoroughly enjoyed myself, and taken a few photos, though not as many as I wished I had once I discovered geograph. Having tracked down the website, I very tentatively uploaded my first ever photograph <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2749809" target="_blank" title="SU1470 : Sheep on Fyfield Down by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1470 : Sheep on Fyfield Down by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/74/98/2749809_e2249582_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="76" /></a>. <br />
My reaction when this photograph appeared as a geograph was more than just a warm glow; it was more like astonishment. This reaction has toned down somewhat since! In the first two months of 2012, I uploaded a huge number of photos, and couldn’t wait for the summer, when I vowed I would be out at least once a week, walking in my beloved downs and wolds. The rain soon put paid to that idea. Instead, any dry day was devoted to battling with the weeds on my allotment, a battle I lost: I have now got a smaller allotment, which should allow more time for geographing this year!<br />
What was it that I loved so much about geograph? Well, as a hobby it seemed to take all my interests and wrap them up in one perfect package: my love of walking and exploring the countryside, my interest in archaeology and local history, my enjoyment of photography, and my fascination with maps. Ever since I was about ten, I have enjoyed poring over Ordnance Survey maps. The names of the places are so evocative: as a child, I wrote stories set in places named on maps, and I even used to make up OS maps, drawing imaginary landscapes with all the correct symbols and contour lines. A friend of the family named Carey had the whole of one wall of a room in his cottage covered with OS maps pasted edge to edge. As kids we explored the immediate neighbourhood, but it was Carey who introduced me to going further afield and walking using maps. <br />
I guess I owe most though to my long-time friend, Steve, who bought me a pair of walking boots for Christmas in about 1988. We spent many pleasant days walking together in the Cotswolds and discovering the joys of isolated tea rooms which appeared just when you most needed them. We slavishly followed the written walking guides of Harry Hargreaves, and I think it was only after Steve moved to Devon that I eventually plucked up the courage to create my own walks, using just the OS maps alone. I have never looked back.<br />
Even then I was a keen photographer, and took photos of Steve eating strawberries in Burford, or standing on top of Liddington Hill, or lying on a log near Bincknoll Castle. I was into black and white photography then. I had taken short courses in practical and documentary photography and had a Pentax K1000 and developed and printed the photos myself. Meanwhile, Steve took colour photos with his chunky old Zenit. <br />
My first digital camera was given me as a gift. I forget the make, and can only remember that I had to hold the lens cover open when using it, and that the pictures nearly all came out khaki. I bought my current camera with a grant I was given while studying art at college. It is a Fujifilm Finepix F50fd. I’d been resisting going over completely to digital, but when I got this camera, it was a huge improvement on the last and opened up vast vistas of possibilities. Since then, however, although I still love its compact size – handy for hiding in the pocket when people appear and start looking at one suspiciously – I envy, oh so envy, those of you with decent, grown-up cameras. The dentist’s bill has knocked that dream on the head for at least six months, so I will have to make do with what I’ve got. <br />
Nonetheless, despite my lack of a good camera, much to my delight and surprise I succeeded in getting shortlisted for the PotY a few times <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2784565" target="_blank" title="SU2576 : Timber roof inside New Barn, near Aldbourne by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU2576 : Timber roof inside New Barn, near Aldbourne by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/78/45/2784565_fe550ba5_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2799992" target="_blank" title="SU2171 : Barn on byway to Woodlands Farm by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU2171 : Barn on byway to Woodlands Farm by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/79/99/2799992_48529d0c_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3060076" target="_blank" title="SU2691 : Avenue of poplars, D'Arcy Dalton Way, near Watchfield by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU2691 : Avenue of poplars, D'Arcy Dalton Way, near Watchfield by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/06/00/3060076_a8ff706c_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3268427" target="_blank" title="SP5106 : Butcher's boy, Covered Market, Oxford by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SP5106 : Butcher's boy, Covered Market, Oxford by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/26/84/3268427_ed8466bb_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, though I’d never have known about it if Stefan Czapski hadn’t contacted me the first time it happened. I got into a panic earlier this year when I thought something had gone drastically wrong with my camera, when all it turned out to be was a thumbprint on the lens. I had been accustomed to cleaning the lens of my Pentax religiously before every use, but somehow it never occurred to me to do the same with the digital! On this occasion, I started a discussion on geograph to ask for advice, and was impressed by how helpful and nice fellow geographers were, especially when I confessed to my idiocy. Their guidance in the beginning was invaluable, and Tuppence’s ability to spot a spelling mistake is preternatural. However, I did get into trouble sometimes for not knowing how geograph works, and made rather acerbic suggestions for changes which were duly forwarded to individuals who reacted accordingly.<br />
My interest in local history was developed originally by my father, Colin Busby Forward, and then by Carey and Steve. If there are two things I wish my dad had stayed alive long enough to enjoy, one is the cheap seats at the Royal Opera House, and the other is digital cameras. He must have taken hundreds of colour photographs in his time, and paid a fortune getting them developed and printed. He loved architecture, and tirelessly sketched any building from Malmesbury Abbey to the local barns, as well as every bridge over the rivers that ran round the town. He also recorded the demolition of the Linolite factory, which was housed in the old Luce Mill, and collected discarded debris which was stored in our outside toilet until my brother got rid of it. As for Carey, he was on the local Civic Trust during the 1960s when many wonderful old buildings were being demolished. I remember him taking us for a walk to see Estcourt House <span class="nowrap"><a title="http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_gloucestershire_estcourthouse_info_gallery.html" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" href="http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_gloucestershire_estcourthouse_info_gallery.html">Link</a><img style="margin-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s1.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/></span> just before it was demolished in 1964. Much later, Steve took me to see all the secret places of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, such as Salts Hole, <a title="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/438529" href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/438529">Link</a> many of which I photographed. One day I might find the negatives and put them on geograph. He was also keen on ancient sites, and we spent many a damp day wandering across misty Cornish moors or Welsh coastal paths trying to find dolmens or standing stones.<br />
All this culminated in my taking a degree in Archaeology. Starting out with a love of the prehistoric sites on the Marlborough Downs, I eventually read for an MA in the European Neolithic under Alasdair Whittle at Cardiff University. By that time, though I had got too far from the source of my interest and was analysing the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Paris basin. Geograph has brought me back in contact with the subjects of my original enthusiasm. And although I did not originally share my father’s love of architecture, thanks to geograph I have become far more interested and sharper-eyed. Now I can spot a listed building a mile off, and my brakes squeal as I screech to a halt. The language of architecture is still fairly obscure to me, but at least now I can identify a catslide roof, and know the difference between rubble and ashlar.<br />
Railways I have always loved, being old enough to pre-date the Beeching cuts. We played near railways as a child, hiding in the Malmesbury tunnel until the steam train came along, an act of childish bravado unthinkable today. I still dream of Malmesbury Station, which closed in 1963. <a title="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2026739" href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2026739">Link</a> Living in Swindon, you can’t help but feel proud of its railway past and want to do your best to record it <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2848921" target="_blank" title="SU1789 : Disused GWR Highworth branch line by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1789 : Disused GWR Highworth branch line by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/84/89/2848921_46308aa1_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. But what came as a surprise to me was falling in love with canals. This happened when I set out from Lechlade one day to bag some tpoints, and ended up discovering the derelict double lock at Dudgrove <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2806768" target="_blank" title="SU1998 : Derelict lock gate, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1998 : Derelict lock gate, Thames and Severn Canal by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/80/67/2806768_500458d3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. I had no idea from the map that it was there and only found it by accident. I was not supposed to be there – it is far from any public footpath – so it felt as though I had discovered a secret place that no-one else knew about, and that it was my duty to record before it disappeared completely. There is always that tension with geograph between keeping your favourite places secret or putting them on record. However, I think I can safely say that most of the places I have been to, Brian Robert Marshall, aka Mr Blue Sky <a title="https://www.geograph.ie/profile/7420" href="https://www.geograph.ie/profile/7420">Link</a> has been there before. So far, I have only managed to beat him to it a few times! <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3251346" target="_blank" title="SU1496 : Oatlands Bridge, Thames and Severn Canal, near Kempsford by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1496 : Oatlands Bridge, Thames and Severn Canal, near Kempsford by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/25/13/3251346_96c9f68b_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a><br />
So, as I said, every grid square is an adventure, some more than others. Some involve battling through hedges and brambles, paddling through floods, almost getting mown down by passing cars <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3277057" target="_blank" title="SU1182 : Accident risk warning sign, Wharf Road by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1182 : Accident risk warning sign, Wharf Road by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/27/70/3277057_7ebb843f_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, being told off by security guards, trudging through miles of snow (those are the best!) <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2799969" target="_blank" title="SU2270 : Lane above Sound Bottom by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU2270 : Lane above Sound Bottom by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/79/99/2799969_d45c85c0_120x120.jpg" width="90" height="120" /></a>, trespassing with your heart in your mouth in case you are caught before you’ve got that precious photo. I’ve even taken on jobs delivering directories, in order to gain access to places I wouldn’t normally see <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2919090" target="_blank" title="ST9387 : Footbridge over former GWR Malmesbury branch line, Baskerville by Vieve Forward"><img alt="ST9387 : Footbridge over former GWR Malmesbury branch line, Baskerville by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/91/90/2919090_7464c59a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, and believe me, that’s hard work. Other grid squares might be far more easy and pleasant to tick off, involving activities like going out for a walk with an old friend <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3062346" target="_blank" title="ST3307 : Forton House, Forton by Vieve Forward"><img alt="ST3307 : Forton House, Forton by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/06/23/3062346_f8da3cab_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, attending a charity fair in a stately home <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3061334" target="_blank" title="ST3505 : Charity Summer Fair, Forde Abbey by Vieve Forward"><img alt="ST3505 : Charity Summer Fair, Forde Abbey by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/06/13/3061334_ee6b09f3_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> or a car boot sale <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2782779" target="_blank" title="SO9524 : Sunrise at the car boot sale, Cheltenham race course by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SO9524 : Sunrise at the car boot sale, Cheltenham race course by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/78/27/2782779_cb96aa68_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="88" /></a>, going Christmas shopping <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3268434" target="_blank" title="SP5106 : Venison, Covered Market, Oxford by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SP5106 : Venison, Covered Market, Oxford by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/26/84/3268434_7a8d7cc2_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, or simply wandering round your home town noticing things you’ve never noticed before <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2779190" target="_blank" title="SU1585 : Old caravans in Edwards Amusement Depot, Ferndale Road, Swindon by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1585 : Old caravans in Edwards Amusement Depot, Ferndale Road, Swindon by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/77/91/2779190_18192a70_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="83" /></a>.<br />
Some people write the minimum description, but I love to research my subject, even if only for five or ten minutes. I would love to spend more time on each photograph, but as someone who commonly comes home with over a hundred frames to choose from, I have to restrain myself or I’d never get the work done. For me, though, a title and description have to be factual. The title must contain the basic facts – where and what it is, street name, town, etc. The description elaborates on this and should give more facts, and if possible reliable references. This is what I was trained to do, though I know that others prefer to be much more relaxed and personal, and sometimes I myself veer towards the political <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2991335" target="_blank" title="SU1485 : The "Triangle" by Hab Oakus, Howse Garden, off Northern Road, Swindon by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1485 : The "Triangle" by Hab Oakus, Howse Garden, off Northern Road, Swindon by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s3.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/99/13/2991335_b2acd2f7_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> or the poetic.<br />
The people I don’t understand are geographers who are so set on getting high up in the leaderboards that they just drive along a motorway, snapping out of the window as they go. Each to their own, but unless you are disabled, and can’t physically get out of the car, I recommend that you do: you will discover a whole other world out there. Having decided to finish my first hectad by 2nd January meant that I was dashing here and there like a fury, and risking life and limb parking in less than ideal spots, and I didn’t enjoy that aspect of it at all – it felt like cheating, and I’ve no desire to do it again. It will definitely be back to the walking boots for me on my next geograph outing.<br />
So, was finishing my first hectad fun? Fun probably isn’t the best word, though I’ll say this about it: I’d recommend it as a cure for anyone’s Christmas blues. Yes, I had fun: fun doing something as utterly loopy as walking though tipping rain and getting soaked to the skin just to nab another couple of grid squares or another tpoint, <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3277046" target="_blank" title="SU1181 : Traffic on Hay Lane by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1181 : Traffic on Hay Lane by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/27/70/3277046_a30cbf1d_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a> fun running like mad to be somewhere more picturesque for your Christmas or New Year’s midday photo <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3277821" target="_blank" title="SU1483 : Alley between The Mall and Goddard Avenue, Swindon by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1483 : Alley between The Mall and Goddard Avenue, Swindon by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/27/78/3277821_b48a044a_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>, fun poking gentle fun at peoples’ pretentions. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3279906" target="_blank" title="SU1682 : Houses in Carlton Gate, Broome Manor by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1682 : Houses in Carlton Gate, Broome Manor by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s2.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/27/99/3279906_b1f1ea16_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="88" /></a> I even thought it was funny nearly getting sucked into the Thames gravels during the floods, <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3264060" target="_blank" title="SU1695 : Waterlogged field between Castle Eaton and Hannington Wick by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1695 : Waterlogged field between Castle Eaton and Hannington Wick by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/26/40/3264060_715e12fe_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="76" /></a> though this may have been the laughter of relief. It’s certainly not everyone’s idea of fun, but then we geographers are a rather odd bunch. <br />
Finally, I’d just like to say that if anyone knocks Swindon in future, I suggest they look at some of the pictures of it on geograph, e.g. <a href="https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3279665" target="_blank" title="SU1780 : Thatched cottages, Hodson by Vieve Forward"><img alt="SU1780 : Thatched cottages, Hodson by Vieve Forward" loading="lazy" src="https://s1.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/27/96/3279665_56908153_120x120.jpg" width="120" height="90" /></a>. Besides which, Swindon is situated slap bang between two of the most beautiful bits of England imaginable: the Cotswolds and the Marlborough Downs. We are so fortunate in Britain because every place, no matter how unpromising, yields hidden treasures. I used to dream of travelling far and wide, and even spent three summers cycling through France, but now I realise that Britain has so much beauty and history and interest that there is never any need to go even much more than thirty miles away.