This is Roke Manor near Romsey. It was first used by the War Office around 1940 but by early 1944 was turned into a Rest Home for USAAF Airmen and known as Army Air Force Station 503. I caused quite a stir when I arrived at the reception last thursday seeking permission to take some comparison photographs. Phones were ringing, people looking through glass doors at me, Who are you ! How did you get in here ! What do you want ! Eventually a very large Security Guard arrived to get all the information he could out of me, colour of me socks as well. Somehow I had un-intentionally driven a very-large van into their secure site ! ''We would like you to leave now please'' I was told. ''No-one is allowed to take any photographs here'' ''Not even us'' I had already showed them the 1944 photograph of Roke Manor within the book I had with me,after giving all the required information that I could things seemed to settle down, ''Well as you are now here take a seat over there and I'll see what I can find for you''
If the place is so secret why give-out all this information on Postcards and Booklets ?
Sadly the postcard picture is not the same as the 1944 photograph and there is no chance of me getting one either.
It was harder to get out than it was to get in ! At the security gate I had to go through my details again before he would lift the barrier. First time that I've had to talk my way out from somewhere ! Without wishing to give away just how I got in there unopposed my old sat-nav must be really old as it took me down some unmarked track, through a big gap in a hedge, then said; '' You've reached your destination'' and indeed I had ! I could see the gate-guard and barrier a little way-off and drove around to the front area of the Manor which still looks exactly as it does in my book, but being genuine thought it best to ask at reception first, wish now that I hadn't bothered and took a couple of photographs which they would probably never see on here anyway. After this I went to the near-by Stanbridge Earls School, another former Rest Home. Due to some rape case that's on-going also the building work that's taking place I couldn't get in here either, not one of my good days, so I carried-on with my job. Though I did at least get a contact with someone from the school who is interested in all this via email.
I took these today at Fursedown House, Hampshire. Sadly there is no plaque here....yet ! But the lady I spoke with agreed that it was about time there were This is strictly private land with a automatic gate.
Due to it's surronding of trees also the low cloud and mist these are the best photographs that I could get right now. Later when some of the trees are bare I'll hopefully take some better shots.
Do you think the old Bucklands Hotel is the place that is mentioned in John Comers book "Combat Crew" as Buckleys Manor which was near Wallingford?
More than likely, the name was probably lost in translation and given it close proximty to Wallingford I would say it was more than a coincidence! I wonder if there were any crews enjoying a spot of R&R in the place the night a 426 Sqn RCAF Halifax crashed on the outskirts of Wallingford. I was stationed at RAF Benson fro a few years (07-11) and happened to be in Wallingford one day and wondered why they were flying the Canadien flag at the town hall, I enquired and this was why:-
On 9 September 1944 a Halifax bomber of No. 426 Squadron RCAF, returning from an abandoned raid over the French port of Le Harve whilst still carrying a full bomb load, caught fire over Wallingford after its port outer engine exploded. Ordering most of his crew to bail out, the pilot, Flying Officer John Archibald Wilding, and his flight engineer, Sergeant John Frank Andrew, remained at the controls in order to steer the plane away from the town, crashing into the fields at Newnham Murren and thus preventing loss of many civilian lives. Both Wilding and Andrew were Mentioned in Dispatches for their bravery with Wilding being posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. They are commemorated by a memorial at the junction of Wilding Road and Andrew Road in Wallingford and by the Canadian flag that is flown over Wallingford Town Hall every year on 9 September in their memory.
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This is strictly private land with a automatic gate.
