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Goatacre
Goatacre maps
Historic maps of Goatacre and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Goatacre maps
Goatacre photos
We have no photos of Goatacre, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Compton Bassett| Bremhill| Clyffe Pypard| Calne| Cherhill| Quemerford| Wootton Bassett| Great Somerford| Derry Hill| Broad Hinton| Avebury| Beckhampton| Lacock
Goatacre area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Goatacre and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Goatacre
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Wiltshire memories
RAF Lyneham, 1947-48
My first job, after leaving Chippenham Secondary School in 1947, was in the Met. Office at RAF Lyneham. I sometimes cycled there from my parents' home at Box, between Chippenham and Bath. Airfield security seemed almost non-existent in those days, and one could go straight onto the station from the main road without even going through the main gate. As we were doing shift work at the office, the staff had to live on or near the airfield except on our days off. The senior civilian staff lived in the Officers' Mess, but junior staff members like myself were in the Sergeants' Mess, where I think we were regarded with slight disapproval by a few of the older NCOs.
At that time, RAF Transport Command was operating Avro York aircraft, replaced by the Handley-Page Hastings a year or so later. There were frequent flights from Lyneham to Malta and North Africa, and of course there was the Berlin airlift in 1948.
Tales From my Father
My father grew up on Compton Bassett, his name was Reginald Hooper and he lived with his parents and brothers and sisters at No 36. I remember well the stories he told me as a child about his childhood growing up in the village, his friends, how they played in the street and roamed all over the fields, sang in the church choir and went to school in the village. It all seemed so idyllic but I suppose life was quite hard for most village people in those days. When I read 'Cider with Rosie' it all seemed so familiar, as if I had already been there. They are all gone now but the memories live on.
Re Story of Tales From my Father
I still hear all the tales of those days from my father,who spent his holidays at Number 37 with the Offer family and was sent there during the Second World War as a child, he also knew your father Reginald . As a child I spent my holidays in Compton Bassett, staying either on Barnetts Farm or the White Horse pub field in our caravan or in a tent at the back of 36 or in the orchard of 37, even in the 1970s and 1980s it was fun, there is something still special about the place now.
Somewhere is This Photo is A RAF Camp Where The Sgt Barraclough Family Lived
Where was the RAF camp site?
This And That Concerning my Short Stay in Compton Bassett
My memory of Compton Bassett is not extensive - to say the least - as I spent roughly a year in married quarters before my husband was posted to Bordon in Hants. He was with the REME and worked at Lyneham. My immediate memory is of greeness and drizzle! And being without friends - I don't think being a member of the khaki set helped! I took my son, who was a year old, into Calne some afternoons just for something to do. I recall the bus service was pretty non-existant and so it was the pushchair for him, and shanks' pony for me! Sometimes we did a recce closer to home instead, and I enjoyed looking at the pretty cottages (we had arrived directly from Germany where cottages were not something one encountered). I recall one cottage which, although not so different from the others in the road, did have a name which has remained with me all these years: 'All That.' I would seek it out whenever our... Read more
R A F Compton Bassett. No 3 Radio School
I cannot believe that I am the first ex "Wop/TeleOp" to stumble across this site and to pen a few words of nostalgia for the old camp and the surrounding towns. Calne in particular. The jokes we made about the bacon factory, e.g. 'Same lorry collecting from the cookhouse as brought our supplies'. Nipping thru' the hole in the fence around camp to pop along to the pub for cigarettes. The camp itself and all the boys (for that is what we were, 16/17 yr olds) who contributed to the memories I have of that part of my life, during 1946/47, I found so enjoyable. The friendiness of the Calne townfolk. I last visited the Calne area 15 years ago and found that the camp had reverted to farmland. I now live in Johannesburg and will always have the fondest memories of "Wonderful Wiltshire" and "The White Horse". To all of the wonderful people of Compton Basset and environs. Be well, and proud of your inheritance.
No. 3 Radio School, R.A.F. Compton Bassett. Wilts.,
At the age of 80, I still have nostalgic memories of Compton Bassett, of Calne, of the White Horse - both the historic site and the pub - and of the beautiful surrounding countryside that I often roamed, as a young man of 18, during my 9-month stay at No. 3 Radio School, R.A.F. Compton Bassett, where I too was trained as a W/OP & TP/OP (Telegraphist). And yes, who would ever forget the Station cookhouse "menu of the day" choice, which consisted, more often than not, of either bacon & egg, sausages, kidney & egg or steak and kidney pie with a good dollop of mashed potatoes and baked beans,
and for dessert a slab of fruit cake or boiled rhubarb with custard, all dished out by German POWs! Happy days, indeed.
