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Porton Down
Porton Down maps
Historic maps of Porton Down and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Porton Down maps
Porton Down photos
We have no photos of Porton Down, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Cholderton| Amesbury| Old Sarum| Bulford| Wilsford| Over Wallop| Nether Wallop| Salisbury| Middle Wallop| Stonehenge| Figheldean| Britford| Bemerton| Harnham| Amport| Thruxton
Porton Down area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Porton Down and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Porton Down
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Wiltshire memories
Dad''s Panic
Dad was village copper for several years (our old Police House is now "Peelers" in Thorneydown Road) and had a number of people he got on well with. He tended not to panic too often but one day a message came through that had him rush out in panic because of the loss of one of his friends, Pat Pocock from the Post Office.
I can't remember the exact year but it was early 1960's.
Later the Post Office was moved to a shop in Thorneydown Road and later still it was taken over by Frank Gaulton who still ran it when we left Winterbourne in 1964.
Cholderton Post Office
I spoke to my Dad last night to share what I found on Cholderton. He grew up in the Cholderton Post Office building in the 20's. He also lived in the cottages in the laneway that leads to St. Nicholas Church. He described it to a tee and was very excited. His name is Cyril Jenkinson and his parents were Edith and Wilfrid Jenkinson. They ran the post office for many years.
Ratfyn Power Station
In the 1950s I was in the Royal Engineers and came over from Germany to our school of military engineering at Chatham where we did a course in electrical power stations. We were then posted to Bulford barracks, and did our practical training at an MOD power station at Ratfyn on the side of the River Avon. We generated power for Larkhill, Bulford, Tidworth and the chemical weapons establishment at Porton Down. I have been back a number times over the years to try to locate it, but never managed to. I would be very interested if anyone knows what happened to it.
My Grandfather
This is approximately the year when researching my family history that I became aware that there is a plaque in the church for my grandfather, George Reginald Mundy of the Wiltshire Regiment, who was killed in action on 23/7/1916 aged 40. He left a widow and 5 children, the youngest being only 3 months old.
My grandmother died in 1932, only 4 years before I was born, and yet I cannot remember any of my grandparents being talked about.
Kath Jones, nee Mundy
Visiting History
My husband was stationed here in WWII, and married a girl from Bulford. They divorced but the family ties are strong.
We met the first wife's family and had a wonderful time. Also the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion Vets had a great time revisiting and reminiscing.
Army Training on Salisbury Plain
The military owns more than 150 square miles of Salisbury Plain and great chunks of it are closed to the public. I have seen part of this area and "enjoyed" the isolation of camping in bivouacs with my Territorial Army unit.
The organisation of the trainng area is done so as to parcel up areas and allocate them to seperate training exercises. I served for almost five years with the Royal Signals and I remember setting up our "bivvy" tents when 39th Signal regiment was allocated part of the training area in 1970. We took just two vehicles with us - a three tonner and a Land Rover. Driving these over the rough terrain meant you really got to appreciate the soft and high suspension of the vehicles. One of our drivers was Pauline Kenchat - a WRAC Private who was learning to drive. Would you believe she managed to hit the three tonner with the Land Rover! We had miles of Salisbury Plain... Read more
SORRY, BUT WE USED TO CALL IT GIBBS AND SPEW
Yes, I worked there when I was 15 with two other boys. I remember Tony Fletcher and Alan Blackman (are you still out there?). It was a dark warm place when on full tilt, it looked like London in the fog. I remember the characters like old Seth, he could drink beer straight from the fermentation tank whilst it was still hot, yes, it was free, we used to have a ration of two pints a day hence I was legless after my first, then I used to save it till the weekend to sell to the oldies who could drink as much as they could get. Seth was a bomb, he loved the gee gees but it would take him 26 minutes to go to the bookies and back so he devised a way of getting out. I didn't know where he did work in the brewery, only that every now and then he would come to where I was on the barrel wash, it was a monster to... Read more
