Radcot, the River Thames c1960

Flying from Brize Norton

Although I have been to RAF Brize Norton a few times I have never actually seen the place with the name Brize Norton as each time I have on army duty and taking off on an RAF plane!
In the 1970s I flew with members of my regiment several times to Germany and Malta and RAF Brize Norton supplied the transport each time.

Strange but True

My father was a bank manager in Faringdon in the 1970s and managed the accounts of the Pusey estate and the Hornby family, owners of the estate. On one occasion, during an annual fete, Dad was asked to act treasurer of the fete. He asked me to help him. On that day, two Puseys were in Pusey village.
My Pusey family was based in Oxford, where my paternal grandfather was employed in the University. His father was, I believe, a butcher in the St Clements area of the city.
In my father's family were six children, three sisters and three brothers, of which my father, Frederick was the fourth child. There were five Pusey cousins: John (son of Guy and still lives in Oxford), me, (son of Hugh and now living in Somerset), Michael (sadly deceased), Peter and Anne (sons and daughter of Harold). Peter lives in Malvern and Anne lives in America. There were also two non-Pusey cousins: Mary and Jane (daughters of Vera Heath, the youngest sister - the oither sisters were spinsters).
The second sister, Sybil finally lived and died at a home in Stanford in the Vale, the next village. She had a room next door to the nanny e,mployed by the Hornby family at Pusey House.
Cousin John has researched to an extent but can find no direct connection with the Pusey estate, although the family did own a number of silver spoons marked with the cat rampant, as used by Edward Bouverie-Pusey and probably inherited from the original Pusey family. Sadly, I do not know whether any of these spoons still exist.

Military Parachuting at Watchfield

I was in the RAF at Abingdon on two different postings during 1963/4 and 1967/69 and very often did detachments to the Parachute training school drop zone at Weston on the Green as the aircraft controller. In general Weston was used for dropping men and Watchfied was used for heavy drop excercises howver on some occassion when Weston could not accept a drop due to weather or maintenance reasons Watchfield was used. I did a short parachute course (we called a Jolly) and after the two balloon jumps from 800 feet at Weston my next jump was from an Argosy (from 1000 feet). The flight originated from the Parachute training school at RAF Abingdon and I was expecting to drop at Weston but was very surprised when I hit the ground to see I was actually at Watchfield. So I can definitely confirm that Watchfield airfield was used regularly for dropping men and freight throughout the 1960's.

Time Changes Everything

I was born and grew up in Watchfield, which was originally about 100 houses. Rapid changes to the village occurred in the late 1930s when Beckett Estate was aquired for the army. Then came the airfield and REME workshops. In the early 1940s the village was flooded as a rapid thaw melted snow on the airfield and the water came down the road. After National Service in the early 1950s I did not live at home for long, but I like to remember the village as it was when I grew up. I notice that other memories recall the airfield was used for paratroop training, I can also add that some scenes of 'The Red Beret' were shot there.