Radcot, the River Thames c1960
Radcot, the River Thames c1960 Ref: r414040
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Memories of Radcot, the River Thames
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Radcot & local memories
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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.
Shared on 06 October 2008
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.
Shared on 03 June 2008
Hi,
My father was stationed at Arnhem Camp in the 1960s, he was a paratrooper. The Paras at Watchfield were 16th Parachute Heavy Drop. I attended Watchfield Primary School and have fond memories of my time there, two teachers stand out in my mind, Mrs Late and Mr Biggs. In my day the village had a Jet petrol station and next door to that a small shop called Smiths, the shop was managed by Mrs Paige. Up by the Eagle pub was the Post Office and a shop called Geoffries. Watchfield was a great place to live for a young boy and we would often go "all the way to Shrivenham" (a distance of a mile or so) or wander around Beckett Lake and the R.M.C.S (Royal Military College of Science)
Great days.
Shared on 16 August 2009
Paras at Watchfield in the 1950s
Yes, I lived on the Watchfield housing estate from 1952 to 1953. Large numbers of paras and their equipment were dropped regularly at the airfield. Trainees jumped from large silver barrage balloons, but experienced paras from aircraft, often dozens at a time. The equipment canisters, jeeps, etc., came down with colour-coded parachutes. It was famously one of the sites used in the making of the film "The Red Beret", sometimes retitled "Paratrooper", starring Alan Ladd, Leo Genn & Harry Andrews. There was a small Army base nearby where my father, a REME staff-sergeant worked maintaining all the paras' equipment, such as the sprung-bases the jeeps landed on. A few years ago, I met a retired SAS chap who told me he had done jumps from a Blackburn Beverly aircraft over Watchfield around that time. There was no Watchfield School in those days... we Army "brats" had to walk or bus into Shrivenham... older kids went to secondary school in Farringdon. For the Coronation, there was a huge party in the grounds of the nearby Royal Military College of Science. The only cinema was an old corrugated-iron Nissen Hut ... the RC church was also housed in a similar hut.
Shared on 05 June 2009
Hi Alan, I can confirm that there was a military airodrome at Watchfield. I remember watching from a distance as learner paras jumped from a baloon basket. The baloon was let up to a great height and the men in the basket jumped out one by one.
Tony Stayne
Shared on 12 August 2008

