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Sandshill
Sandshill maps
Historic maps of Sandshill and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Sandshill maps
Sandshill photos
We have no photos of Sandshill, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Faringdon| Uffington| Stanford In The Vale| Watchfield| Radcot| Woolstone| Buckland| Buscot| Kingston Lisle| Shrivenham| Inglesham| Highworth| Ashbury| Lechlade| Bampton| Childrey| East Challow| Letcombe Regis| Letcombe Bassett
Sandshill area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Sandshill and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Sandshill
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Oxfordshire memories
My Maslen Ancestors
My great-grandparents were married at Little Coxwell 1864 and my grandfather was born there in 1864 also, my great-grandfather was called John Maslen and his wife was Jane (nee Haines), they had come over from the Wanborough/Bishopstone area of Wiltshire, perhaps looking for work as John was a farm labourer. My grandfather was also called John. I am coming to Little Coxwell shortly to see the church they were married in and my grandfather was christened in.
My Wonderful Years in Fernham
I was born in Fernham in 1936 in the thatched cottage on the green (now known as Corner Cottage, opposite the church), as was my mother before me. The house was my grandmother's, Mrs Mary Brown. My grandfather Harry Brown was a freelance carpenter and made everything rustic from sheep hurdles to coffins in the small workshop (now derelict) on the opposite side of the road as you are about to climb Hobb's Hill. My memories start some time before I started school at Longcot around the start of the Second World War. What a time for a young boy to live! It was an area full of military action and personnel, lots of aircraft from Shellingford and Watchfield aerodromes and constant air traffic, both German and Allied, as north Berkshire was on the homeward path of RAF returning from raids, and likewise the Luftwaffe going home from bombing Coventry and the like. Then the the Yanks arrived, "any gum chum" . I believe I'm the third oldest village survivor... Read more
My First Born
In 1955 my husband who was in the American Air Force was stationed a Brize Norton, and we lived in a house which I think was called Brookfield in Uffington. I had my son Gerard at the John Radclife Hospital in Febuary 1955. I am Scottish and still live in Scotland. My son now lives in Buckinghampshire. My daughter and myself are due to visit my son in two weeks time and hope to visit Uffington which I am looking forward to, and I would like to revisit the village and wondered if the house was still there? If anyone knows of the house could they contact my daughter at this email address: Rosebud28@live.co.uk
Looking forward to my visit.
2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment
My Father tells me that there was an airfield at Watchford and that the Paras used it as a drop zone in the 1950's. Taking off from Abindon, they would drop at Watchfield. My Father did his night drop here and said that the staff on the ground would leave the hanger doors open with the lights on so that the young paras could just see enough to assess how much the wind was making them drift. Does anyone have photos of this aspect of lift in Watchfield. There is no mention of Watchfield in current aeronautical charts. Your Watchfield, NAAFI Corner photograph suggests some military ties. I would be interested to learn more.
Paras at Watchfield
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
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... Read more
Paras
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.
