Charmy Down

My family lived on Charmy Down from about 1948 until around 1955 in the 'decontamination' hut with the tallish tower on the end at 4 Maple Grove at the top of the lane leading up from the Gloucester Rd. Just past Pop Godwin's farm. The circular Maple Grove road is still there with large farm buildings now covering some of the hut foundations including ours. It was a great place for kids to grow up and explore. Nothing could beat the air raid shelters for play house and mucking about. We ran at large and probably were quite a nuisance to the farmers around there. Took over the cow trough as a swimming bath while the cows looked on. Very hard on our parents up there trying to make the huts habitable and then trying to find scarce food to feed us. All in all the abandoned airfield huts were a godsend for young couples trying to find homes of their own and starting their families. We did share our hut with another family and we were technically squatters. Comically, we were eventually charged rent for our Dad’s major hut improvements. Both families moved on to the new build council estates at Fox Hill and Weston. All the kids at 4 Maple Grove went on to wonderful lives in Britain and Canada. We all have very fond memories of our humble yet adventurous ‘beginnings’ on Charmy Down and consider ourselves so fortunate to have lived in what is probably one of the most beautiful areas around Bath. old too bad we only had a small brownie camera

Hi Agree with last comment we were very lucky we had the run about with no worries we were free ,naughty some times but we respected people .I have lots of fond memories of Charmy Down. Good friends . Unfortunately we all spilt up when we moved .