My Time At Rapleys Grazeley Green

A Memory of Grazeley Green.

I was born and spent my early childhood at Rapleys, Grazeley Green. My father's farm, James Farm, was at the far end of the Green in James Lane. We had a herd around 120 friesians for milking as well as arable and woodland. My mother had a smaller farm at Goddards Green which had about 60 milking Jersey cows and a bull. My memories are a bit hazy but in those days I used to cycle to Burghfield or Mortimer to visit friends. It was much safer for children to cycle miles on the road then as there was much less traffic. I do remember the 10-ton trucks that used to hurtle by from the gravel pits. They were on piecework so speed limits went out of the window. There was the Old Bell pub run by Mr Gissing. I was much too young to know anything about pubs then; but it was the nearest neighbouring property. The cottages the length of the green were mostly occupied by our labour force; but on theo ther side of the road was a child's dream playground. It was Tompkin's Scrap yard. It was a field full to the brim with wartime wrecks such as lancaster bombers, hurricanes, spitfires etc all without wings and charred perspex screens. I recall climbing all over one of the bombers which had an upstairs and downstairs ! Also sitting in the battered pilot's seat of the spitfires. My friends and I bought motor cars which were 'running wrecks' and charged around the farm fields in them. It was in these rattletraps that I learned, at an early age, to drive. I often used to cycle up Goodboys lane past Oakfield where my grandparents had lived, to play with the Froom brothers, Richard and Patrick, who lived at Little Park Farm, Mortimer. Sometimes my father would take me with him in our Mk I Landrover to Charlie Bailey's smithy where an item of farm equipment was being mended. The Forge had hand operated bellows with a cow horn on the end of the handle. There were huge tongs and hammers and a dunking trough to temper the white-hot iron. Along the Green was 'The Camp'. I was never quite sure what went on in there. It was surrounded by a high wire fence and had barrack-like buildings inside. Maybe, it was connected with the nearby top secret (then) defence development site at Burghfield. This later became part of the Aldermaston AWRE (Atomic Weapons Research Establishment) and, I'm told, housed nuclear warheads in sub-surface bunkers. Being so young, I didn't realise the importance of this set-up and I took part in the first 'Ban the Bomb' march with a young friend on our bicycles. I shall add more memories as they come to me; but hope that the reader will find this sufficiently inspirational to add or comment on the content so far.

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