Some rare photos in the woods at Slindon 1890s,

Charcoal burning, history, click link.These are rare photos of times past on the estate, i have now some 500 i hope at some point to show on a dedicated site, there are some copyright issues first to address.

Wartime on the Slindon Estate.

1st and 2nd World War at Slindon


First World War

During the First World War, Slindon House was used as an auxiliary hospital run by Lady Beaumont, the sister of Wooton Issacson.

A prisoner-of-war camp, guarded by Canadian troops, was established between the bottom of Nore Hill and West Gumber Gate (SU 9623 1175). The prisoners were used to clear trees from the area and the remains of the incinerator that served the camp is still visible.

Second World War

During the Second World War the house was again utilised as a hospital before being taken over for used by the army stationing troops who were later to take part in the Dieppe raid.

Tree felling also took place on quite a large scale with large beech trees being taken from Nore Wood from an area around the back of the folly: Previously unfarmed land was reclaimed and brought back into production this consisted principally of the area of cleared land next to where the First World War prisoner-of-war camp had been located, which had become covered in gorse and scrub. Even today these fields are still referred to as War Ag 1-4.

Apart from the troops billeted in Slindon House just before the Dieppe raid there were no other military camps on the estate for the duration of the war except for the build up to D-Day, where some were temporarily camped in the Park.

There was however, a dummy airfield constructed on the Gumber as a decoy from RAF Tangmere, which was sited nearby. The raid shelters built at the same time as the dummy airfield are still in existence.

List of Sites

Slindon Estate Base Camp

One of the wooden sheds is supposed to have been part of the First World War PoW camp and was purchased in an auction after 1918. Need to research and understand which building is being referred to and then survey in detail.

Also, located in the stable yard is a iron trolley, which is supposed to have formed part of the light railway installed on the estate to transport wood. Again this needs to be found, given a clean up, photographed and recorded.

Air Raid Shelter, Slindon Park

Located near the Ice House in Slindon Park was an Air Raid shelter. Need to visit to see if building is still in-situ and record accordingly. An AA battery may also have been located in this vicinity.

POW Camp, Nore Hill

Only known remain is the incinerator. This has been photographed, but needs revisiting and recording properly. Also, need to see what other evidence still remains on the ground for the PoW Camp i.e. concrete footings for buildings.

Airship Mooring Site, Northwood Cottages

Although not mentioned in the Whitfield report, there is photographic evidence of a First World War airship-mooring site somewhere close to the Northwood Cottages.

The areas to be investigated are the woods to the South and West of the cottages. The photos show a series of huts, so any remaining evidence will either be the concrete moorings for the airships (or observation balloons) or concrete foundations for the huts (the staff were housed under canvas).

This a brief report, more to be listed.

A Hamlet, or a Village.

Photo.  Downend, a hamlet in the Cotswolds .

          A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. The name comes from Anglo-Norman hamelet(t)e; Old French hamelet, the diminutive of Old French hamel. Another diminutive of Old French ham is possibly a cognate with similar words of Germanic origin. Compare with Dutch heem, German Heim, Swiss German cham or -kon, Old English hām and Modern English home, all derived from the Proto-Germanic *kham. 

Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village. One example of a hamlet is a small cluster of houses surrounding a mill.

In the United Kingdom, the word 'hamlet' has no defined legal meaning, although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. A hamlet is traditionally defined ecclesiastically as a village or settlement that usually does not have its own church, belonging to a parish of another village or town. In modern usage it generally refers to a secondary settlement in a civil parish, after the main settlement (if any). Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that employed its working population. Some hamlets, particularly those that have a medieval church, may be the result of the depopulation of a village.

The term hamlet was used in some parts of the country for a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings".

In Scotland the term of Gaelic derivation, clachan, is often preferred to the term "hamlet".

In Northern Ireland the common Irish place name element baile is sometimes considered equivalent to the term "hamlet" in English, although baile would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a townland -- a geographical locality, not a small village.