Context 160 - July 2019

42 C O N T E X T 1 6 0 : J U L Y 2 0 1 9 Notes from the chair My father-in-law was a bomber pilot in the second world war. He flew mainlyWhitley and Halifax bombers on 101 active operations, first with 35 Squadron, principally with 58 Squadron and latterly with 298 Squadron. He flew in the operation that bombed the Scharnhorst in La Rochelle harbour in July 1941 and towed a glider full of troops over the beaches on D-Day. He died in 2011 aged 95. In an early navigation exercise, when he was somewhat lost, a historic building saved him embarrassment when he re-established his location with a sighting, through a gap in the clouds, of Blenheim Palace, then the headquarters of MI5. Oral history can give fascinating heritage insights. This snippet is a reminder that there is much more to second world war heritage than the physical remains of utilitarian structures hastily built for the war effort. I live in Ludlow and my examples are from nearby, but they are no different, I am sure, from those from every other part of Britain and Europe. One such story is the role played by heritage property during the war and the contribution of this to its current heritage status, whether good or ill. It is well known that country houses had a lean time in the inter-war period, caused by changing social structures, accumulated conservation deficits and, often, punitive death duties. So, for some, the outbreak of war in 1939 and the sudden need for many new and displaced uses was a temporary lifeline. In other cases it was wholly detrimental or at best inconvenient. According to the Duchess of Beaufort, Queen Mary and her substantial household took over ‘the whole of ’ Badminton House. The Duchess was, with her husband, allocated just three rooms. An early arrival here was Lancing College, whose south-coast premises had been requisitioned by the Admiralty. The college established itself at Moor Park, a country house near Ludlow which had been the English home of a landed Irish family. The college’s various ‘houses’ took up residence in the larger houses of neighbouring villages. The educational use of Moor Park has continued to this day. Mawley Hall, requisitioned from 1940 to 1951, did not initially fare so well. By the 1960s this superb baroque house had deteriorated to the extent that a new owner proposed to demolish it. The house was saved only by the intervention of the minister of works, Lord John Hope, who served a building preservation notice. The property was sold to someone prepared to preserve it, with the payment of grants to do so, but not without fierce Parliamentary scrutiny. This was an early case of this sort of intervention. The house sold recently for £10 million. Being relatively remote, Shropshire was regarded as a place for evacuation, training and safe keeping. It was designated as a parole area for trustworthy prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars. Lucien Bonaparte was a Ludlow resident for a while and his daughter was christened at Mawley Hall. A few evacuees were notable. Général Charles de Gaulle lived in Shropshire while his daughter attended a convent school at Acton Burnell manor. The ‘splendid’ (Pevsner) 16th-century Pitchford Hall, not far from the convent, was one of the properties earmarked for the evacuation of the Royal family should the need arise. But most of the evacuees came from Liverpool and other crowded northern cities. Living conditions in Ludlow and its hinterland were not very good. There was a great deal of scarcely habitable property in Ludlow and few rural locations had mains water or electricity. Despite many of the evacuees not thinking much of these deprivations, some live here today. A second group of incomers was prisoners of war. There was a camp for Italians from the North Africa campaign in Ludlow. They were employed as agricultural labourers by day and returned to the camp at night. The sole remaining structure on the site is a brick-and-concrete water tower which now has an ad hoc agricultural use. Like the evacuees, some of the prisoners stayed, as Italian surnames among today’s agricultural community testify. Shropshire was liberally endowed with wartime camps and training establishments, often in historic property like Mawley Hall. From 1472 to 1689 Ludlow Castle was the base for the Council of Wales and the Marches, from whichWales was administered. During the 18th century the castle became derelict until it was preserved by successive Earls of Powis, who leased it from the crown from 1772 and bought it in 1811. A proposal to convert the castle to a prisoner-of-war camp for 4,000 prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars fortunately came to nothing. No more successful was a plan to replace the remains of the Real Tennis court built in the 1570s and nearby structures just inside the entrance with a substantial mansion for the earls. A more modest house was built in the early 20th century.