Context 160 - July 2019

C O N T E X T 1 6 0 : J U L Y 2 0 1 9 43 On the death of the occupant in 1942, it was taken over by the RAF, which undertook substantial alterations, effectively dividing it into flats. After the war, when the RAF wanted to de-requisition the building, the question of dilapidations and damages was complicated by the fact that eight poorly converted flats were now occupied by evacuees. It was not until 1956 that the formal de-requisition occurred and the borough council acquired eight sitting tenants. The tenants quite liked living in ‘the oldest council house in England’ – an imaginative historical slant – but the flats were of poor quality and expensive to run. This finally ended in 2002 when the tenants were rehoused, Powis Estates bought back the property, restored the early 20th-century house, and converted the ghost of the tennis court to a new entrance facility and café. In addition to the RAF in the castle, there were two other camps nearby. One, just south of Ludlow, was initially a tented RAF camp for the basic training of aircrew and their subsequent dispersal to operational units. In 1943 this camp was enlarged to house units of the American Army. Vestiges of this camp remain: some gateposts and the site of the few permanent buildings which morphed over the years into a small industrial site. The American Army camp on Ludlow’s racecourse and golf course has, however, completely disappeared. There were a number of corrugated- iron buildings scattered across the countryside, built by the Pioneer Corps as part of a programme to disperse supplies of munitions out of harm’s way in case of an invasion. Some are still in use for agricultural purposes. The largest concentration of wartime buildings is at Ditton Priors, where a Royal Naval Armaments Depot had 100- odd buildings widely spaced over the best part of a square mile of countryside. Many of these remain today, but the railway has gone. One problem for the military presence around Ludlow was the River Teme and its narrow 14th-century Ludford Bridge. The Ludlow Home Guard responded efficiently to install sockets in the road to take ‘hairpin’ tank traps and punctured walls in nearby buildings to make gun loops, the remediation of which is still, in places, observable. But the narrowness of the bridge was a problem for the American military, who needed to get heavy equipment across. The solution to this was to build up the road surface with railway sleepers to raise the loads above parapet level. The bridge survived this traffic, which is more than can be said for the impact of continental juggernauts in recent years. One wartime resource is still used by thousands of people every day: the Church Stretton bypass. It was one of the first for which a clear need was established but, as ever, the funding was a different proposition. By 1934 GeorgeWindsor-Clive, MP for Ludlow, was facetiously asking the minister of transport, Leslie Hore-Belisha, in Parliamentary questions whether the resources for the road were being ‘prejudiced by the orange globes’ (Belisha beacons). Nevertheless, by the outbreak of war the bypass was virtually complete and was used as a storage ground for military vehicles, hidden as it was among the Stretton Hills. It finally opened to traffic after the war. This all goes to show that quite recent events and oral history can greatly add to heritage significance. Your own local stories will be worth finding too. This will be my final ‘Notes from the chair’ as my successor will be taking over from the next issue. It has been a great privilege to be the chair of the institute for the past three years, and fun writing these Notes. My thanks go to the very many people who have contributed to the institute’s work during this period and making my contribution a manageable one; not just the institute’s staff but its very many committed officers, trustees, committee members, branch officers and members who make it the success that it is. Thank you. James Caird Blenheim Palace, designed by Vanbrugh and built between 1705 and 1722, was the headquarters of MI5 in the second world war – and a handy landmark for one confused pilot (Photo: Bjoern Eisbaer, Wikimedia)