Congratulations to Long Marston cricket club on their half-century at Marlins. When I was a child, Marlins was one of several areas of allotments in Long Marston, but by the early 1960s times had changed and people were no longer urged to “Dig for Victory” as they had been during WW2.
In February 1945 Mike Tomlinson was just seven years old, and lived with his mother (his father was away serving in the RAF) in Astrope Lane, which leads down from the Queens Head pub at the crossroads in Long Marston.
During the war the older lads of the village were used as runners – taking messages between Puttenham church tower, where there was a lookout point, and the Queen’s Head which, so my husband told me, was the command post.
Right. Get fell in! Atten-shun! Right dress! Eyes front. Stand at ease. Stand easy.
‘Scoop’ was the magazine published by the children at Long Marston school, every term, in the 1940s. We have obtained copies of the magazine which provides an insight into the effects of the bombing of the school as well as the thoughts from children that were evacuated from London to Long Marston during the war.
Most of the early work on our new local history website – Tringruralhistory.co.uk – has focused on the 20th century and in particular World War II. A number of stories mentioned the use of the local Airfield by the American Airforce and the impact on our communities at the time.
Excerpts from a transcript of the tape by Arthur Reeve (1907-1989) relating to Marsworth Airfield. The tape was produced in November 1984 by Arthur Reeve of Townfield Farm and Joan Dutton of Vicarage Road, Marsworth.
This story was originally submitted to the BBC People’s War site by Gwilym Scourfield of the County Heritage Team on behalf of Sheila Wood.
We follow up the previous interview with Eunice Hall by discussing the bombing of Long Marston school with Neil Dean, also a child at the time. There is also coverage of the growth of Neil’s family business – Deans Eggs – and its impact on the village.
Send in your photos, stories, documents and we’ll get them added!