WHAT S UNDER THE EARTH WE DIG

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "WHAT S UNDER THE EARTH WE DIG"

Caroline Cynthia Small
5 years ago
Views:

1 WHAT S UNDER THE EARTH WE DIG By Karl Quent I m a curious person and I enjoy learning about local history. When we were having our plots turned over with the digger, Chris Davison mentioned in an that he couldn t dig far enough down. I was intrigued to know why this was and what was here before we arrived with our gardening equipment. I am by no means a historian but a very keen amateur and the following article are my findings. Sorry for any historical holes or gaffs. Ewshot common and the surrounding area were, in the 19 th century, owned by the Lefroy family. In 1850 s the Crimean war and the resulting demands of the war. The Government purchased land in and around the Aldershot area including North Camp, South Camp, Long Valley, Bourley Bottom and a part of the tithing of Ewshot. Mr C. Lefroy the Lord of the Manor of Ewshot was required to sell 800 acres of common land for the troop training grounds. Our part of Ewshot was all farm land. Three farms occupied the area including John Barnett at Christmas Farm; James Lunn at Stilliers Farm both near Ewshot Lane and Naishes Farm (Ref 2) which backed on to what is now Naishes Lane. In 1870 the farm is recorded as unoccupied and later in 1895 it was burnt down In September 1900 Naishes Farm land was acquired and the Army started building Leipzic Barracks. Depending at where you look the spelling of Leipzig/Leipzic does change. Leipzic Barracks was later changed to Quetta Park Quarters. Ref 1 Leipzig Barracks c1905. Beacon Hill Road to the right. The map (Ref 1) shows Leipzic Barracks from the first decade of 20 th century. The 77 th Royal Field Artillery (Ref 4) had moved in. The small villages of Fleet and Church Crookham had now changed forever. Heavy armoury and some 450 men and stabling for 270 horses were stationed at Leipzic. This would have doubled the population of the two villages in the first decade of the 20 th century. All traffic & soldiers would have been routed through the villages to

2 and from Fleet Station. All this expansion was a prelude to The Great War and I m sure many of the men billeted at Leipzig never returned. If someone knows where the 77 th RFA were sent to fight, I would like you to contact me please. During WWI Haig hutments was established (Haig Lane and Azalea Gardens) the huts were built in lines as per the instructions of General Haig. Haig hutments were later called Haig Lines. Haig Lines were first used by the Officer Cadet Training Battalion. Following WWI the site was taken over by RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) and was used as their depot and training establishment. In 1938 the building of Boyce (QEB) barracks was started as a purpose built facility for the RMAC. Doctors and Nurses were medically trained to look after servicemen in battle. Haig Lines, after the war, was known as Crookham Camp and was still used by RAMC for a few years. In 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, Crookham Camp was used as a refugee camp. The site was closed for good in the mid 1980 s and now is a housing estate. Boyce Barracks (Ref 3) continued to expand filling the whole site we now know as Crookham Park. Whilst Boyce Barracks was being built Leipzic Barracks was slowly closing down and eventually most of the buildings were demolished and Quetta Park Quarters was built. If you look around Quetta Park you can still see some of the original buildings standing. In 1948 during the Golden Jubilee year of the RAMC, the Colonel in Chief of the Corps, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Mother) came to visit Boyce Barracks and in her honour Boyce Barracks was renamed Queen Elizabeth Barracks. Ref 3 Map of Boyce & Leipzig Barracks

Queen Elizabeth Barracks was home to the RAMC until 1962. The camp of wooded single story huts arranged as Spiders could accommodate 2,500 persons in peacetime.

3 Queen Elizabeth Barracks was home to the RAMC until The camp of wooded single story huts arranged as Spiders could accommodate 2,500 persons in peacetime. From 1965 until 1970 QEB was used by the training regiments of the Royal Corps of Transport. From 1970 the Ghurkhas (Nepalese soldiers) took over residence of the site. The Ghurkhas became very popular with the local people. It was a sad day to see the Ghurkas leave in 2000 watched by the local people as they said goodbye by marching down Fleet high street for the last time. How does our Allotment site fit into all this history? Looking at the map (Ref 2) I ve outlined in green one of the parade grounds used by the armies stationed at the camp. This is right inside the allotments perimeter fence. The hybrid view of a 1950 s map overlaid a contemporary map (Ref 6) might help see old and new. You can see the original army road we use today which veers towards the main gate of the allotments. With a large well trodden parade ground under our plots you can now understand why our site could not be dug too deep. The aerial photo (Ref 7) of the area was taken in 1991 and the parade ground was still visible then. Sometime between 1991 and 2014 our site was landscaped and new earth was brought in. Ref 2 Allotment site in Green with the location of Naishes Farm in Red

4 Ref 6 Hybrid map of our site with old and new maps Ref 7 Aerial photo of QEB with our overgrown parade ground bottom centre

5 Ref 4 77th Royal Field Artillery Post Card Some extra photos of the area Fig 1 Boyce Barracks (QEB) parade ground

Fig 2 Leipzic Barracks c1907 Fig 3 Leipzic Barracks 1907 Thanks to: Ref 1, 2, 3 & 6 http://maps.nls.

cannot find copyright to images Contributions thankfully received from Darren Taylor, Steve Mckeown and a

6 Fig 2 Leipzic Barracks c1907 Fig 3 Leipzic Barracks 1907 Thanks to: Ref 1, 2, 3 & 6 Ref 4 Phyl Ralton & Fleet and Crookham Local History Group Ref 7 John Muppet6861 Fig 1, 2 & 3 I cannot find copyright to images Contributions thankfully received from Darren Taylor, Steve Mckeown and a special thanks to Phyl Ralton & Chris Hall from Karl Quent Quent65@hotmail.com PLOT 66

Images: ThinkStock

Images: ThinkStock The frontline trenches were made up of three different trenches. These were the fire line, the support trench and the reserve trench. Communication trenches joined them together. Trenches were meant to