Charles Fair Posted 12 April , 2009 Share Posted 12 April , 2009 Good luck, it certainly needs proper research and writing up. One of the huts used to be clearly visible in the field beside the memorial. I havent been there for years so dont know if its still there. My grandfather was there in summer 1918 attached to 24 OCB, Tank Corps. You should track down the book about 24 OCB if you havent already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 13 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 13 April , 2009 Good luck, it certainly needs proper research and writing up. One of the huts used to be clearly visible in the field beside the memorial. I havent been there for years so dont know if its still there. My grandfather was there in summer 1918 attached to 24 OCB, Tank Corps. You should track down the book about 24 OCB if you havent already. Hi , thanks for wishing me good luck with this research, but I am having a bit of a panic now because I dont think I can do the story Justice. I am not a professional writer or historian , and their is such a tale to tell ,but I will soldier on as they say . The huts may still be there and I will have a look in the next few weeks . Very interested to hear of your Grandfathers involvement with the camp via the 24th OCB ,doyou have any written records or reminisences ? The Book you describe is a bit of a Holy Grail for me !! Seen a copy advertised for sale but way out of reach pricewise ,have you seen a copy and if so does it contain photos ? Going down to Bovington Tank Museum in the next few weeks and hoping they may hold a copy . once again many thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDP1955 Posted 20 April , 2009 Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Hi Dave How is this 'LITTLE' research project of yours coming on? I dont know if anybody has mentioned the YMCA, I was reading about Siegfred Sasoon, who had a cousin who was unfit for the Army, but worked in a YMCA hut at Hazeley. Like you I have tried all sorts of searches but have come up with very little about this camp Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 20 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Hi Dave How is this 'LITTLE' research project of yours coming on? I dont know if anybody has mentioned the YMCA, I was reading about Siegfred Sasoon, who had a cousin who was unfit for the Army, but worked in a YMCA hut at Hazeley. Like you I have tried all sorts of searches but have come up with very little about this camp Dianne Hi Dianne , well the " little project " has started to take over my life ! I ve had to take on an "Assistant " i.e a pal of mine who has already done the Great War research thing before .He is going to cover any of the " side threads " such as, what was the fate of the soldier who designed the Memorial cross ,Rfm Norman Keep for example . Had the photocopy of the camp layout from 1915 arrive Saturday and the YMCA hut is clearly marked on 'tother side of the road. Goodness me that camp was a big place for so far out in the sticks ! If you "google " Owslebury Parish Council site they have got brief write up from !960's parish mag headed along the lines "The Day War came to our Village " .....including a photo of the inside of the YMCA hut !! Via the Records office at Winchester I came across a very well written book published in 2000 titled "Twyford ,a twentieth century chronicle " with an excellent two pages on the camp and the assistance given by the villagers to the troops , and description of the Regiments as they marched down Hazeley Lane to catch the trains from Shawford . "Sods Law" says the book is now out of print but I managed to speak to the author briefly as it is obvious that he had some excellent sources locally for his info . Sounded quite elderly on the phone and didnt want to push my luck too much with him at present. Have you read the Nicholas Todd poems yet , found another the other day to his young daughter .Have you seen the Memorial service book ?Thats a real" belter "as they say.The info is out there somewhere.... its only a "click" away .....apparently ! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDP1955 Posted 20 April , 2009 Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Hi Dianne , well the " little project " has started to take over my life ! I ve had to take on an "Assistant " i.e a pal of mine who has already done the Great War research thing before .He is going to cover any of the " side threads " such as, what was the fate of the soldier who designed the Memorial cross ,Rfm Norman Keep for example . Had the photocopy of the camp layout from 1915 arrive Saturday and the YMCA hut is clearly marked on 'tother side of the road. Goodness me that camp was a big place for so far out in the sticks ! If you "google " Owslebury Parish Council site they have got brief write up from !960's parish mag headed along the lines "The Day War came to our Village " .....including a photo of the inside of the YMCA hut !! Via the Records office at Winchester I came across a very well written book published in 2000 titled "Twyford ,a twentieth century chronicle " with an excellent two pages on the camp and the assistance given by the villagers to the troops , and description of the Regiments as they marched down Hazeley Lane to catch the trains from Shawford . "Sods Law" says the book is now out of print but I managed to speak to the author briefly as it is obvious that he had some excellent sources locally for his info . Sounded quite elderly on the phone and didnt want to push my luck too much with him at present. Have you read the Nicholas Todd poems yet , found another the other day to his young daughter .Have you seen the Memorial service book ?Thats a real" belter "as they say.The info is out there somewhere.... its only a "click" away .....apparently ! Dave Aha ......! I'm obviously not clicking enough! I've read a couple of the Nicholas Todd poems, including the one to his young daughter, but havent seen the memorial service book It looks like I need to go to the archives in Winchester! I'm researching a man who was at Hazeley and writing a book which will have to include a few pages on Hazeley Down, so its about time I got to the archives Do you live anywhere near the cemetery in Christchurch? Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 20 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Aha ......! I'm obviously not clicking enough! I've read a couple of the Nicholas Todd poems, including the one to his young daughter, but havent seen the memorial service book It looks like I need to go to the archives in Winchester! I'm researching a man who was at Hazeley and writing a book which will have to include a few pages on Hazeley Down, so its about time I got to the archives Do you live anywhere near the cemetery in Christchurch? Dianne Hi Dianne , According to many of my friends and family I should be in IT !!........Do you mean the Priory one ? if so I live about 200yds away from it ,as I write the bellringers are practicing ....bless 'em . Do you want some thing looking at if so I can nip up tomorrow before I go " bird bothering" over the nature reserve. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGM Posted 20 April , 2009 Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Hello, I've found the marriage of someone stationed at Hazeley Down Camp. Russell Bloomfield Cadet 24th Officer Cadet Battalion (Tank Corps). Third from the bottom, page 7 and continued on page 8. http://www.stmarytwyford.fsnet.co.uk/Pictu...July%202008.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 20 April , 2009 Share Posted 20 April , 2009 Very interested to hear of your Grandfathers involvement with the camp via the 24th OCB ,doyou have any written records or reminisences ? The Book you describe is a bit of a Holy Grail for me !! Seen a copy advertised for sale but way out of reach pricewise ,have you seen a copy and if so does it contain photos ? Going down to Bovington Tank Museum in the next few weeks and hoping they may hold a copy. Its certainly scarce, I have seen it probably only 2 or 3 times on dealers booklists at over £100 a time. It is a slim book, but has plenty of photos. I am sure that Bovington will have a copy, if not I know a man who has and could arrange photos if you need them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 21 April , 2009 Share Posted 21 April , 2009 You may not have the patience or time to do what I did/do for my Wiltshire camps, but I check(ed) out the histories of units known to have been based at them. Results were very mixed: now and then I would get a complete chapter of details; on other occasions all there was was something like "The 7th Blankshires then travelled to Salisbury Plain and after three months of training proceeded to France on September 17th". But then I was lucky in that I live within reasonable distance of the IWM (where many unit histories are on the open shelves) and Aldershot, where the public library and the Price Consort's Library (MoD but with public access) have most unit histories. Weren't the Americans based in the Winchester area later in the war? Ten years ago, I lamented the absence of a history of the camps with a local studies librarian and she reckoned there might be some info available over in the States. Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 21 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 21 April , 2009 You may not have the patience or time to do what I did/do for my Wiltshire camps, but I check(ed) out the histories of units known to have been based at them. Results were very mixed: now and then I would get a complete chapter of details; on other occasions all there was was something like "The 7th Blankshires then travelled to Salisbury Plain and after three months of training proceeded to France on September 17th". But then I was lucky in that I live within reasonable distance of the IWM (where many unit histories are on the open shelves) and Aldershot, where the public library and the Price Consort's Library (MoD but with public access) have most unit histories. Weren't the Americans based in the Winchester area later in the war? Ten years ago, I lamented the absence of a history of the camps with a local studies librarian and she reckoned there might be some info available over in the States. Moonraker Hi Moonraker, thanks for the tip re : backtracking through Regimental histories to get camp info . One avenue for my colleague to follow up I think ! IWM and the National Archives are the next port of call for me . Tonight just had email response regarding any Twyford residents with secondhand "Tales" of Hazeley,( just missed being able to talk to a resident who watched as the troops used to march off , sadly he died a couple of years ago)So I will be following up leads in the next few days . With the camps you researched how much info could you put together about an individual camp ? Did you find site maps etc ? Re the Americans , something tells me that they were at the Morn Hill Camp outside Winchester, now there is a bleak cold and forbidding area in Winter ! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidearm Posted 21 April , 2009 Share Posted 21 April , 2009 Its certainly scarce, I have seen it probably only 2 or 3 times on dealers booklists at over £100 a time. It is a slim book, but has plenty of photos. I am sure that Bovington will have a copy, if not I know a man who has and could arrange photos if you need them. Do you know if there any photos of the tanks of 24th OCB in the book, please? Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 21 April , 2009 Share Posted 21 April , 2009 Do you know if there any photos of the tanks of 24th OCB in the book, please? Offhand, I dont recall seeing any, but I'd need to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 21 April , 2009 Share Posted 21 April , 2009 Re the Americans , something tells me that they were at the Morn Hill Camp outside Winchester, now there is a bleak cold and forbidding area in Winter ! The 3/19th Londons were at Morn Hill Camp from early January 1916 to mid December 1917. Another source worth checking out is class WO 114 in TNA. There is a sequence of volumes from 43 to 51 and then 33 to 37 which gives the strength of home based units from Sept 1914 to mid 1919. From Vol 46 (c. Oct 1915) it gives the town at which the unit was based. The 3/19th are thus shown as being at Winchester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDP1955 Posted 26 April , 2009 Share Posted 26 April , 2009 Do you want some thing looking at if so I can nip up tomorrow before I go No, the cemetery in Jumpers Road, there are two graves that need photographing there One of them is one that has recently been recognised by the CWGC, I have all the details on him, because I located his grave There is a thread on here, which I will bump up for you, if you are able to get to the cemetery before me I'd appreciate it ... Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 26 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 26 April , 2009 No, the cemetery in Jumpers Road, there are two graves that need photographing there One of them is one that has recently been recognised by the CWGC, I have all the details on him, because I located his grave There is a thread on here, which I will bump up for you, if you are able to get to the cemetery before me I'd appreciate it ... Dianne hi dianne , yep no problem just give me the details when you are ready Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDP1955 Posted 26 April , 2009 Share Posted 26 April , 2009 Hi Dave I've bumped up the thread with the detals, and put a post at the top of it, with the names of the two men The thread is entitled ' Burial in Christchurch, Dorset' started by Horatio2 Many, many thanks Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 26 April , 2009 Share Posted 26 April , 2009 Hi Moonraker, .. . With the camps you researched how much info could you put together about an individual camp ? Did you find site maps etc ? ... Dave A great deal in virtually every case, but I had certain advantages when I started research in 1996: 1. Books on Salisbury Plain (Plain Soldiering) and the Lark Hill camps (Gunners at Larkhill) by N D G James that had already been published, with excellent bibliographical notes that gave me ideas for further research. 2. "Local memory books" for the Warminster area including pages on the local camps that had already been published. 3. Many Australian battalions were based at Wiltshire camps, so their unit histories provided much info. The disadvantages then were that there wasn't much available on line, and I spent many hours ploughing through The Times, Hansard and the PRO printed catalogues. Nowadays all this can be done from one's home. The best source of site maps proved to be Ordnance Survey maps, which showed how the camps were laid out, but with few, if any, buildings being named. Again I was lucky, in having access to the Bodleian map library. The National Archives have bound volumes of six-inch maps surveyed post-WWI which in some cases show WWI infrastructure. Dunno when your camps were demolished? Have you done word searches in the National Archives and IWM on-line catalogues? In 1997 the IWM did a basic "Salisbury Plain" word search for me of their documents catalogue (which includes summaries of what is to be found in each set of documents), and this produced about 20 items. Since then, I have word-searched the IWM catalogue for individual camps and come up with many more hits. Railway books may have a little on troop movements and perhaps even on the camp railway. Luckily for you, Winchester Library has a specialist national railway collection on its open shelves. Good luck! Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 26 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 26 April , 2009 Hi Moonraker , Thanks for the info ,terrific stuff !! by the looks of it I wont be seeing much of the" great outdoors" this year just slumped over key board ! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 26 April , 2009 Share Posted 26 April , 2009 I keep an eye on eBay for my Wiltshire camps; even if I don't want to bid for an item it may provide a bit of info - a message on a postcard, for example. Currently on offer is a card from Hazeley Down Camp with a reasonable example of the camp postmark and one from Morn Hill sent by a member of the Middlesex Regiment. (You may wish to limit your search to "collectables" in the right hand box.) Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 27 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2009 I keep an eye on eBay for my Wiltshire camps; even if I don't want to bid for an item it may provide a bit of info - a message on a postcard, for example. Currently on offer is a card from Hazeley Down Camp with a reasonable example of the camp postmark and one from Morn Hill sent by a member of the Middlesex Regiment. (You may wish to limit your search to "collectables" in the right hand box.) Moonraker hi, Moonraker , thanks for ebay tip off ! bids now in !! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 28 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 28 April , 2009 Hi Dave I've bumped up the thread with the detals, and put a post at the top of it, with the names of the two men The thread is entitled ' Burial in Christchurch, Dorset' started by Horatio2 Many, many thanks Dianne Hi Dianne ,Photos taken of Christchurch burials , where do we go from here ? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDP1955 Posted 12 June , 2009 Share Posted 12 June , 2009 Hi Dave Here is the postcard I told you about, the photograph was taken in around 1915 and shows two soldiers (presumably from Hazeley Down Camp) walking down Hazeley Road, Twyford. The postcard is postally unused and the back is completely clean of any inscriptions Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandford dave Posted 13 June , 2009 Author Share Posted 13 June , 2009 Hi Dave Here is the postcard I told you about, the photograph was taken in around 1915 and shows two soldiers (presumably from Hazeley Down Camp) walking down Hazeley Road, Twyford. The postcard is postally unused and the back is completely clean of any inscriptions Dianne Hi Dianne ., many thanks for sight of the card ! I am going up to Twyford /Winchester in the next week so I will try to work out roughly where it was taken , got a pretty good idea already ! Have to wonder what was in the mind of photographers in those days.....two men walking down a road couldnt have been the biggest seller !! once again thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Giles Dawkes Posted 30 July , 2009 Share Posted 30 July , 2009 Hello I'm an archaeologist with University College London and we have just undertaken an archaeological excavation just outside of Twyford, by the pumping station on the Hazeley Road, before a large water main was installed. Amongst the prehistoric finds of the remains of a Bronze Age house and burial mound were a series of trenches. The two main elements was a crenallated trench with a parallel sinuous trench some 40m away. The parrallel trenches were connected by a perpendicular sinuous trench. I was flummoxed to begin on what they were but a man from Hampshire Council mentioned that Hazeley Camp was in the vicinity and these do appear to have been practice tenches dug by men at the camp. I should be able to put up some drawings and photos when I am a little more familiar with the forum (this is my first post). I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the practice trenching, or that particular area of Hazeley. regards Giles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest buckingd Posted 25 November , 2010 Share Posted 25 November , 2010 Hi, looks like i might be a bit late to this forum but I was recenlty looking at some of my grandfathers old photos and one of them is a large formal picture of many officers at some sort of camp in the First War. On the top is written 24th O.C.B. so google brought me to this forum. So I'm assuming that it is a picture of one of the companies of that battalion (C company I think). Obviously my grandfather is in it but I know nothing else of the unit or what they did. I can post the photo if anyone would be interested but where would be the best place to find out what a particular company, or battalion or division did during the war? Regards David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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