Sheltered cook house, Salisbury Plain

[Moonraker]

I've seen many images of military cook-houses and the like, but never one like this.(Looks a bit like the upper parts of a boat.) Most Salisbury Plain camping-sites had primitive permanent cook shacks, but these ovens look temporary, and the wind-screens are new to me. And I can't make out what the rows of "wheely-bins" are.

 

What do you think?

 

(Following my recent failure in thinking that a camera was a heliograph, I await someone patiently explaining to me that it's not a cooking facility at all ... )

 

Moonraker

 

[Bombadier]

That looks like CGI to me, not a photo.

[Gareth Davies]

The people on the right look like children, not soldiers.

[Moonraker]

5 minutes ago, Bombadier said:

That looks like CGI to me, not a photo.

I don't think they had CGI 112 years ago. The crop is taken from a postcard postmarked  West Down Camp,  August 5, 1906.

[bigjohn]

Thinking that they might be soya boilers most without chimneys.

 John

[Bombadier]

On a closer look, it is apparent that it is not CGI. Trust me to jump in with both feet.

[IPT]

Hmm... they have the look of The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd V.B. Gloucestershire Regiment, and the 2nd and 3rd V.B. Somerset Regiment to me.

 

 

[Gareth Davies]

Yes, I was about to say exactly the same. Well done for beating me to it.

 

What's the chimney in the distance?

[Moonraker]

 

8 minutes ago, IPT said:

Hmm... they have the look of The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd V.B. Gloucestershire Regiment, and the 2nd and 3rd V.B. Somerset Regiment to me.

 

How can you tell that from a lot of tents?

 

Trust me to try to sneak a pre-war query past the mods. Still, perhaps whatever-it-is was still being used in 1914. And just because the card is postmarked "West Down Camp" it doesn't mean that the illustration is of that camp. No publisher is named, but the sender's message is typical of a Territorial/Volunteer soldier in summer camp. The trees don't look quite like those in other cards of West Down, and the photograph appears to have taken from an elevation that I can't place there. I've just looked again at my 100+ cards of the camp and some of the mid-1900s do show cook-shacks that I mentioned in my opening post, like this one of 1903 at West Down

 

And here's a crop from another West Down Camp card, of 1906. Such shacks featured at many Salisbury Plain camping sites into the period of the Great War.

 

[303man]

Two Soya stoves in the picture and the ones stacked up like bins as someone says look like the standard oval Dixies used.  Attached picture of the same style Dixie in Korea.  They used to look like that when lined up on the petrol hydro burner stand in the 70's 80's when on Exercise with army chefs. 

 

http://www.creopcrown.co.uk/Units/Others/ACC/acc.php

[Moonraker]

10 hours ago, Gareth Davies said:

What's the chimney in the distance?

Well spotted, Gareth. (Not the first time I've used these three words together.) I greatly enlarged the scan and that does look like a chimney (where the tree-line dips). There was nothing like that on Salisbury Plain in the 1900s. In the bottom-right corner is embossed something like "COW W. RAMSEY", presumably the name of the photographer/publisher and not one I've come across in the context of Wiltshire postcards.

 

So I'm now fairly sure that the photograph is not that of West Down. At least I didn't buy the card on its own - it was one of a hundred or so recently won at an auction.

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

Moonraker

[Gareth Davies]

Did you zoom in on the people on the right?  They look like children to me, not (young) soldiers. 

[Moonraker]

Gareth, yes, I did. They looked like children to me too. Had the card shown West Down Camp, that would be no surprise, with Tilshead being just over a mile away. I've got two cards showing young boys sharing the bathing-pool at the camp with soldiers (and many, including the boys, are naked, as was not uncommon in those days).

 

The camp in the scan looks as it was awaiting its occupants and perhaps the children had sneaked in for a look-around?

 

Moonraker

[Wardog]

Could it be a Boys Brigade camp? The Army might have only been on site at certain times. Have to be a big camp though with so many tents. Regards, Paul.

Edited 31 March , 2018 by Wardog

[Moonraker]

On 30/03/2018 at 06:47, Moonraker said:

... In the bottom-right corner is embossed something like "COW W. RAMSEY", presumably the name of the photographer/publisher and not one I've come across in the context of Wiltshire postcards.

I've had another squint at the embossed name and it's "COWEN RAMSEY". Googling suggests this refers to George B Cowen, who "Produced many fine views, especially of North of Island [Isle of Man]; many were used by the major postcard manufacturers. One speciality was specially posed photographs, usually of pretty young women, to illustrate Manx life."

 

One can only speculate at the connection between a Wiltshire camp, a Bradford addressee and a Manx photographer.

 

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

I just sold the card on eBay for £17 to an Isle of Man resident. Rather more than I would have expected had it in fact shown West Down Camp, which features on lots of cards showing tents and worth £6-8 each (which hasn't stopped an Australian optimist currently asking £30 for one).

 

The Isle of Man card was from a couple of lots of Wiltshire military cards than I won at a traditional auction earlier this year. I have several other left-over West Down Camp cards, but only one - of the Queen's Westminsters -  is worth listing on its own on eBay.

 

Thanks to those who steered me in the right direction. I'm tempted to pretend  that I had my suspicions about the location from the start, but that wouldn't be true.

 

Moonraker

Edited 21 June , 2019 by Moonraker

[Rob B]

It looks like a Cub Scout jamboree, those people on the right of the camping area appear to have shorts on! 

[seaJane]

On 23/09/2018 at 11:55, Moonraker said:

Wiltshire camp, a Bradford addressee

Not Bradford upon Avon, then?

[Moonraker]

Posted to Mr H Lees, c/o National Telephone Co, Bradford, Yorkshire.

 

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

I've just acquired this postcard:

Moonraker

[Dave1418]

The rows of Dixie’s are set on bricks over a fire pit with a chimney at the far end

Trench-kitchen with camp kettles

7’6” long 9” wide and 18” deep sloping 4” at the back 2’ high chimney at the rear. 

The box like containers and large chimney are from a portable stove mainly used in medical units. 2 ovens, 2 boilers 4 baking dishes 1 grate and 2 shelves

 

[Guest]