Where did our hut come from?

[Longgreen]

Hello, this is my first post as I am trying to find out where our village hut came from, more specifically prove or disprove what has been passed down through members of the village. Our aim is to try and find out more about it's potential original location and the regiments and nationalities that may have used it.

The hut is a fairly unmolested and structurally sound Armstrong hut located in Fonthill Gifford, near Tisbury. It was moved to the village in c.1919 via an arrangement with a local landowner, Mrs Shaw-Stewart in memory of her son Lieutenant Neil Shaw-Stewart who died in the war.

The local consensus is that the hut came from a camp somewhere in the vicinity of the Fonthill Abbey Estate which was owned by the Shaw-Stewarts, however I can not find any record of a camp at Fonthill Gifford or Fonthill Abbey, the nearest recorded probably being the Fovant and surrounding camps - which I think is more likely as an origin of the hut.

Does anyone know of any camps other than the Fovant ones which were to the north of Tisbury and more particularly Fonthill? 

As a wildcard, I've found a tiny bit of info on No. 125 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps who were in the Tisbury from Sept. 1918, but again nothing specific on camp location. 

Many thanks

[FROGSMILE]

A good person to help answer your query is forum pal @Moonraker .  Salisbury Plain and all the peripheral villages seemed to pick up village halls when the army huts were sold off at discounted rates at the end of WW1.  I lived in Netheravon and Codford and recall many of them distributed around the villages and used for municipal events, sometimes sports teams, or in some cases even as prefabricated housing.

[Longgreen]

Thanks @FROGSMILE, I grew up close to Codford and remember nights as a Beaver then a Cub at the Scout hut next to the war graves in Codford although I think that hut is in the original position, I went past it last summer and its in a really poor state now unfortunately and probably won't be standing much longer. Yes there are quite a few around and about, some which I know have been re-clad/modernised and now just look like bungalows, some in Codford and Upton Lovell.

[FROGSMILE]

11 hours ago, Longgreen said:

Thanks @FROGSMILE, I grew up close to Codford and remember nights as a Beaver then a Cub at the Scout hut next to the war graves in Codford although I think that hut is in the original position, I went past it last summer and its in a really poor state now unfortunately and probably won't be standing much longer. Yes there are quite a few around and about, some which I know have been re-clad/modernised and now just look like bungalows, some in Codford and Upton Lovell.

Yes, those are the huts that I was thinking about.  Many of the boundary fence posts are made from the thousands of railway sleepers that underpinned the military railways that snaked across the plain linking the numerous hutted camps between 1915 and 1918.

Edited 25 January by FROGSMILE

[Michelle Young]

It might be worthwhile you contacting the good people at Great War Huts as well.

https://www.greatwarhuts.org/

[Moonraker]

Welcome to the Forum, Longgreen. As you're aware, the nearest hutted camps to Fonthill Gifford were Fovant, Hurdcott and Sutton Mandeville and it's very likely indeed that your hut came from one of these, though to the north were Sand Hill (at Longbridge Deverill), Sutton Veny, Heytesbury, Boyton, Corton and Codford. (All but Heytesbury - now called  Knook - were demolished in the early 1920s.)  There were some very large-scale sell-offs of huts and equipment shortly after the war ended, and there was a Ministry of Munitions magazine, Surplus, as well as adverts in local newspapers listing massive auction lots.)

Some of the huts were transported long distances. Liverpool Council bought 500 army huts from Lark Hill Camp, near Stonehenge, for conversion into family houses, each comprising a living room, three bedrooms and scullery.

(BTW I've just bought a postcard of a hut from Fovant Camp was erected next to the Tisbury Road in the village to provide the British Legion with quarters. And considering the complaints alleging shoddy construction work and materials it's remarkable that a few huts are still standing.)

 

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Moonraker said:

Welcome to the Forum, Longgreen. As you're aware, the nearest hutted camps to Fonthill Gifford were Fovant, Hurdcott and Sutton Mandeville and it's very likely indeed that your hut came from one of these, though to the north were Sand Hill (at Longbridge Deverill), Sutton Veny, Heytesbury, Boyton, Corton and Codford. (All but Heytesbury - now called  Knook - were demolished in the early 1920s.)  There were some very large-scale sell-offs of huts and equipment shortly after the war ended, and there was a Ministry of Munitions magazine, Surplus, as well as adverts in local newspapers listing massive auction lots.)

Some of the huts were transported long distances. Liverpool Council bought 500 army huts from Lark Hill Camp, near Stonehenge, for conversion into family houses, each comprising a living room, three bedrooms and scullery.

(BTW I've just bought a postcard of a hut from Fovant Camp was erected next to the Tisbury Road in the village to provide the British Legion with quarters. And considering the complaints alleging shoddy construction work and materials it's remarkable that a few huts are still standing.)

 

Codford had / has a few well dispersed huts still in their original position but converted to housing.  I remember one tenant when I lived in the village (St Peter) was an ex Polish Corps soldier unable to go home because of the communist government established there at the end of WW2.  The huts had been well looked after, but I’m unsure if they’re still in use today.

Edited 25 January by FROGSMILE

[chaz]

I had posted months ago about the old village hall at Christian Malford, was possibly going to be pulled down. Now has its own web pages.

https://www.christianmalfordhall.co.uk/about

[Fovant]

I went to primary school in Fovant and I can remember the British Legion hut, which the school used for events and concerts in the late 1950s and 60s.

There were also two WW1 wooden huts next to the mill on the Nadder at Sutton Mandeville that the farmer, Fred Spencer, used for storage. I found a brass Australian shoulder title in one of them, which I still have.

[Longgreen]

Thanks all for the very helpful responses, I think we're going to investigate further with auction record thing and try and access the estate archives to see if they have any record that ties together.

The hut itself while suffering from a fair bit of rot in the windows, is pretty solid, we had a friendly building surveyor who specialises in historic buildings look over it last year, other than the windows, its in good condition for a temporary structure. There is an internal metal frame which effectively ties the walls together, but it's quite discrete.

I'm a trustee of the hut and hold a key and would be very happy to arrange a look around if there's any interest, we're also hoping once we have compiled a bit more info even if it's reasonable speculation to have a coffee morning, again as a chance for a look around and to raise needed funds for ongoing costs.