Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The hangar and Lofty's house at Ullenwood

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© English Heritage.NMR.

I am again indebted to English Heritage National Monuments Record for permission to reproduce photographs of Ullenwood. These were taken in July 1999 by Michael Hesketh-Roberts as part of a survey by RCHME/EH of the defence installations built in Britain between 1946 and 1989. July 1999, "Cold War project". This photo is described as "Accommodation huts at the south-east side of site. This anti-aircraft operations room was subsequently a Sub-Regional Government HQ."

Crickley aficionados would say it shows the hangar, the bunker and the back of Lofty's house which was directly behind the end of the mess or dining hall. According to Wikipedia: "The word hangar comes from a northern French dialect, and means "cattle pen."

JP says there used to be a mortuary trolley that he thinks probably was found in the hangar which was handy for transporting hut components and such-like from winter storage to the flat-bed truck for transport up to site at the beginning of the season.

My memory of the hangar ends with me briefly in casualty at Cheltenham General to be patched up after injuring the top of my left thumb while struggling to open the rusted door to get at the kit we needed.

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