Crickley Hill in 1938 or thereabouts

This postcard was sent in September 1938 to someone who lived in Southampton. It's remarkable how few trees there are on the lower slopes of the hill and around Cold Slad. There is now pretty thick tree cover on the lower part and the houses in the Slad are hard to see through the trees.

WWII note from the Shurdington School log about Ullenwood ...

Account of the log of the old Primary School in Shurdington, which finally closed in 1980:

"A school garden was cultivated and given over to vegetable production. In November 1941 we learn: "Dinner cooked in the school - meat and four vegetables, pudding and custard - costs 3d. per day. All vegetables except potatoes from the school garden". Older boys were despatched when necessary to collect bean sticks. In August 1941, following an outbreak of scarlet fever, the school was thoroughly disinfected. Despite the upheaval pupils in the same month used their half-hundredweight allocation of sugar to make 200lbs of jam. They also pickled onions and vegetables, selling the fruits of their endeavours to raise funds for the war effort. The arrival of Uncle Sam at Ullenwood and local billets affected daily life in many ways. The log notes that on 24 January 1944 "Our annual collection for the blind has this year reached £7 10s thanks to the splendid help given by the American soldiers at the camp here". Following a short service conducted by the Vicar, VE Day in May 1945 – when bunting and decorations fluttered around the village - was celebrated with a two-day school holiday. A month later on 5 September, the Head writes: "The Japanese surrender was formally signed yesterday, six years ago today we declared war on Germany. So ends the Second World War." Out went the flags again in May 1953 when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. "Village celebrations included three television sets being installed here. These were very much enjoyed until 11.30pm."

Ullenwood in Hansard 1954 ...

Ullenwood was once the subject of a Parliamentary Question and written answer as follows:

"Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham

HC Deb 15 November 1954 vol 533 cc14-5W

Major Hicks Beach asked the Secretary of State for War (1) how much of Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham, is at present being used for military storage and how much of the area for Territorial Army training;

(2) the type of Territorial Army training at present being carried out at Ullenwood Camp, Cheltenham, and the approximate time the camp has been used for such purpose during the past two years.

Mr. Head: This camp used to be a military hospital and consists of about 25 wards and 65 smaller huts. Eleven of the wards are used for storing mobilisation equipment and the huts are used for Territorial Army training. In the past two years, the huts have been used on 19 occasions for week-end training and on 23 occasions to accommodate units moving to or from their annual camps."

90 wards and huts in all? I guess the rest of these were on Mike Cuttell's land at Ullenwood Court.

Major William Hicks Beach was MP for Cheltenham between 1950 and 1964. Antony Head, later first Viscount Head, MP for Carshalton between 1945 and 1960, was Secretary of State for War in both the Churchill and Eden governments between 1951 and 1956.

Further WWII snippet from Alan Drewett's Gloucestershire Transport website

Despite its distance from the embarkation ports used by Operation Overlord, Gloucestershire played a vital role in the preparations for D-Day on 6 June 1944. As well as the GRCW produced Churchills, Sherman tanks were a common sight around Tewkesbury.

The Royal Army Service Corps moved out of its base at Ashchurch ( only built in 1940 and now a British army vehicle depot once again) in July 1942 to make way for the US 3025th, 3026th and 3043rd Ordnance Units as well as the 622 Unit Ordnance Base Automotive Battalion. Within a year, over 2 000 GIs were stationed there - some being billeted at Tewkesbury's Royal Hop Pole Hotel while others found digs with local families.

More US service personnel took over Mythe House, which had previously been occupied by the Healing Family who owned Borough Mill in Tewkesbury. The fine country house became a military hospital, with wounded soldiers being brought to Ashchurch by train and transferred to Mythe House by ambulance. However, such was the damage that the Americans had inflicted on Mythe House by VE Day that it was too expensive to repair and was finally demolished in 1955.

A similar fate almost befell Cheltenham's Pittville Pump Room, where both interior and exterior embellishments were used for target practice and a large stuffed anaconda from a glass case in the Pump Rooms ended up in Pittville lake. The Queen's Hotel, meanwhile, became the American Officer's Club - and played host to such visiting entertainers as Bob Hope - and Imperial Gardens became a truck park. At Ullenwood, the 110th US General Hospital was built to accommodate 2 000 wounded: with every brick, pane of glass, length of timber and bag of cement being imported across the Atlantic.

However, Cheltenham was by this time even more cosmopolitan than usual with uniformed men from the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand and Australia and many of these visited Cheltenham Services Club in Regent Street. This was founded by local philanthropist Cyril Bird " for the moral welfare of Cheltenham as well as the pleasure and well being of the forces." The club was run jointly by Cheltenham Corporation, church groups, the WVS and YMCA.

WW II - when Ullenwood was home to 32nd General Hospital, US Army

I remember being told many years ago that Ullenwood had served as a base for a US Army hospital during World War II. 32nd General Hospital Collection, ca.1918-1997, Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 32nd General Hospital reveals part of Ullenwood's history:

"The 32nd General Hospital began when Willis Gatch, dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine, asked Drs. Cyrus J. Clark (son of Edmund Clark of Base Hospital 32) and Charles F. Thompson to organize a hospital unit late in 1941. On 13 May, 1942, 47 doctors and dentists and 72 nurses were formally inducted into the United States Army during a special convocation held on the grounds of the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis.
The unit was officially activated on 15 January, 1943 at Camp Bowie near Brownwood, Texas under the command of Lt. Col. Frank Alexander, a career Army officer. The doctors and dentists from Indianapolis arrived at Camp Bowie on 18 March and were joined by the nurses on 5 May. The enlisted personnel assigned to the unit came from all parts of the United States. Lt. Col. Cyrus Clark was named chief of medical service, Lt. Col. Charles Thompson became chief of surgical service, and 1st Lt. (Later Maj.) Aurelia Willers served as chief nurse.
The outfit trained at Camp Bowie until August, 1943 when it received orders to move to England. The medical officers and enlisted men sailed from New York to Swansea, Wales aboard the S.S. Borinquin. The nurses first sailed from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the S.S George S. Simmons and then to Scotland aboard the Queen Mary. The unit then reassembled at Fairford, Gloucestshire.
The 32nd General Hospital remained at Fairford from 16 September, 1943 to 9 May, 1944. From 28 September, 1943 to 20 January, 1944, a group of doctors and nurses from the unit, designated as Detachment A, operated a station hospital at Ullenwood, Gloucestershire under the command of Lt. Col. Clark. On 31 January 1944, Lt. Col. Alexander was transfered to the 68th Station Hospital, and Lt. Col. Clark assumed command of the 32nd General Hospital. The unit was stationed at Minchinhampton, Gloucester from 9 May to 27 July, 1944, then shipped out for France.
The 32nd General Hospital was the first Allied general hospital to arrive in France after the D-Day landings. Stationed at La Haye du Puits in Normandy, the unit handled 5,350 patients between 17 August and 22 November, 1944. The 32nd was then placed on inactive status and transferred to Belgium, where it remained until early 1945. During this time, 3 officers and 27 enlisted men of the unit were slightly injured by V-1 and aerial bombings.
The unit became the first U.S. Army general hospital stationed in Germany when it moved into a civilian hospital in Aachen, Germany early in 1945. From 5 March to 30 July, 1945, the hospital treated 41,797 patients. The hospital was closed on 30 July and moved to Mourmelon, France on 12 August, 1945. Most of the personnel then left France at Marseilles aboard the S.S. Marine Angel on 3 October and arrived in New York 12 October, 1945. Other members of the unit sailed from other ports, and some of the officers flew back to the United States. The officers and enlisted men were discharged from the Army at Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana in late October, 1945 and the 32nd General Hospital was officially deactivated."

Notes on Ullenwood from Gloucester Archives ...

Ullenwood is unrecognisable now apart from the perimeter fence and has a very large house built on it and the grounds are still being landscaped: none of the buildings that the diggers lived in remain. I found some of its history on the web:


"Post-War Civil Defence: The Cold War

The Cold War period between 1945 and the 1990s saw Britain and her NATO allies ranged against, the Soviet Bloc. It was marked by constant tension between East and West Europe, and the concurrent threat of nuclear attack, reflected here in the records of local authority Civil Defence committees. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) were involved in protests against both the British independent nuclear deterrent and the presence of American bases in the United Kingdom.

A special “bomb proof” bunker was built after World War II at Ullenwood, for use as a control and command centre in the event of a nuclear war. It was constructed on the site of a U.S. military hospital that had been used during both World Wars, the old wooden huts remaining around the bunker area. The County Council purchased the site in 1963 for use by its Emergency Planning section, which administered it until 1994. Gloucestershire Archives used it for storage from 1993-1997 (being responsible for its administration from 1994-97), after which it was administered by Fire & Rescue and used for training purposes until sold by the County Council in 2003."