History

The Early History of Quedgeley

field courtThe Parish of Quedgeley lies on the left-hand bank of the River Severn 3 miles south of the centre of Gloucester. The proximity of the city and the course of the main Gloucester-Bristol road through the middle of the parish have greatly influenced its development. The suggestion, based on the evidence of field-names and the division of the open fields, that Quedgeley parish was an agglomeration of parts of other parishes is supported by the fact that part of the tithes of Quedgeley was owed to the church of Whaddon. Quedgeley church or chapel, and by inference some form of parochial independence, had been established by 1095.

Until 1882 Quedgeley was an irregularly shaped parish of c 1,450 a., including several small detached parts. In the south-east small pieces of the parish lying intermingled with pieces of Whaddon, Brookthorpe, Harescombe, and Haresfield represented holdings in shared open fields that were enclosed in 1841 and 1866. On the north Quedgeley included a peninsula reaching into Hempsted and containing Netheridge. The eastern boundary of the parish followed for a mile a brook sometimes known as the Qued’ brook; the western boundary was and is marked by the Severn and by the Dimor (or Fishers) brook. The small irregularities in the boundary were adjusted in 1882 and 1885; in 1885 also the peninsula of Netheridge was transferred to Hempsted. In 1900 Lower Tuffley was added to Quedgeley, but in 1935 the 135 a, of Lower Tuffley were transferred to Gloucester and Quedgeley gained 130 a., including Field Court, from Hardwicke. In 1951 a further 271 a., of Quedgeley, northeast of the Qued’ brook were added to Gloucester, and in 1954 Quedgeley gained 96 a., from Hempsted, giving it an area of 1,419 a. The account that follows, however, related (except where otherwise stated) to the area that the parish comprised up to 1882.

The western part of Quedgeley, known as the hamlet of Woolstrop, was by 1252 in Dudstone and King’s Barton, not Whitstone, hundred. The northern peninsula of Netheridge was represented on maps as also part of Dudstone and King’s Barton hundred, perhaps because it was regarded as part of Woolstrop hamlet, but from 1775 it paid land-tax as part of Whitstone hundred with the rest of Quedgeley.The parish is flat and rises at its highest only to the 100-ft. contour. It is entirely on the Lower Lias, on which there are gravel patches, and the land, which is particularly good pasture, was for long mainly meadow and pasture.

The brook known locally as the Qued’, probably the same as the one called Townsworth Brook in the Middle Ages, which marked part of the eastern boundary, crosses the northern part of the parish, and several other small streams intersect the parish. From 1939 onwards a large proportion of the land, amounting to 551 a. in 1967, was acquired by the Air Ministry for an R.A.F. maintenance unit.

The main road through the parish was called the king’s way in the Middle Ages, and in 1599 the parishioners of Quedgeley were said to have failed to repair it. Near the north boundary of the parish the road crossed the Qued brook by a wooden bridge in 1675, probably the one called Wain Bridge in 1538 and 1683. The road was a turnpike from 1726 to 1877. Several lanes run east and west from the main road. Towards the east, Tuffley Lane at the north end of the parish for a short stretch marked the parish boundary and so may be presumed to be ancient, but it ceased to be a through road c 1958 when Cole Avenue, part of the Gloucester ring road, was built, crossing Tuffley Lane to join the Bristol road at a roundabout; Naas Lane at the south end of the parish is likely to have been there a long time before 1824, when it was marked on a map. Towards the west Sim’s Lane is apparently the same as the Crockens Lane named in the Middle Ages, while Elmore Lane may have been made later; the lane to Longney, later called School Lane, went north of the church in the early 19th century but had been moved south of it by 1841.

Little Thatch PubQuedgeley is likely to have originated as a roadside settlement. The church and the site of Woolstrop manor are close together ¼ mile west of the Bristol road, but there is no evidence of a nucleated village there. Although a few houses that were pulled down in School Lane near the church are said to have been old, the main settlement has been strung out along the Bristol road, including most of the older surviving houses, which date from the 16th century or earlier. A triangular green of 35 a., called Great Green, stretched north from the church on both sides of the main road until enclosure in 1841, and a smaller green along the road in the north of the parish was called Howbones or Holborn Green. In 1675 the settlement was described as ‘Quedgeley Green, a discontinued village’. Later, a piece of former green was used for a recreation ground and a parish pound. Away from the main road the older houses include Quedgeley Manor Farm, ½ mile SE of the church and former green, and Netheridge.

The older houses in Quedgeley, widely spaced in ones and twos along the road, are timber-framed, and some retain thatched roofs. The Little Thatch (see right), earlier called Queen Anne’s Farm and Read’s Farm, is a small timber-framed and thatched house built on an L-shaped plan, of two stories and gabled. It was enlarged in the 19th century, and in 1967 was used as a restaurant. A tradition that Anne Boleyn stayed there has not been verified. Packer’s Cottage is another timber-framed house that retains its thatch. It is apparently of the 16th century and is a long rectangular building, with later additions, of one story with an attic.

In 1327 12 people were recorded at Quedgeley and 2 at Woolstrop. Numbers appear to have increased between the mid 16th century and the mid 17th: there were 69 communicants in 1551, and 123 in 1603; 28 households were recorded were recorded in 1563, 44 adult men in 1608, and 40 families in 1650. The estimated population in the 18th century remained constant at c 170, but by 1801 it was 203. The population increased steadily to 297 in 1831, rose again to 401 in 1851 after a slight fall, and then again grew steadily to the end of the century. After 1891 the available figures are for an area other than that of the ancient parish. The first boundary changes did not significantly affect the population, but from 1901 to 1931 the figures include the inhabitants of Lower Tuffley and during that period numbers rose from 639 to 912. There was a further rapid increase between 1951 and 1961, when there were 1,121 inhabitants in the civil parish.

The growth of Quedgeley in terms of building is represented by an increase from 27 houses in 1801 to 80 in 1861. Most of the new houses were along the main road, built of brick in pairs or detached, and many of them later became roadside guesthouses. In the late 19th century and early 20th small brick houses were built along Sims Lane, Elmore Lane and Naas Lane. After the establishment of the R.A.F. maintenance unit in 1939 houses were built for its staff east of the main road and north of Naas Lane. A group of old peoples bungalows was built c 1962 near the church. An estate mainly of pairs of houses was built off Sims Lane in the sixties, when a large amount of land in the parish was designated for further building. In 1967 there were two caravan sites near the Bristol Road roundabout, one of which was associated with Quedgeley Court, a large brick house built c 1880 and converted into flats.

Gloucester CanalIn the same area, along the Bristol road, much of the land was developed in the nineteen fifties and sixties as commercial and industrial sites. The parish is crossed by the Gloucester and Barkeley Canal, begun in 1794 and opened to traffic in 1827. Sims Lane and Elmore Lane cross the canal by swing bridges. The main railway line south from Gloucester, crossing the east side of the parish, was opened in 1844. From the 1920s Quedgeley has been served by a regular bus service between Bristol and Gloucester. Main water, electricity, and gas were available in Quedgeley by 1935, but in 1967 there was no main sewerage.

In 1884 Quedgeley had a beer house and an inn called the Boat Inn, both on the Bristol road. By 1889 the Boat Inn was called the ‘Plough’, which was the only inn in 1889 and in 1967.

A village hall was opened in the 1930s on the Bristol road near School Lane, on land given by Miles Curtis-Hayward. It was destroyed by fire in 1959 and a new hall was opened on the same site in 1962. A Red Cross centre, opened in the former school building in 1945, had closed by 1967.

In 1264 the constable of Gloucester, acting as sheriff, summoned John Giffard of Brimsfield, whom he hoped to capture, to a meeting of the hundred court at Quedgeley; John went there but with armed supporters who killed some of those present and drove away the constable. In 1535 Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn passed through Quedgeley after visiting Gloucester and were met on Quedgeley Green by representatives of the city.

Manors and Other Estates

It has been suggested that Quedgeley, which was not mentioned by name in the Domesday survey, was represented by part of the 3 hides that were included in Gloucester Abbey’s Standish estate, and were held in 1086 by Durand the sheriff. Quedgeley may have been included alternatively or partly in Durand’s Haresfield estate. Durand’s nephew, Walter of Gloucester, held Quedgeley in 1095, and it passed to Walter’s son Miles of Gloucester, Earl of Hereford. In 1165 it was divided between Mile’s daughters Margaret, wife of Humphrey de Bohun, who had 2/3 of the manor of Qudegeley, and Lucy, wife of Herbert Fitzherbert, who had 1/3. Both Margaret and Lucy granted their parts of the manor to Llanthony Priory, and although Margaret de Bohun later regained possession of her part in exchange for land in South Cerney, she restored it to Llanthony Priory before her death. The priory retained the manor until the Dissolution.

The manor, held at farm by Arthur Porter in 1535 under a grant to John Mallet, was granted in fee to William Dodington in 1565. William was succeeded in 1600 by his son, Sir William (d.1638). Sir William is said to have been succeeded by his son William, who killed his mother with a sword, but at Quedgeley as in his Hampshire estates Sir William was succeeded by his younger son John (d.1647), who was lord of Quedgeley in 1639 and 1640. John was succeeded by two daughters, of whom Anne (d.1691) married first Robert Greville, Lord Brooke (d.1676), and secondly Thomas Hoby. In 1692 Thomas Hoby sold Quedgeley manor to Henry Chapman, whose daughter Anne was the owner in the early 18th century.

Woolstrop FarmhouseShe married Thomas Whorwood who with his wife Elizabeth was dealing with the manor in 1717, and after his death in 1736 his son Thomas sold Quedgeley manor to John Yate of Arlingham. By 1775 the manor was owned by Robert Gorges Dobyns Yate (d.1785), whose son Walter Honeywood Yate sold the manor with about half the land in 1800 to John Beach of Hardwicke. John Beach was succeeded in 1821 by his son John; the younger John or his representatives sold the manor c 1867 to Col. John Curtis-Hayward, the owner of Woolstrop manor. The manor house and farm were sold by John Frederick Curtis-Hayward c 1903 and passed to several owners before 1939 when the Air Ministry bought them, but in 1967 the Curtis-Hayward family still owned the manorial rights.

The manor house is represented by Manor Farm, which stands on a large moated site east of the Bristol road. There was apparently a house there in the mid 12th century. The surviving house is a large two-storied building with an H-shaped plan. The southern cross-wing dates from the 19th century but the central block and the northern wing have timber-framed walls concealed by brickwork or roughcast rendering. The northern wing, which appears to have been built in the early 16th century, is the more elaborately finished internally. A ground-floor room has heavily moulded ceiling beams.

The upper floor consists of a large room of four bays with richly carved brackets supporting the roof trusses, the formerly open roof being concealed by a later coved ceiling, and two external doorways may have led to a wardrobe and an outside stair. The central block is of close-studded framing with a continuous rail at first floor level. The rail and the fact that the block contains no indications of a medieval open hall suggest that it was built or re-modelled as a two-storied structure at a slightly later date than the northern wing; a projection on the west side may have housed the staircase. In 1524 the Prior of Llanthony held his court in the parlour above the hall, perhaps the upper room in the northern wing. It is also possible that the northern wing represents the manor place recorded in 1538, while the newly built house called the farmer’s place, from which the manor place was then distinguished, may have been the central block with, perhaps, a contemporary south wing. There is no other evidence of more than one house associated with the manor.

Arthur Porter is likely to have been living at Manor Farm in 1532, and he may have been responsible for building the central block. In the 17th and 18th centuries the house was occupied by tenants, and in 1672 it was the house with 9 hearths of Mr Clissold. John Beach built a new cross-wing at the southern end of the hall in 1811; it has a parapeted, stuccoed south front. A dovecot mentioned in the early 17th century may have been demolished then. The house was occupied by its owners in the late 19th century; in the First World War it was used first as a cavalry depot and then as a ploughing school, and after the war it became a training centre for ex-servicemen. It was later divided into two dwellings, and so remained in 1967.

In the mid 12th century Roger Little confirmed grants by his mother, Margaret Mautravers, to Llanthony Priory of lands in Quedgeley. As at Moreton Valence, the Little’s estate may have passed to the Pontlarges. Walter de Pontlarge had land in Quedgeley at an unknown date, and Robert de Pontlarge at his death in or before 1246 held the manor of WOOLSTROP in chief. Although Robert’s heir was said to be his brother Ralph, after William de Pontlarge who had been outlawed, it was William who granted Woolstrop to William de Valence before 1252. Although in 1276 William de Pontlarge was said to have withdrawn the suit of court owed for his 3 yardlands in Woolstrop, William de Valence evidently retained Woolstrop along with Moreton Valence manor, for Gilbert Talbot (d. 1418), the successor of William de Valence, was said to have held Woolstrop manor.

By the later 13th century, however, Woolstrop had been subinfeudated to the Walsh family. In 1303 William, son and heir of William Walsh, referred to the custom in the time of his ancestors, lords of Woolstrop. In or before 1329 William Walsh of Woolstrop died holding not only Netheridge, as mentioned below, but also a plough-land in Woolstrop, said to be held in chief, for which he owed a rent which had been owed by Robert de Pontlarge and later by William de Pontlarge, and in 1396 Giles Walsh held 1/8 fee in Woolstrop of Richard Talbot. Woolstrop evidently descended with Netheridge in the Walsh family until the 15th or 16th century; it was settled by James Walsh (d. before 1498) on himself and his wife Cecily, who by 1509 had married David Jones.

The manor in 1597 was said to have been recovered from a Mr Walsh, and was the subject of a suit by Richard Atkyns, who claimed that Thomas Kenn had failed to perform a contract to convey it to him. Atkyns was unsuccessful for in 1670 George Kenn apparently Thomas’s grandson, sold Woolstrop manor to William Hayward (d.1696). Hayward’s son William died in 1709 and his wife Margaret (d. 1742) held the manor in 1713. Their son Thomas took possession in 1732 and died in 1781. The estate then passed in turn to two of Thomas Hayward’s sons, Charles (d. 1803) and William, who assumed the additional surname Winstone. William Hayward Winstone was succeeded in 1818 by his daughter, Albinia Frances, who had married the Revd. John Adey Curtis.

She later assumed the name Curtis-Hayward and died in 1860. Their son, Col. John Curtis-Hayward, owned the estate until his death in 1874, when it passed to his son John Frederick Curtis-Hayward, (d. 1923), and then to Reginald Curtis-Hayward, nephew of the previous owner. He sold it in 1939 to the Quedgeley Estate Co., and in 1967 Glevum Estates Ltd., was the owner.The moated site west of the church in the grounds of Quedgeley House is presumably that of Woolstrop manor, but no part of a house survives there. In 1672 William Hayward had a house with 11 hearths in Woolstrop, and in the early 18th century his son was said to have a ‘pleasant seat’ at Woolstrop.

Quedgeley HouseIn the late 18th century a new house was built to the northwest, Woolstrop House, later called Quedgeley House, is a square, two-storied building of ashlar with a slate roof. It had a porch, later demolished, beneath a triangular pediment on the north front, a platband at floor level, wide eaves to its hipped roof, and a large two-storey bay in the middle of the south front. About 1820 the house was enlarged by the addition on the west side of a three-storied stuccoed extension. In the mid 20th century it was converted into 12 flats.

In 1219 Nicholas Avenell had an estate in Netheridge, which Robert Avenell gave to Hugh of Kingsholm. By 1255 Hugh had given it to Adam de Valence; it was held from Llanthony Priory. The same estate was held by William Walsh of Dinham (Mon.) at his death in 1274 or 1275 and from Llanthony Priory by another William Walsh at his death in or before 1329, when it amounted to one yardland. The second William’s son and heir Andrew acquired land in Woolstrop from Thomas Berkeley in 1335. In 1360 Giles Walsh succeeded his father Andrew in one plough-land in Netheridge; he was himself succeeded in 1419 by his son James, who had three yardlands in 1431. A later James Walsh, son of William, was succeeded before 1498 by his son William; William died in 1524 and his son Anthony did homage for Netheridge the same year. Another James Walsh had three yardlands in Quedgeley before 1550, when they were held by his son William Walsh. Before 1579, however, Christopher Walsh alleged that he was the son and heir of Anthony, who had held Netheridge manor and 80 a. of land in Quedgeley.

Christopher made a settlement of the manor in 1572, and had been succeeded by Arnold Walsh by 1584. Arnold sold Netheridge manor to Jasper Selwyn in 1605, and by 1630 the 80 a. of the estate was held by five tenants, of whom Robert Bishop (d. 1634) had 50 a., as freeholders of Quedgeley manor. Netheridge farm was afterwards owned with Quedgeley manor, but before 1800 it passed to John Beach, and by 1821 was owned by William Beach, the owner in 1841. In 1846 Beach sold Netheridge with 85 a. to Samuel Lysons, whose successors, Mrs Gertrude Savery Lysons and the Revd. D. G. Lysons, sold the estate in 1899 to Maj. J. D. Birchall of Upton St. Leonard’s; Birchall’s representatives sold Netheridge with 120 a. in 1943 to Gloucester Corporation, which between 1955 and 1963 built on part of the land a large sewage-pumping station and treatment plant.

The site of Netheridge Farm is apparently ancient; the surviving house is of brick on a rectangular plan under a double-ridged roof. The southern half has some timber framing visible inside, and may have been built in the 17th century, with the northern half added in the early 19th century. The house has been considerably altered and modernized.

The rectory of Quedgeley, including all the tithes, except a part belonging to the church of Whaddon, belonged to Llanthony Priory until the Dissolution. It was leased to William Dodington in 1569 and by 1603 was owned with the manor. The rectory estate passed to Robert Greville, Lord Brooke, through his marriage with Anne Dodington, but whereas Anne’s second husband sold the manor the rectory passed to Charles Montagu, Duke of Manchester, who had married Dodington Greville, Lord Brooke’s daughter.

The Dukes of Manchester owned the rectory until shortly before 1775 when it belonged to the Revd. Mr. Ganey. By 1780 it had passed to the Revd. J. Fletcher, from whose son it passed c 1818 to Mrs. Curtis-Hayward. In 1840 the tithes were commuted for a corn-rent; a small part of the tithes then belonged to Thomas Lediard.

A rent of £12 from the rectory which the Crown retained was granted in 1650 to Matthew Packer of Quedgeley, who in 1655 assigned it to William Osborne who in turn assigned it the same year to Giles Gardner. In 1667 £12 from the rectory was part of fQueen Catherine’s jointure, but by 1775 had been united with the rectory estate.

National Shell Filling Factory Number 5

RAF BuildingThe early part of the history of the site tells of the hard, uncomfortable and dangerous work of filling shells with high explosives to feed the insatiable appetite of the guns of the Great War until they fell silent in 1918. It recalls the calm between the Wars and the rapid build-up of the aircraft supply depot just before the outbreak of the Second World War. 90 years ago, during October 1915 building work commenced on a 308 acre site that was to become a major employer in the area and a large contributor to the war effort in Gloucester. Officially known as the National Shell Filling Factory No 5, the Quedgeley factory was one of the 5 Quick Firing establishments around Britain, setup by the Ministry of Munitions under David Lloyd George to meet the ever-increasing demand for more ammunition.

Output began in March 1917 on the site, in some two hundred and fifty buildings, mostly constructed of wood,with some 6,364 people from the surrounding area being employed. The women required, some 5,644, were drawn from Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and neighbouring villages, many arrived at the sites by train to the small train station built on the site by The Midland Railway Company, or got to work on many of the buses that were laid on.The recruitment of male labour was a less easy matter, as the factory had to compete with several engineering works in Gloucester, who were also engaged in War related jobs.

The wage for ammunition workers was £1 for a 48-hour week in 1916, and a 3rd class weekly return rail ticket cost 2s 2d (11p in today’s money) from Cheltenham or Stroud. Even working with such dangerous materials as gunpowder, cordite and TNT, there was no difficulty in finding the numbers needed to fill the jobs. These workers could always be easily identified by the clip clop of their wooden clogs as they went to work.

RAF PeopleThey wore wood to reduce the likelihood of sparks, a good move when you consider the materials they were using, If not heard they could be easily identified by their orange-yellow faces and hands. This coloration was caused by TNT dust used in the shell filling and assembly work, and by today’s health and safety at work laws would be classed as potentially dangerous to one’s health. The possibility of an explosion was always feared and consequently precautions were taken to prevent workers taking matches or any materials connected with smoking into any dangerous areas

Similar to underground coal miners each was required to declare that they were “clear” to the policeman on duty at the entrance to each danger area, and ran the risk of being searched if any doubt existed, not a bad job for a policeman when you consider that 5,644 women worked there! The penalty for default was a substantial fine or even a prison sentence with hard labour, as about 25 offending men discovered to their cost.

Records of what happened to the women found breaking the rules, however, never came to light, or the policemen never said what took place!!

RAF TrailerPictured is a piece of the old equipment used on the site and was ‘saved’ from the site, it’s through to be part of a fire unit, note it was pulled by people not horses or motorised equipment and is a garden feature in someone’s front garden.

The site was divided into danger and non- danger areas. The danger area was at the North, near to Cole Avenue, and was divided in two sites by a central railway line for unloading and loading equipment. After production had been going for about a year and the initial urgency for ammunition had been satisfied life on the camp settled down and a good social side started, with many “friendly” rugby games taking place at the Kingsholm ground and with proceeds benefiting the local hospital, where some of the injured from the “friendly” games ended up. The whole site was nearly self contained. It had everything, a large canteen to feed all the workers, a shoemaker who was responsible for repairing more than 5,000 pairs of shoes, a large changing rooms for the workers to exchange their day clothes for overalls or the special danger-building clothing and it even had its own laundry which was capable of washing 2,000 workers’ suits each week,. The laundry was a large wooden shed which after the war was bought by a Mr Norman Hickman, who built a brick bungalow around the wooden frame, the house on Naas Lane where his son Tony Hickman the Fuchsia grower still lives.

RAF ShellsWith the ending of the Great War in November 1918 operations at the factory soon came to a halt and the shell-fillers demobilised, having “done their bit”.

The output of ammunition had been phenomenal, over TEN and a HALF MILLION, 14 and 16 inch shells filled and assembled, SEVEN MILLION cartridges and TWENTY-THREE MILLION fuses and other components filled. It was hoped other uses could be found for the sites but it was not to be. Work began in 1924 to demolish the buildings and took two years to complete. It closed in 1926, with the land being retained by the Ministry of Defence as “War Department Land” and certain areas being leased to local farmers.

A History of The RAF in World War 2

To quote Winston Churchill’s phrase “The gathering storm”, was building up over Europe during 1936 with the antics of a certain Mr Hitler in Germany. So to the background of a worsening European situation the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, started to increase Britain’s military capability. Consequently the 1930’s saw a rapid expansion of the Royal Air Force with modernisation of the nations’ striking force to meet both home and overseas eventualities. This resulted in a requirement for an urgent increase in stock holdings of equipment and places to store it.

RAF GatehouseIn line with the policy to provide storage throughout the Country, land at Quedgeley was bought by the Air Ministry and called No 7 Maintenance Unit, RAF Quedgeley, shortened by most to RAF 7MU, the name it held to the day it closed. It was one of 7 equipment depots planned and built as part of the RAF’s expansion scheme before World War 2 and opened on 15 April 1939. One of its’ first tasks was to issue motor transport and supporting equipment to No 87 Squadron, a Hurricane Fighter Squadron before its departure to France in 1939.

The depot was now rapidly taking shape, and increasing in size. Buildings were springing up on all the 8 sites. Steel erectors, concrete mixers and labour gangs worked day and night to complete the task as war with Germany was inevitable. The 40,000 square foot storage hangers, some of exactly same shape, colour and size are at Hullavington in Wiltshire and in many other military locations. Stores of all types were arriving hourly, if it had a roof on it something was stored underneath it. The MT section, (motor transport), stored hundreds of vehicles out in the open all around the area up to their axles in mud, often to be dragged out into convoys of 30 plus, to be driven, often in darkness to the docks prior to shipment overseas. They were often driven by well known drivers, such as Fred Rimmell, the famous National Hunt trainer. One vehicle which often used to cause problems was a trailer called a Queen Mary Trailer. It was so long, some 60 foot, that it could carry a complete airplane ( minus the wings) on it and got its name because it was so big.

The winter of 1939-40 was very severe, none of the storage sheds had any form of heating. It appears the thought of open fires in the buildings was frowned on, not surprisingly when you think what they were dealing with. It was so cold that as there were no ballpoint pens in those days they used ink which froze in the ink pots and in true military style skipping ropes were issued to help keep the staff warm. During the height of the war, there was a total of 1,118 Service Officers, NCO’s and airman and 3,400 civilians employed on the site. Most of the staff working on the administration side of the camp were based in Avionics House.

RAF Group PhotoIn addition to the RAF Regiment that was stationed there it had its share of ‘visitors’, German and 270 Italian prisoners of war, were also detained with “free accommodation” at Quedgeley Court and “helped out” at the base.

In addition to our own British stock it had American aircraft spares that were stored there with the depot operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week helping the Nation take on the might of the German army and Air force.

It was never attacked directly by the Germans although it’s known it was photographed by the German Air Force. The photographs exist at the Imperial War Museum, but luckily they didn’t realise what the site was producing or storing the odd bomb or two were dropped onto the surrounding area.

RAF Queen’s VisitHowever one or two accidents did happen on the site. The worse appears to have been a Spitfire that crashed into a storage shed, killing the pilot and a woman that worked on the site. In 1949, the then Commanding Officer, Group Captain Read committed suicide in his room in the Officers’ Mess and was given a military funeral and was laid to rest in St James churchyard. There was also a massive fire on no 1 site where a large amount of aircraft tyres were stored and caught alight. The site was honored during the war years with a visit from HM Queen Mary during 1941.

Amongst the vast range of items that were stored there were uniforms, paint, fabrics for airframes, ground equipment, clothing, American spares, parachutes (these were packed on site by RAF personnel), armaments in all forms, bomb racks, gun turrets, sten guns, hispano cannon, medical items, AGS (aircraft general spares), parts for Hurricanes, Hind, Hector, complete Spitfires in kit form, Typhoon, Tempests, Lysander, Defiant, Oxford Gladiator, Tiger Moths, American Harvards, Lockheed Hudson, Ventura, Whitley, Wellington, Beaufort, Beaufighter, Anson , Mosquito and of course enough spare parts to build another “guardian of the gate” that used to protect the main gate of RAF Quedgeley, The Gloster Meteor, model WF 784.

RAF PlaneIt was this MK7 Meteor which saw service in Germany from 1951 to 1954, at a ferry training unit from 1956 to 1958 and it was based at the Royal Air Force Flying collage from 1959 to 1962. Finally it was a target towing aircraft until 1963 when it was “retired” to Quedgeley.

In 1945, RAF Quedgeley saw its third role take place, that of an accommodation storeage site for furniture and other non-urgent items. A role it did well until its closure. Who in the village can forget the stations 50th anniversary party, back in 1989 and the comments from the then station commander, Group Captain M C G Wilson about the role the site had paid in its long life, and where from nowhere, thousands of plastic chairs appeared for everyone to have a seat to listen to the bands in the bright sunshine?

They had every conceivable item of furniture and household effects you could imagine, you wanted a chair – what colour? a dinner plate – what size ?, a bed for how many ?, a telephone, some electric kettles, an odd carpet or two, knives forks spoons and yes, even the odd kitchen sink or two, the list was endless. They had the lot, and who knows what was hidden away in some old packing case, treasurers from some far-flung outpost of the British Empire? No, more than likely just some old bits of rubbish. However In one of the hangers hidden underground were some very special boxes belonging to the Air Historical Branch of the MOD which contained many items of military silver belonging to disbanded squadrons and units. It also held VVIP Packs ( Very Very Important Persons). These contained things like a red carpet, silver table settings and everything a VIP needed when they visited another country. These boxes were collected from the site and sent around the world when VIP’s, including Royality went on visits. During 1955 32 houses were built on the site as married quarters and named after one of the station commanding officers Group Captain Needham, hence Needhams Avenue. The older of Quedgeley people will recall that if you dialled 999 to report a fire the engine and fire team based at RAF Quedgeley would turn out first.

On 2nd April 1982 the Argentineans invaded the Falkland Islands and again RAF Quedgeley sprung to life and started to supply our troops again. Some items did cause a few strange looks, one being a a large demand for masking tape. This it appeared to be for the windows in the Canberra and other ships requisitioned as part of the task force, as a precaution against any flying glass from the windows. They were however prepared for the demand for sick bowls. Which local charity can say it didn’t benefit from the help given to it by the staff at the camps charity collections, its’ car boot sales or its’ November 5th Fireworks displays. The camp had a long association with the guide dogs for the blind. This arose when a young woman that worked on the site became blind and the staff there realised that a guide dog would be of great benefit and enable her and others to keep a degree of independence. This association continued for nearly 30 years with 14 guide dogs being sponsored by the workers.The camp employees repaid the area of Quedgeley, Hardwicke and the country well.

However it was with great sadness to the staff of the camp, and the Quedgeley area that Group Captain. D R G Forsyth announced to all on 15th December 1993, that operations at the station were to end by 31st March 1998. However due to more cost cuttings it closed earlier on 13th February 1995. The Guardian of the gate, the Meteor plane, on the closure of the base was transferred to become the Guardian of the gate at RAF Innsworth, which like RAF Quegeley faces closure.

RAF Quedgeley Today

The camps have closed, but reminders remain. Many of the large green storage hangers are still there now used by many companies for storage etc.

In the Quedgeley Social Club, a few reminders remain. The scroll takes pride of place on the club wall telling the history of RAF Quedgeley, and the name, The Qunity Bar. It’s not a spelling mistake, it was the name of the camp’s own social club The Qunity Club, Qu.- Quedgeley, nity- United.

RAF BellRAF ScrollEven in St James’ Church a piece of the site’s history can be found, it hangs on the wall and was the old brass fire bell that used to hang outside the main gatehouse to the camp. The Plaque under it reads ‘For nearly 60 years this bell hung outside the main gatehouse of No 7 M.U. RAF Quedgeley. It hangs there now to honour the very many civilian workers who served the station until its closure in 1996. The Church is also where the camp’s standard is laid up.

All the sites have now been sold off and form the basis of the ever growing Kingsway estate being built by various developers under the collective banner of Quedgeley Urban Village Limited.

As of mid 2014 it is estimated that about 2,500 properties are currently built and occupied. On completion the estate will consist of some 3,500 properties.

RAF TreesRAF BuildingAlready Kingsway Primary School and Waterwells Primary Academy are both flourishing. will open in September 2013. The estate also has some small retail shops, a Marston’s pub & restaurant “The Barn Owl” and several play areas and open spaces.

An ASDA store is now open and building is nearly complete of the new community centre, a sports pavilion and a BMX track which are due to open in September 2014.

Tree Preservation Orders have helped protect many of the older mature trees and the long sweeping row of trees on its Eastern side acts as a good sound barrier between the new housing and railway line.

The Kingsway Resident’s Association brings together people on the estate and to help build a community.

The War Memorial

Well known local character Richard Cale recalls;

“In 1920 The War Memorial was erected in Quedgeley Churchyard and paid for by public subscription. My Grandparents, Uncle and Father were invited to the dedication. A few years ago the memorial was restored and once more our family stood just as they did all those years ago. It was a moving time for us as it was for the other families who have relatives on the memorial War memorialas well.

There are two other family names which stand out on Quedgeley’s memorial to me. My family knew them both; they were Becall and Carter. Mr Becall was Quedgeley’s first Headmaster; he came to Quedgeley in the late 1800’s and was Head to my father, aunty and uncle. His son’s name is on there. Mr Carter’s Family farmed Woolstrop Farm which is now replaced by houses but whose name lives on in the street name “Carter’s Orchard”. He finished haymaking then went and joined up his niece told me who now lives in Redmarley. The family are buried in Quedgeley Churchyard.”

There is a book of rememberance in Quedgeley Church written by Rev Stickland a previous Rector of the parish and a framed roll of honour to remember the fallen is just inside the church.

Please share with us your memories and any information you may have about the fallen who this memorial proudly remembers.

Economic History

In 1292 the demesne of the Prior of Llanthony comprised three plough-lands. Exchanges of small pieces of open-field land in the Middle Ages may indicate consolidation of the demesne. In 1502 parts of former demesne were granted to copyhold tenants, whose labour services were remitted. The change apparently accompanied a swing from arable to pasture: in 1517 the prior was said to have enclosed and converted 50 a. of arable in 1510; the prior said that the conversion was less extensive and happened earlier. The demesne of Woolstrop manor comprised two plough-lands in 1246; in 1329 William Walsh’s plough-land in Woolstrop was 110 a. of arable and 6 a. of meadow, while in Netheridge he had a yardland of 40 a. and 4 a. of meadow.

Other free tenants included several surnamed freemen in the 14th century. In 1327 Edmund the freeman seems to have had only a small holding, but the holdings of others, Philip the freeman and Roger the freeman, may have been larger. Philip of Quedgeley in the 13th century was a free tenant of the lord of Netheridge manor. His land passed to his son, Henry Culverbrid, and then to William Culverbrid. One free tenement, in the 13th or 14th century, was in Woolstrop. Apart from the lords of Netheridge there was only one free tenant of Quedgeley manor c 1400 and in 1538.

Almost no record has been found of customary or servile tenure before the 16th century; tithes of villains were mentioned in the 12th century, and the villains of Woolstrop held 2½ yardlands in 1246. In 1502 Llanthony Priory granted a house and land formerly held by a neif to Richard Chapman, his wife Elizabeth, and his son John for their lives in survivorship: Richard was to hold as though he were a free tenant, but after his death the holding was to owe the customary dues. The manumission of a neif was recorded in 1514.

Some of the open fields on the edge of the parish had the same names as the fields of neighbouring parishes, perhaps suggesting that they had originated as fragments of fields belonging to other settlements. A notable example was Westfield, which lay east of Quedgeley. Other fields were shared by Quedgeley with its neighbours, presumably for the same reason, Canmore, for example, with Elmore, and Whaddon’s Hill with Whaddon. Quedgeley’s open fields, recorded from the 13th century, were numerous and small. In 1605 there were 14 arable fields, of which the largest were Sandfield and Westfield.

Dawes FarmhouseDespite exchanges of open-field land, mentioned above, and enclosure by Llanthony Priory in the early 16th century, much of the land in 1605 lay in pieces of 1 a., ½ a., or ¼ a. There was piecemeal enclosure during the next two centuries: in 1719 an orchard stood on former arable and in 1790 there were several new enclosures and consolidated pieces of open-field land. By 1840 the greater part of the parish, including apparently the whole of Woolstrop was enclosed, and the number of fields had fallen to four.

The common meadows and pastures, like the open fields, were small and numerous, including Southmead or Southmore beside the river, Broadmead, Longmead, Horsebrook, and Cattleland. The extent of common meadow and pasture may have decreased through enclosure by the 16th century. In 1605, in a survey of customary tenants’ land, only five common meadows and pastures were mentioned, and much of the tenants’ meadow and pasture was in closes. In the 16th century the communing of cattle in Broadmead was stinted. In 1841, when one common meadow was enclosed, the landholders claimed right of common without stint in all the land to be enclosed.

Hemp, hops, and flax were grown in Quedgeley in the 17th century. In the early 18th century the parish was said to consist of good meadow, pasture, and arable, and c 1775 of meadow, pasture, and orcharding. In 1794 only 250 a. and in 1795 only 262 a. were sown, with wheat, barley, and beans, and in 1803 the parish was said to be mainly meadow and pasture.

In 1605 Quedgeley manor included two leaseholds for lives, of which the larger was 26 a., and there were 23 copyhold tenants. Holdings varied from 30 a. to a few acres of arable, mostly between 10 a. and 20 a., with about half as much meadow and pasture. Some included two or three messuages and less than 20 a., suggesting that they were amalgamations of even smaller holdings. Some tenants had more than one estate. Copyhold tenants held for up to three lives, and owed fines, rents, and heriots in kind. They were not allowed to sublet without licence.

During the 17th and 18th centuries there was a decline in the number of landholders, and a corresponding increase in the average size of the farms. Copyholds were apparently enfranchised in the later 17th century, and the latest known record of a copyhold was 1692. In 1795 18 landholders were recorded in Quedgeley, and in 1841 the number was c 20. At that time the manor farm was 313 a., three others including Netheridge were between 134 c. and 170 a., and the rest were c 50 a. or less.

The enclosure award of 1841 dealt with only 24 a. of open arable and meadow, lying in Long Meadow in the north, Nash field, Long Hill and Little Hasbrook field in the southeast, and Whaddons Hill on the east side of the parish. Twenty-five people received allotments, mostly of fractions of 1 a. A second award of 1866 dealt with small parts of the parish that lay intermingled with the land of several other parishes on the east.

In 1875 Manor farm was 327 a., two others owned by the Curtis-Haywards were 175 a. together, and two more were respectively 84 a. and 90 a. From then the number of farms remained at about nine, of which only one was said to be more than 150 a. in the 1920s. There were eight farms in Quedgeley in 1967, mostly of 100 a. or less and farmed by tenants of Glevum Estates Ltd. or the Air Ministry.

After enclosure the land continued to be mainly meadow and pasture with only small areas of arable. In 1901 260 a. of arable were recorded and in 1933 there was less than half that amount. The area of orchards probably increased in the early 20th century; fruit growers were recorded in the parish in the twenties and thirties, and in 1933 the parish had extensive areas of orchard. By 1967 few of the orchards remained; farming was mixed, with the emphasis on cattle farming.

In 1137 the tithes of the mill of Quedgeley manor were granted to Llanthony Priory. In the earlier 13th century the priory’s mill, with 4½ a., was held by a free tenant. There were two water mills in 1538, Upper Mill farmed with the manor and another mill leased to Richard Barrow. The tenant of what was evidently Upper Mill, holding under lease from Arthur Porter, was said by his widow in the later 16th century to have repaired it when it was in decay. Tithes of a water mill were reserved in 1564 when the rectory was leased, but no later reference to mills in Quedgeley has been found. The Upper Mill was near Long field, but the site of neither mill has been located. There were fishponds at Quedgeley manor in the early 12th century, and in 1146 tithes of fishing in Quedgeley were confirmed to Llanthony Priory. The Prior of Llanthony complained in 1359 that his fish at Quedgeley had been stolen. The Walsh family owned a fishery in the Severn c 1500. In 1592 Thomas Porter was dealing with fishing rights in the Severn at Woolstrop and Quedgeley.

The parish had a smith in 1327, a chapman in 1466, and a clothier in 1608. In 1811 only 6 families were supported by trade and manufacture, compared with 41 supported by agriculture. There was a smith’s shop in 1839, and by the late 19th century Quedgeley had a few craftsmen and shops. The number of small shops, particularly on the main road, increased in the earlier 20th century, when also guesthouses, cafes, and garages were opened. There were three basket-makers in 1927, and two in 1967.

A History of Quedgeley Education

There appears to have been a dame school at Quedgeley in 1693. The parish had three schools in 1818: a Sunday school for 30 children supported by William Hayward Winstone, and two dame schools. By 1831 only the Sunday school was recorded, with 50 children.

Quedgeley SchoolA National school was opened in 1842 in a building belonging to John Curtis-Hayward. In 1846 there were 30 children, and 45 in 1853. At one time the school may have been held in a building in the rectory garden, but by 1883 a new brick school had been built in School Lane. Average attendance in 1904 was 114 and had declined to 80 by 1922. A new school was built in School Lane in 1928, and the number of pupils in 1936 was 114. The school remained an all-age school until 1951 when a separate secondary modern section was formed, using the same building until 1961.

In that year the Severn Vale County Secondary School was built west of the church. In 1967 it was a mixed school with 290 children. The primary and junior school, a controlled Church of England school held the building of 1928, had c 160 pupils in 1967.

Local Government

In 1236 a dispute over the right to take and try thieves in Quedgeley was settled by an agreement that the Prior of Llanthony’s bailiff could take thieves who were, however, to be tried in the Earl of Hereford’s court at Haresfield, and that the prior’s men should be freed from suit of the earl’s court. The prior was said in 1276 to have withdrawn his suit from the hundred court of Whitstone 30 years ago and in 1292 he claimed view of frankpledge in Woolstrop, where the amercement of brewers breaking the assize belonged to the Crown; by 1252 William de Valence had withdrawn all those suits. In 1275 William de Pontlarge was said to have withdrawn suit and 10s. Rent from the Barton hundred courts, where in 1329 William Walsh owed suit every three weeks for his land in Woolstrop.

There is no evidence of a separate manor court for Quedgeley before the Dissolution, and some matters at least relating to tenures in Quedgeley were dealt with at Llanthony. Court rolls of Quedgeley manor survive for nine half-yearly courts of 1574-80, and for 23 courts in the period 1610-40, each session (except for a court baron in 1630 and two in 1639) comprising the view of frankpledge and court baron. The court was apparently held until 1691 or later. In 1824 a steward was appointed with the right to hold courts, but there is no indication that he exercised it.

Overseers’ accounts survive for 1662-92. For some years the receipts of rates from Woolstrop were separate, but the hamlet did not have separate overseers. In 1668 the overseers paid for the repair of a poorhouse. Expenditure on poor-relief almost doubled between 1776 and 1803, when £141 was spent on 20 people relieved regularly and 10 occasionally. By 1813 expenditure had again increased to £215 and the numbers relieved had also risen. The cost of poor-relief in the period 1825-34 fluctuated considerably, between extremes of £98 in 1828 and £229 in 1832. Quedgeley became part of the Gloucester Poor Law Union in 1835, and remained in the Gloucester Rural District in 1967.

Quedgeley Charities

Woolstrop had a small share in the charity of Giles Cox, founded by will dated 1620, from which up to 1823 the hamlet had received a total of £2. The charity was regulated by a Scheme of 1957; the income, for the general benefit of the poor of Woolstrop, Whaddon, and Hempsted, was c £6 a year in 1967. Frances Hayward (d. 1786) by will gave £100 to provide houses for the poor of Quedgeley; the houses acquired were apparently those in School Lane occupied in the 20th century by the schoolmaster and the district nurse. In 1967 they were privately owned.

Mrytle Nash’s story

My grandfather and father, Alfred Pready, worked as coal and salt merchants on long boats pulled by horses along the canals from Sharpness to Worcester. My three sisters, my brother and I were born at Aston Cottage near Rea Bridge which is a swing bridge across the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. This cottage has since been demolished and two new bungalows were built on the land.Mrytle Nash

My Grandfather had houses Mafikin and Wynberg built in Elmore Lane during the Boer War.

I walked to school along the lanes in winter and across the fields in summer. I eventually had an old “sit up and beg” bicycle.

My brother and sister and I played marbles along the Bristol road. In cold winters we skated along the road. My first school was in School Lane, where the chip shop now stands. There were two classrooms and one cloakroom. The bucket toilets were at the end of the playground.

When the new school was built, we had gas lighting which was not often used. There were four classrooms, a head master’s room and a teachers’ room. We still had bucket toilets. Boys used to be one end of the playground and girls at the other end. There was a lean-to bicycle shed. We had an excellent Head Master, Mr Rintock. As it was a Church of England school, we went to church on special days from 9 am to 10 am and then were allowed the rest of the day off. On Empire Day we marched around the playground and saluted the Union Jack. We were given the rest of the day off.

Before the start of the 2nd World War, RAF sites were built. No. 3 site was behind Aston Cottage where I lived. During the war soldiers were stationed at Quedgeley House. They were on guard every night on the sites. I ended up marrying one of these soldiers.

Victoria Cottages, where I now live, were built in the early 1800s (?) for families of those who worked at the local brick works. According to my father, one day they hit a spring and flooded the works. My father remembered the tall chimney demolished in the late 1800s. At that time all the fields in Quedgeley had names. The field at the brick works was called Canada. This was later, when I was a child, turned into allotments, where my father had two. I remember the land owner closed all of them for more farming ground. My father then had two allotments opposite The Plough (now called Friar Tuck’s). Farmers’ End has now been built near there. From this ditch several of us caught diphtheria and spent several weeks in isolation at hospital in Over (we all called it “Hoover”).

Aston Cottage was called Tom’s shop, where navigators bought their tobacco, etc. When I was a child, my mother sold cigarettes and matches to the fishermen. She also made lovely ginger beer, which she sold at 1d a glass or 2d a bottle. It was mine and my brother’s job to collect bottles along the canal bank, as the folk didn’t return them. These bottles were then sterilised and re-used.

We offer our congratulations to Myrtle Nash on reaching the age of 90 in October 2013 and thank her for sharing her memories.

Rev. Paul M Dack 1925 – 2013

The Rev. Frederick J. Lanham, Rector of St. James’ Quedgeley, 1947-1961, left to be Priest in charge of Christchurch Gloucester and the Rev. Paul M. Dack arrived from his Parish in the Cotswolds, to be our new Rector soon after.Rev Paul Dack

Paul Dack had served in the Army and had been taken prisoner in Burma. He did not talk about his time there. I expect it was best forgotten. He did tell us, this was where he made up his mind to take up The Ministry, if he ever got home.

He first arrived one evening for dinner at our house, The Retreat Guest House, Quedgeley. I later took him to meet the St. James’ Parochial Church Council. He soon took up his position, bringing his widowed mother Florence and her sister Olive to live with him. They were all well received and soon settled in.

At that time, the Diocese had sold the nearby Head Master’s House (now The Quedgeley Parish Office) and also land opposite the Rectory, to build bungalows. Some of the money raised was used on the 1840 Rectory, which was badly in need of up-dating after WW1 and WW2. Paul organised the major works that went on for months and the family eventually had a modernised Rectory.

The Village Hall had been gutted by fire in 1957, leaving Quedgeley without a meeting place. When Paul arrived on the scene, he welcomed various groups to use the Rectory. Paul set about clearing and planting the large garden with trees and flowering bushes. In the summer-time we enjoyed Fetes and parties there. The Churchyard was also transformed, with curb stones removed and hedges sorted. He also gave the local youth club permission to use the Rectory Coach House for their meetings.

One of his first engagements was to attend the opening of the new Quedgeley Village Hall on February 17th, 1962. It was a great day, with the village pensioners invited to tea and the rest of the Parish invited to a Social Evening. As Rector, he was automatically made a Trustee of the building and carried out his duties with pride.

Mr Philip Parker of Quedgeley and I were both on the P.C.C. the 20 years Paul was Rector. Philip was also the organist at St. James’. Talking to Philip recently, he described Paul as a true gentleman, very knowledgeable, never a cross word and always willing to help people. I could not have put it better.

In 1982 the Diocese made it known they wanted to amalgamate the Church Parishes of Hardwicke and Quedgeley. They would sell Hardwicke Vicarage and Quedgeley Rectory and one Clergy would leave. Paul Dack being a Rector could stay where he was for life, but being a gentleman said he would leave to allow the joining of the Parishes. The two buildings were auctioned and my husband and I bought the Rectory and the Rev. Geoffrey Stickland moved into a new smaller Rectory, built on the site of Quedgeley’s first school in the kitchen garden of the former Rectory.

Paul went on to have many happy years working in and around Hasfield and Leckhampton and we kept in touch by letter.

I visited Paul at Nazareth House Nursing Home, Cheltenham just before his 88th birthday, which was on May 27th. He said he was enjoying life, with no washing or cooking to do and walked with me unaided inside the building. It was a shock to hear he had died there in August. Paul always stated he did not want a funeral and so a Requiem was held for him at St. Peter’s, Leckhampton on October 5th at 10.30a.m.

Happy memories.

Caroline Meek.

Reader’s Stories

The history of Quedgeley can be recalled by historians however it is the real people that make it come to life.

This page is dedicated a space for readers of the site who wish to recall and share their stories of Quedgeley in years gone by.

If you have a story or pictures you wish to share with other reads please let us know (via the contact us page) and we will try and include it on this page.

David Forsyth retired Group Captain

As the Group Captain (now retired) named in your article, I thought you might welcome some additional comments on the article about the Royal Air Force site. The bit about the Fire Service and “older residents” is slightly out of context.

With the support of the then Chief Fire Officer for Gloucestershire, Malcolm Eastwood, in 1994 I arranged for a Fire Service Radio to be fitted to our Fire Tender to act as a “First Reaction” measure locally given that the traffic conditions could easily prejudice the “20 minute” call-out time Malcolm’s teams had to meet. It was most successful, after early resistance from the Union in the Fire Service who saw it as a threat to jobs. It gave the excellent RAF Quedgeley team added interest to replace their usual Fire Prevention role and they even passed with flying colours an inspection by HM Inspector of Fire Services.

Co-operating similarly with the Chief Constable of the day, Tony Butler, we did the same for the MOD Police Team whose excellent reactions to some difficult situations met with a couple of Commendations.

More specific to the main role of the unit, the task was let out to contract in the late 1980s before a successful bid was mounted to win the work back in house in the early 1990s. Clawing work back into the public sector so incensed the politicians of the day that a rule was brought in that work contracted out could not be the subject of an in-house bid at contract re-let.

This contracted-back arrangement worked exceptionally well thanks to the dedication and co-operation of an outstanding civilian workforce and their Trade Union representatives and performance was judged each year to be consistently better than targets set. Indeed we were held up as a shining example with many visitors coming to learn from us.

But despite that success, Quedgeley, like its sister unit at Carlisle, was to be sacrificed as a measure to cut Defence costs and head-count, regardless of its proven effectiveness using commercial measures. I was most unconvinced by what I saw as manifest unfairness. Douglas French MP fought hard for the unit, being complimented by the Defence Minister for his mastery of detail in an impassioned speech in the Commons, sparking a visit by the Minister, Jeremy Hanley, who left apparently convinced of our case. But all to no avail. And closure came in 1996.

Readers may like to know that there is an Oak Tree with a Crest of 7MU, RAF Quedgeley, dedicated to the men and women, both Royal Air Force and civilian, who had selflessly served there throughout many decades.

My own recollections are of an excellent team, RAF and civilian, who did all they could to preserve the legacy and reputation of the Unit as a place that got things done, with good humour and an easy-going, tolerant approach which masked efficiency, effectiveness and innovation. It was a huge privilege for me to be the Station Commander, undoubtedly the high point of my Royal Air Force career.

Thank you for an excellent web site. PS The history prior to the RAF occupation is also fascinating, as you have documented. The first Commandant of the WW1 shell-filling factory was ex-Indian Army, hence the Nepalese style of Cotswold Lodge (the bungalow) on Naas Lane (hope it is still there).

John & Sheila Phipps Late of Manor Farm, Quedgeley

We were all surprised to hear of the sudden death of John Phipps, at Wycombe Hospital on March 9th, 2008.

As a friend to John and his late wife Sheila for over 50 years, I thought many readers might like me to write about our past residents of the parish Manor Farm is situated on the East side of the B4008 and has the Quedgeley Bye Pass running through some of the fields. There is a large house situated in the middle of the farm. It is steeped in history and can be traced back to the Twelfth Century. That is a separate story.

In 1915 Manor Farm was taken over by the Government. Land was used to build a Munition factory, where hundreds of local women filled brass shells for the war. The entrance was in Naas Lane. The farm land was used to teach Ploughing and there was a ‘Training School in Horticulture’ for wounded ex- servicemen.

After W.W.W.1. Manor Farm was taken over by the County Council and divided into 3 farms. The tenants being Mr Phipps, Captain Clarke and Mr Hazel. In 1937 the Air Ministry took more land to build 7 MU Quedgeley. By this time there were only two tenants. The Phipps and the Brooks. The Manor House was divided into two homes.

Mr & Mrs Joseph Phipps had three sons. The eldest William, (who still lives in Quedgeley) John born in 1927 and Gerald who emigrated to Canada and has since died John went to Quedgeley Primary School 1932-1939. He attended ‘The Crypt Grammar School’ 1939-1945. National Service 1945-1947 in the Royal Navy. Signalman Phipps enjoyed his time at HMS Raleigh and then aboard HMS Dunkirk.

After the Royal Navy he went to Veterinary College London 1947-8. He hated London and decided to make his career farming and returned to Manor Farm. The elderly parents retired and later died. William and John then took over running the farm In 1952 John met Sheila Gardner from Frampton-On –Severn and by 1954 they were married. They later had two daughters, Annie and Mary.

As the daughters grew up so Manor Farm came alive with young friends and relations. Hide & Seek, Cowboys and Indians, shooting walnuts off the tree with air rifles, pinching ripe apricots off the tree in the walled garden. Catching frogs and pulling Bull Rushes from the ancient moat- they were truly wonderful times. The family dinner table brought everyone together, not just the family, but whosoever was visiting the farm at that time. Sheila didn’t count calories and was a bubbly lady and welcomed all to eat her delicious home cooked food. One day she even had a patient from the Coney Hill Psychiatric Unit, sitting at the kitchen table. He had gone on a walk about and was lost John and his brother William worked together on the farm for many years.

Many of the gadgets and pieces of machinery were designed and made by them. The Bale Sled, Grain Auger and Feed Mill, to name but a few. These were planned, cut assembled and welded in the rooms that lay behind the ‘Black –Door’. I am told it was like a cross between an untidy Blacksmiths Forge and a Pandora’s Box inside. In the late 1960’s William pulled out from farming and John was on his own If visitors turned up when John was working, he would invite them to have a go. When milking, he would say “Now you have seen how it’s done, have ago” or “Flip that Ram over, I want to give him a vaccination”.The ram was usually 12- 14 stone in weight. John would stand back and watch with his cigarette holder clenched between his teeth.

When the girls grew up, Sheila taught at the local Primary School and will be remembered for her laughter and good humor. She joined the local Women’s Institute. Later went onto the Committee and then did her time as President. John and Sheila would invite us up to Manor Farm in August. The month which has always been kept free from indoor meetings. John would put the hay bales out for us and we would each take along a picnic John hated petty bureaucracy in any form. When the ‘Land Grabbers’ moved in wanting to lay new water pipes and the Quedgeley Bye Pass, he went to war – very successfully.

He also gave advice to many other farmers, who found themselves entangled in a maze of paper work. He went to Court and represented many in the County. John later went on to write a book entitled ‘Land Grab’.

Sheila loved acting and always took part in the many Plays and Pantomimes written by Mrs. Ellen Parker for the W.I. or Church. Mrs. Dack, the Rector’s mother had us each week at “The Rectory” and we had hours of singing and acting. Because of her round figure, Sheila would enjoy being the fairy to make people laugh. Besides being a busy farmer’s wife, Sheila also joined the Quedgeley Parochial Church Council and later became a Church Warden. She loved helping at the Summer Fetes at The Rectory. Christmas Bazaars and Rummage Sales in the Hall. All held to keep the Church roof on.

Visitors were encouraged to join in discussions around the kitchen table and John was an exceptional listener. Topics ranged from “How bad The Government had treated the Gurkhas” to “Do we need a Parish Council?”.

He made people laugh with his dry tales. The Vet came to the farm to drench some cattle and got crushed between a wall and a large steer. The steer was pushed away and the Vet, winded, dropped to the floor. “Oi said John, don’t lie around down there, I’m paying you by the hour mind”. At a cheese stall at Gloucester Market, John said “How much is a pound of mouse trap?” After the answer he said “Well how much is 5lb? A cheaper price was stated. “Right then, I’ll have 2lbs off the 5lb block please; it’ll be cheaper won’t it?”

When the children were growing up John only left the farm for a one week holiday and one weekend break. He did also manage to attend his girls Graduation Ceremonies. He did worry when Sheila went off to Nigeria to visit Annie when she was away on VSO. He told a friend “Last thing I need is a herd of cattle with Tsetse fly in exchange for those two”. Annie is married Rob and they live with their three children in Canada. Mary, Ken and family live in Amersham

When Sheila died suddenly in 2001, John finally gave up his tenancy at Manor Farm and in 2002 moved to a bungalow off Sims lane, Quedgeley, where he was very well looked after by “his girls”.

The big builders have moved onto Manor Farm and the new School is being built near the Manor House. New home owners are moving into “Kings Way” daily. The Brooks brothers still remain in half of the Manor House, but do not have any land left to farm.

‘The miracle is that life continues, the sorrow is that we do not’. (Jane Walsh-Angland)

Caroline Meek

Rev. Paul M Dack 1925-2013

Paul went on to have many happy years working in and around Hasfield and Leckhampton and we kept in touch by letter.

Happy memories.

Caroline Meek.

History

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