Herald - Issue 409

Page 12 • The HERALD • 15th July 2021 v EMAIL YOUR STORY: editor@herald-publishing.co.uk v REFURBISHERS ALWAYS TRY TO MEET YOUR BUDGET RELIABLE! EXCELLENT REFERENCES! INSURED! Catalogue of previous works to view Plaster work • Floor & Wall Tiling • Wall removal • Bathroom Design & Fit • Laminate/Wood Flooring • Painting • Insulation • Decking • PVCu Gutter & Fascia OUR HANDYMAN SERVICES • Rubbish clearance • Gutters • Jet washing conservatories, paths and patios • Flat pack assembly • Van removals • NO JOB TOO SMALL • FIXED PRICES • WRITTEN QUOTATIONS P Strus 07414 779083 Email: p.strus7@gmail.com MR SWEEP THE CHIMNEY SWEEP keep it clean - keep it safer Open fires, wood burners, stoves etc. Both private and commercial properties Member of the Guild of Master Sweeps Tel: 07971 280906 www.mrsweeplymington.com email: mrsweeplymington@gmail.com 38 Bath Road, Lymington SO41 3SB dirty oven...? 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Send your local news to The Editor, The Herald, 2 High Street, Hythe SO45 6AH FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email : steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST WW2 History in the Waterside Area & What Still Remains by local history enthusiast, Marc Heighway e Second World War a ected the lives of everybody in the Waterside area. Whilst memories can fade fast, it’s close enough in recent history that many of us will know of stories that have been handed down. Some are even old enough to have rst-hand experiences. During wartime you would have seen barrage balloons being own from Jones Lane in Hythe, or fromDibden golf course. You might have seen various searchlights scanning the skies for enemy planes, one of which was even placed at the end of Hythe Pier. Hythe residents might also have seen German planes dropping propaganda lea ets from the air. Or, worse still, bombs hitting Southampton, and then even closer to home when the British Powerboat Company on Shore Road was destroyed in 1940. If you were a local man of a certain age, you may have enlisted in the local Home Guard battalion, training on the cricket pitches in Jones Lane, promising to ght to the last man should the enemy breach our shores. As a local lady, you may have become a land girl, helping to grow crops to feed the nation. Or you might have joined up to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and worked on RAF Beaulieu air eld. If you were living in Marchwood, you could have seen the building we now know as e Priory being used as a rehab centre for pilots with serious burn injuries. What would have been more noticeable was the use of Marchwood as a military port, with a lot of activity in the lead up to D-Day. Marchwood also su ered bombing, with air attacks targeting the ammunition depot there. Residents of Dibden Purlieu and Holbury will have witnessed the construction of an anti-aircra position in Hardley. And for those around Calshot, you would have seen sites of interest in the local area which all have a story relating to World War 2. For example, there are countless air raid shelters locally. Many are in private gardens, but some of the best we’ve seen are around Badminston Common near Langley and Fawley. Still locally, St. George’s Church in Calshot was the chapel for the airmen and women. It’s a classic piece of air eld architecture, and one of the last remaining buildings from the New Forest air elds. ere are also the remains of a machine gun position in the eld adjacent to Solent View which runs down to Calshot Marshes… or the Bluebird Café outdoor seating area which is said to have been a searchlight position. Two other coastal locations worth checking are the well-known D-Day embarkation point at Lepe Beach, and then the lesser-known Mulberry Beetle wrecks that line the stretch of water running from Hythe Marina to Marchwood. ese oating concrete cra were designed to help with the D-Day invasion. Moving inland, if you stand on the hill in Marchwood Enclosure overlooking the Ipley Crosswords, you will notice brick foundations poking out of the ground. is was a Royal Observer Corps post. e volunteers would watch for enemy aircra from this position. You might even decide to take a walk on Beaulieu Heath and look for signs of a bombing decoy site, designed to fool the enemy into bombing the heathland rather than the heavily populated city areas. A shorter drive away, you could decide to pull into Yew Tree Heath car park. at mound you see with concrete on it was a heavy anti-aircra position, with large gun pits that would help protect the local area from bombers. I am not a professional historian. I am not an archaeologist. I am not a metal detectorist, and I don’t dig holes. I am simply passionate about our local history so you can learn and enjoy from what we find too. the ying boats taking o and landing on the water. Lastly, the roads down to Lepe were widened to accommodate the military tra c in the build-up to D-Day, before the brave men le from the beach to head for France. Today it’s easy to forget how busy the Waterside area was during WW2. But just look a little bit deeper and you might start to see relics from the past. is is something I have been doing over the last 12 months with my son. We’ve discovered various Finn exploring the Air Raid Shelters at Badminston Common near Langley and Fawley