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Articles
Redoubts In The English Countryside
A Scheme For Resisting The German Invasion
During the OC weekend to celebrate VE Day, there was a time when the tape recorders were running and George Dobie and various of us were drawn into a reminiscent phase under the adept guidance of our organiser, Gordon Chubb. There was talk of the Iwerne Minster Home Guard and of a hidden redoubt at the foot of Hambledon Hill from which it was intended to resist a German invasion and occupation much in the style of the French Maquis. A moment later Chubb was telling the company that Henry Teed had first-hand knowledge of a similar site near his birthplace at Sturminster Newton. A moment later I was on my feet giving my version extempore!
Historians deserve hard facts, so here goes with a map reference and how to get there. The site is north of Sturminster Newton on the Hinton St. Mary road, about a mile from the town centre. The O.S. map 183, on the bottom right, shows Twin Coppice Wood going down to the River Stour. The reference is at the junction of the wood and the river, a few feet inside the north boundary and given as a six figure : 782-153. Leave your car just past and opposite the old Council offices and proceed down a thirty yard track towards the river. Turn your eyes north to where a wood meets the river about three-quarters of a mile away. That’s the wood and there’s the spot. Once on site, you’ll note that the edge of the wood forms a steep bank into the next field which is about six to ten feet higher. Into this bank and about ten feet down were three armoured Nissen huts on concrete bases, joined by passages about twenty feet long. Each hut was some twenty feet long with full standing headroom. Entry was by three trapdoors of ingenious design as to opening and formed as shallow trays so as to contain normal elements of the woodland floor. One hut contained bunks, the central one a table and benches in unplanned wood and the third an armoury of Bren guns, Sten guns, rifles, revolvers, grenades, ammunition and Tear gas in the form of what looked like a pinkish-brown stone easily broken up. Fragments on a tin-lid burned with a smoky yellow flame giving an observer just time to dismiss the whole thing as nonsense before keeling over blinded, albeit briefly.
All this was discovered in the spring of 1942 by some local lads during the Easter holidays. Some of these were day boys at Foster’s Sherborne who found it altogether diverting to let off tear gas on the school train. Not only were honest folk falling about the corridors but another whose father owned a boat went on patrol with a case of grenades. Tipped over the stern of a moving boat they made a satisfying CRUMP, stunned the fish and kept the upper reaches of the Stour safe for democracy by fending off the U-boat menace or so they thought! As it was, law and order was hot on their trail and half a dozen lads came in for a grilling. At least they’d had the sense not to amuse themselves with any of the firearms. In the interest of secrecy there were no prosecutions, the boys were warned to keep the matter to themselves which, after the manner of the young I heard all about it at the next school holiday and thanked my lucky stars that I’d been at Clayesmore when the heat was on. At that age I was very partial to a choice explosion!
By the time I saw the redoubt the tide of war
had shifted in Britain’s favour and the weapons had been removed; even so the
installation itself was pretty exiting to explore. Shortly afterward the academic heat was
turned up and the next time I gave the matter any thought was circa 1952/3 when I took my
fiancee confident I would show her “quelque chose de formidable”. As it was
there was almost nothing to show, for although the war had been over for several years, it
was only a matter of weeks before that the Royal Engineers from Blandford Camp had come
out and destroyed the place. All that remained were a few bricks and fragments of
duckboard. The bricks are still likely to be there yet; for who would seek to remove them?
I recall seeing a book in a branch of Waterstones which gave an account of many such
places as this countrywide. That was at least six or seven years ago and I’
can’t remember the title anyway. Here at least though is an account and a map
reference which is an improvement on rumour and hearsay.
Henry Teed
March 1996.