TALES FROM THE HILLS

(Ashmansworth and Crux Easton)

The day war broke out, a flock of English children stood glumly on the green at Ashmansworth. They were refugees from the cities, threatened with bombing and poison gas.

A billeting officer was required to distribute the children among the villagers. Impartiality was essential, since some of the children might be less sought-after as house guests than others, so the authorities appointed a newcomer, hoping she might escape charges of favouritism because she knew none of the villagers, and the villagers knew nothing of her. It seemed to work.

The men left in the village joined the Local Defence Volunteers, condescendingly known as ‘Dad’s Army.’ At first they did their best without guns or uniforms. One was appointed sergeant, not because he had any experience, but because he was the only one with a telephone. The guns arrived. A musician, afraid to seem a cissy, surreptitiously plugged his ears to avoid damage to his hearing; but when they started shooting, he was glad to find that, far from being a cissy, he was a good shot. A major came down from HQ to instruct them in use of the Bren gun. When he asked if there were any questions, somebody said, “Can anyone tell me what to do about my broad beans?”

These engaging snippets survive because people in Ashmansworth in those days actually wrote letters and kept diaries.

In the event, the only Germans to arrive were prisoners of war. Seizing the opportunity, the villagers put them to work levelling and paving a terrace in front of one of the houses.

There is a similar tale about French prisoners of war in Napoleon’s day, 200 years ago: our ancestors, more opportunistic than we, put the French prisoners to work digging the massive cutting for the Andover Road at the end of Cross Lane.

The TV show Dad’s Army also has a connection with the village: Tom Sloan had a cottage here. He was a commissioning editor at the BBC choosing the programmes we see. He is renowned for saying he could see nothing funny in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (to be honest, he wasn’t the only one); but he did champion Dad’s Army right from its shaky start – and it was Dad’s Army, not The Pythons, who cheered us up during Covid.

Agricola, September 2023