1944 Stocken Farm Airfield

also click Lacey Green Airfield where Doug Tilbury describes in detail the story of this airfield

WW2 AIRFIELD, STOCKEN FARM reported by Doug Tilbury

Hedge removed from centre of airfield. This was replaced after the war and later laid by Gerald Bedford

On Saturday June 6^th 1944 at 6 pm, bulldozers arrived to make an airfield for Air Chief Marshall ‘Bomber’ Harris, of Bomber Command, Walters Ash.   45 acres of the flat grazing land of the farm were to be taken. The fields of the farm were bulldozed to make the airstrip. The first plane took off three mornings later.

A hedge was removed, two clumps of horse-chestnut trees and a clump of lime trees were felled and Nanny Coopers pond was filled in.

A blister hanger was erected behind the school to house the American Stinson plane of Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris. Local lads, including Gordon May used to help push the plane into the hanger

'Bomber' Harris ordered Andrew Oliver To inspect every Spitfire which came down in England. He used Harris's private plane, to fly to the crash sites to see if the accident was due to a fault in the wood/ glue manufacture.

Sports Club spectators. Hanger storing straw in background

The Sports Ground. Hanger in background

After the war the hanger was used by the farm, until the land on which it stood was compulsory purchased to enlarge Lacey Green School grounds.

Photo taken by Dave Alsworth from 'Beaulieu'

Harry Church added a comment to the article Lacey Green Airfield in Hallmark with the following:- I was very interested in Douglas Tilbury' recollections of Lacey Green's wartime airstrip, as I was involved in a roundabout way with the manner in which a portion of Stocken Farm was requisitioned.

I doubt if Mr West ever knew that I was awakened very early one Sunday morning by a workman with a bulldozer who said he was to contact me and I would give him instructions to proceed with the clearing of the fields to construct the landing strip.

Although I had been involved in the initial takeover of such places as Hughenden Manor, Wycombe Abbey Girl's School. many Wycombe factories and places as far away as Phyllis Court, a well known club at Henley also Danesfield House at Medmenham, I had no knowledge of this project at Lacey Green. However, I had been given a telephone number to be used in an emergency, and I regarded this as such an occasion, as the driver said it was imperative he start work at once.

It was quite clear that there was a slip up somewhere, and eventually it turned out to be my namesake - Mr H Church from Halton Camp who was required, as he was Clerk of the Works of Airfield construction in the area.

I later became involved in various minor ways with the Airstrip and I remember some of my staff erecting a temporary fence to contain the cattle. These fences, now quite common, were very rare at the time, and after having connected the battery, we made somewhat nervous tests to see what electric shock we received . In fact it was quite safe, as although only 12 volt, transformed up to a high-voltage, it was a very small amperage, giving just a small stinglike shock, but enough to frighten an animal. Mr West's dog unintentionally touched the wire with it's nose, the result, I am sure, would have qualified it for a greyhound at the speed it returned to the farm.

Halfway between Lacey Green School and Darvills Hill was a pond known as "Nanny Coopers", and a veritable haven for newts and frogs, much sought after by we local boys. I have no knowledge who Nanny Cooper was, but she was reputed to to swing over the pond in a bucket, suspended by a rope, from the branch of a large oak tree which reached over the pond. This may or may not have been true, I have always regarded this action as a somewhat hazardous and stupid thing to do, but it is fairly certain a lady of this name was drowned in the pond. This well known landmark disappeared for ever and the original run of the hedges were not replaced in the exact same lines.

This was not the first time part of Stocken Farm was used for military purposes, as there was a searchlight site near Mr Wilkinson's bungalow 'Beaulieu', Slad Lane, at the beginning of the last war, and in the 1914-18 war not only part of the farm buildings but also the farmhouse were used by the Royal Artillery.