1939-1940: Beginnings
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Land Requisition in Wartime
During the Second World War, land and property all over Britain was commandeered by the War Department for military purposes. The Home Front was controlled under the authority of Defence Regulations, issued under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts of 1939 and 1940. Amongst other things, these regulations gave the Secretary of State the power to take possession of, or “requisition”, private land for the war effort. The use of private land for military purposes is a significant yet largely unrecognised contribution by British farmers and landowners to the War effort, and an important facet of the Home Front.
On the 3rd of August 1939, it had been proposed to the Kington Urban District Council (KUDC) that an approach could be made to Government offering a site suitable for a militia camp, as this would be good for business in Kington. In November, the KUDC received a letter from the War Office stating that all sites for militia had already been selected, but that if further camps were required this district would be kept in mind. In 1940 the War Department did turn its attention to Kington and the site lying beside the Arrow River near Upper and Lower Hergest, possibly because of its secluded position, flat land, access to water and proximity to a railway station.
See a scan of the KUDC minutes
Requisitions at Kington
In April 1940, 3 fields were requisitioned from Hergest Court Farm, tenanted by John Morris but owned by R. A. Banks of Ridgebourne. Between 1940 and 1942, some 80 acres of Banks land was requisitioned, although in 1942 about half was surrendered by the War Office, reducing the Banks land under military possession to just over 40 acres. A further two acres were requisitioned in 1944.
Land on neighbouring farms was also requisitioned: 8 acres from the Evans family at Bredward Farm, 20 acres from the Merediths at Arrow Court, 13 Acres from the Romilly’s at Huntington Park and 33 acres from Mahollam Farm (owned by the Romilly family, but farmed by the Williams’). The total land under requisiton by 1942 was thus over one hundred acres.
The Romilly family of Huntington Park vacated their house during much of the War and it was used by the army as officer accommodation. Samuel Romilly’s wife was the sister of Winston Churchill. His son, Giles Romilly was a war correspondent captured in Norway in 1943 and sent to the Prisoner of War camp at Colditz Castle, from which he escaped in 1945. He later wrote a book about his experience.
Because of the needs of secrecy, farmers were not told what their land was to be used for. Alison Wright, a child at Bredward Farm, recalls that the first her family knew of the use of their land was the arrival of a cement mixer through a hole in the hedge. In July 1943, Mr Banks wrote to the War Department that “he had not even received notification” of the erection of the US General Hospitals. In reply, it was explained that the lack of notification was due to the project’s secrecy and that there had been no intention of discourtesy.
In 1941 the British military had left and the site was unoccupied. At this time there was some indication that the site was no longer required and would be returned, as a letter from the War Department Land Agent informed the Banks’ estate that 81 acres of his land was to be released. However, shortly afterwards a letter arrived to state that the military were again in occupation. Mr Banks was later advised that 40 acres would be released but that the remaining 41 should be deemed to have been under continual requisition.
See a requisition letter
See a map of requisitioned land
Listen to Alison Wright talk about requisitioned land
Compensation
With sometimes substantial acreage taken up by the War Office, landholders (but not tenants) effected by the Kington Camp requisition were advised that claims for compensation should be addressed to the War Department Land Agent in Shrewsbury. It is remembered locally that land was valued for compensation purposes at £60 an acre, both in 1940 and in later de-requisitioning in 1965. At the start of the War, those effected had been under the impression that their land would be returned in the same state as it had been originally requisitioned, but this was not to be the case—the building of the two large US hospitals had not been predicted in 1940. After the War, no assistance was provided towards the considerable cost of removing the military buildings and the many tons of concrete that had been poured on to the area. In some cases the landholders undertook to cover this cost themselves, in others the military buildings were put to different uses.
After de-requisitioning, Giles Romilly (Huntington Park) paid to remove all signs of the considerable number of hospital buildings on his land. He had been a Prisoner of War at Colditz and it is said that he did not wish to be reminded of the war by continuing evidence of its presence on his doorstep.
You can see from aerial photographs of the site that, apart from one remaining hut, the camp buildings on Mahollam land (owned then by the Romillys) were being demolished in the 1960s and have completed disappeared today.
See aerial photographs of the camp
Search for information about the Romilly family and Huntington Park
Useful web links
Home Front:
- http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/homefront
- http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/civilians
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front_during_World_War_II
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Front