Castle Cary and World War

Castle Cary and World War

Castle Cary men had fought in many wars before 1900 and the Castle Cary volunteer corps became part of the Territorial Army in 1908. In 1913 a drill hall was built near the school by the War Office at a cost of £3,000. It was opened by Henry Hobhouse and his daughter Mrs Clay. Apart from the hall the building comprised rifle range, armoury and stores, canteen, recreation room, first-floor lecture room and officers’ quarters, and a house for the staff sergeant. It was also used for dances in the early 20th century and in 1914 was the venue for a Bruton and Castle Cary musical festival. In 2001 it was used by the Territorial Army, Air Training Corps, and army cadets.[1] A scout hut was built nearby c. 1982.[2]

FIRST WORLD WAR

During the First World War Belgian refugees were housed in Scotland House, South Cary. By December 1915 213 men had joined up, over 12 per cent of the population, but more than 50 had been turned down as medically unfit. By 1918 330 had served and 28 had been killed. A women’s rifle club was formed in 1914, 20 women qualified as Red Cross nurses, and a workroom produced large quantities of garments, bandages, kitbags, and sandbags.[3] Ten Babcary men had joined the forces before December 1914. About 30 men from Barton St David were said to have served in World War I[4] but 42 are recorded on the village war memorial, an obelisk within a garden of remembrance which also lists 34 people who served in World War II.[5] At Keinton Mandeville the war caused a scarcity of labour with a fifth of the population in the services or doing war work.[6] Sixteen men volunteered at the Temperance Hall in 1914. Over 80 men from the parish served in the First World War of whom 11 or more[7] were killed and 20 women did war work out of a population of just over 500.[8] At Kingweston 13 local men served, five having joined up before December 1914, and the gardens of Kingweston House supplied weekly hampers of vegetables.[9] As in most parishes hundreds of acres of grass were ploughed to grow food. A service was held in tiny Wheathill church in 1917 to mark the third anniversary of the beginning of war.

SECOND WORLD WAR

During the Second World War Kingweston House was requisitioned as a searchlight headquarters.[10] many parish schools were filled with evacuee children. At West Lydford children came from London and Hampshire but one from Glasgow. From 1940 to 1943 a brigade of guards was based at Florida House, black American soldiers were camped on Millbrook north of the church, and American nurses were billeted in Florida House, where Nissen huts and a brick dining hall were built in the grounds. Red Cross nurses were stationed at the adjacent Hollies.[11] There was some bombing and at least two British planes crashed locally. At Ansford the station was bombed and machine gunned on 3 September 1942 killing three signalmen and injuring ten other people. The engine shed, parcels office, signal box, the Railway Hotel and a train were destroyed and the milk factory and three railway cottages were damaged.[12]

The Second World war entailed much military construction. At Babcary searchlights and ammunition dumps were sited in the parish.[13] A large ammunition depot was constructed south-west of Dimmer comprising over twenty storage units each consisting of four semi-circular iron and concrete huts with steel doors on deep foundations and enclosed by brick and concrete blast walls, circular water tanks, accommodation, and other buildings. Sometimes known as Alford camp, it was served by a railway track from the main railway line in Alford.[14] Most of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps huts were blown up c. 1976,[15] but seven survived in 1997. After the war the site was a vehicle breaker’s yard and a Wincanton Rural District council refuse dump. A Visitor Centre and a gas generation scheme were begun in 1998 and in 2002 the site was known as Carymoor Environmental Centre.

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Mary Siraut Page 3 Somerset Reference

[1] Castle Cary Visitor Jan. 1903, March 1907; April, May 1908; Jan., Nov. 1913; SRO, D/R/winc 14/2/14; D/PC/cas 2/2/24; Castle Cary and District (c. 1925), 19; Living History Group, Memories, 37.

[2] SRO, D/PC/cas 5/5/7.

[3] Castle Cary Visitor Feb., March, May, Oct., Dec. 1915; SRO, C/EW 2/7.

[4] SRO, C/EW 1/3.

[5] Ibid. D/P/b.st.d 23/6; DD/X/MDT 97; Som. CC. HER.

[6] SRO, C/EW 1/3.

[7] 14 names on War Memorial.

[8] SRO, C/EW 2/7.

[9] Ibid. C/EW 1/3, 2/7.

[10] J. Burden, Winging Westward , 156.

[11] Miller & Laver, Castle Cary, North Cadbury, and Wincanton, 105; Living History Group, Memories, 28, 32, 50, 52, 68, 118, 130—1.

[12] M. Hawkins, Som. at War, 1939—45 (1988), 74.

[13] SRO, A/BSN 1.

[14] M. Hawkins, Som. at War, 1939—45 (1988), 193, 199; Living History Group, Memories, 113—14; OS Map 1:25000, ST 63 (1958 edn); SRO, D/PC/cas 6/1/1; Som. CC. HER.

[15] SRO, D/PC/cas 1/2/8; Som. CC. HER.