Slade Camp: Appeal for memories of 'forgotten' Army site homes

An archaeologist is trying to trace anyone who remembers what post-war life was like at an Army training camp that was later turned into homes.

Wendy Austen, a volunteer at the Shotover Preservation Society, wants to hear memories of Slade Camp in Oxfordshire as part of a new project.

Huts at the site between Brasenose and Magdalen woods became home to dozens of families in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

It is hoped the research will pave the way for educational tours of the site.

Ms Austen said very little was known about the people who lived there.

But anyone wandering in the woods alongside Oxford's eastern bypass might find some signs of what life used to look like at the camp, such as footings of buildings and concrete steps.

Ms Austen said she saw a "doll's legs sticking out of the ground" on her first walk around.

The area had been used as farmland for centuries until World War Two required training camps to be set up.

She said the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Infantry Road Regiment, which was stationed in Hollow Way, decided to build a training camp in a large area of open land between the two big woods.

"They put their huts all the way round this thing and built a road to circle the camp," she said.

"And then because of the war, a lot of families needed extra housing and Oxford decided to move families in."

Ms Austen said about 160 people lived there from about 1949 until the end of the 1960s.

"In the 1950, the huts were made into rather spacious and very lovely accommodations with several bedrooms and kitchen, bathroom," Ms Austen said.

She invited anyone who could share memories of that period to meet up at the camp, at the pillbox, on 22 March at 10:00 GMT.

"We know very little about the people who were there - but we found at least five to 10 who were there and they're going to come," she said.

Ms Austen said Open Doors, which provides educational tours of Oxfordshire landmarks, had invited the society to open Slade Camp to visitors in September.

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