Bylaugh Hall. Norfolk. War Time Home of RAF 100 Bomber Command Support Group. .....Life at Bylaugh Hall in 1943/4,...read "Peggy's Story" below this picture.

MORE PHOTOS.... SET OF BYLAUGH PARK PICtURES ... www.flickr.com/photos/67072953@N02/sets/72157629489513026/

 

MORE PHOTOS (attached June 2016) showing what still remains from the RAF's occupation www.flickr.com/photos/90730071@N07/

 

"BYLAUGH HALL HAS NOW BEEN SOLD" www.itv.com/news/anglia/2016-07-06/stately-home-in-norfol...

 

AERIAL VIEW of Bylaugh Hall www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=52.728091~1.013995&lvl=...

 

For more reference to RAF 100 Bomber Support Group :- links below.

www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=30442#.VPb...

 

www.cnam.org.uk/raf100/index.php

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._100_Group_RAF

 

www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF50469-Bylau...

 

To read some of Bylaugh Halls history & view some old photographs :- link below

www.bawdeswell.net/rtwebsite/villages/Bylaugh/46.html

 

BYLAUGH HALL. "My recollections" ...by Dave (Revopix on Flickr.)

 

After the War, and "100 (Bomber Support) Group" had vacated the site, the Hall, Grounds and all of the RAF Wartime Buildings belonged to Sidney Abbs.

It was in 1954 when my farther came to work for Sidney Abbs, running the farm that came with the Hall. We lived in the large flat above the stables,this is the building attached and to the left of main building in the photograph. Mr Abbs had already started to strip the Hall of some of it's best architectural features.

I think the main staircase had gone and some fire places also, I think that was his plan at the time.

As a 14 year old boy it was really great living here, so many places to explore including the Hall, but I knew it was out of bounds,but I was 14 and needed to know, I was also able to get into most of the buildings used by the RAF during the war, some of the Nissen Huts had been opened at one end to house some of the farm machinery , others were still closed, these were the ones I wanted to see the inside off.

When I did get inside they were completely empty , except for the marvellous War Time Pin-Ups ...

Rita, Betty, Jane. and many others.

When I went back 57 years later, the Nissen Huts were now all opened up,most of them falling apart, some filled with old rusting farm implements, with Ivy, Elder and Brambles growing freely, and not a trace of Rita,Betty or Jane. ....I miss them so ! ...D

 

The Hall is currently unused after a short time as a Country House Hotel catering mainly for Weddings and Private Parties.

( update Dec 2016 the hall was sold about a year ago and is currently undergoing some restoration ...Dave )

 

15th MAY 2012

I have now received permission from the author of a letter sent to and published by The RAF 100 Group Association magazine "Confound & Destroy" .

The letter is from Peggy* who was stationed at Bylaugh Hall during the war.

 

*Peggy Pollard, LACW ...Shorthand Typist to Group Captain Porte at Bylaugh Hall.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

WAR TIME LIFE AT BYLAUGH HALL, NORFOLK, "HQ 100 BOMBER SUPPORT GROUP".

by Peggy Pollard

 

Group Captain Porte was a tall, austere, impeccably uniformed officer, strictly correct in his attitude and conscious of his position as Commanding Officer of the HQ Unit. The only time I knew him to show any feeling for me as a person was when a bird flew in through the open windows of the large room which was his office on the top floor of Bylaugh Hall, overlooking the beautiful countryside sloping down to the river winding its way through the estate. He was on the phone at the time while I sat, notebook on my lap, and he remarked to his caller “my typist seems rather alarmed” as the poor bird swooped round and round.

 

It was not unusual to hear the occasional shot ring out as Wing Commander Dunning-White took a pot shot at a pheasant from his office window on the floor below.

 

My office was just round the corner from the Group Captain’s and he would press a loud buzzer when he wanted to dictate. One had to drop everything and hurry in. A corridor ran round the building on all floors (78 stairs from top to bottom), and use of the officers’ loo on the 2nd floor forbidden to Other Ranks. I shared a tin room (must have been a servant’s bedroom originally) with another WAAF typist and it was nothing to open our desk drawers and find our typing paper chewed to shreds overnight by the mice, when we arrived for work in the morning.

 

Surrounded as we were by American Air Bases, a number of WAAFs had USAAF air-crew boyfriends. We would watch the B17s and B24s forming up high in the skies early in the morning before flying off on their daylight bombing missions over Germany. On one occasion a returning USAAF Bomber Squadron buzzed Bylaugh Hall, flying extremely low over the Hall and straight down the drive. I was taking dictation and Group Captain Porte got through immediately to the American Air Force authorities to make a complaint. Needless to say, it was our habit to count the number of US bombers returning, mission completed, later in the ay, to see if any of the Squadron’s aircraft were missing.

 

The small church on the estate had fallen into disuse but G/Capt Porte had the interior cleaned up and arranged for the Padre from RAF Swanton Morley nearby to take a regular Sunday morning 11am service. He also formed a small choir (myself an enthusiastic member) and we had regular practices. He himself would play the organ at the services and I clearly remember on one occasion being most impressed by his voluntary – Bach’s ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’. In January the churchyard would be a mass of Snowdrops, and the winding path to the church flanked by celandines in Spring.

I was with 100 Group from its formation, having been posted on my own from No.1 Signals Depot, West Drayton. A group of us met up at East Rudham railway station – each of us from different Units all over the UK – where we were met by trucks and taken to RAF West Raynham where 100 Group took shape before moving to Bylaugh Hall a few weeks later.

 

I well remember that day. We arrived at the Hall in trucks in very cold weather and a penetrating drizzle. The WAAF site was a group of Nissen huts set under tall fir trees (the cones from which would drop with a ‘ping’ on the roof during the night); half a mile away from the Hall. We lined up at the Stores and were issued with our bedding blankets. I still recall that long walk through the drizzle carrying my unprotected bedding, and being direct to Hut 5. 2nd TAF had been the previous occupiers and the mattress ‘biscuits’ left on the beds. How cold and damp everything was. We set to, gathered what twigs we could find, collected fuel from the compound on our site and eventually managed to get the stove in the middle of the hut going. Our damp ‘biscuits’ sent up clouds of steam as we attempted to air them round the stove. We all felt we were in the middle of nowhere.

 

We had two severe winters there – snow for 6 weeks one winter. The hut toilets and water in the Wash House froze up and a third pair of shoes had to be issued to us as our two issue pairs, ruined by snow, were being repaired at RAF Foulsham, there being no servicing facilities on the Camp.

 

However, the summers were glorious. We sent home for our bikes – Dad sent mine by rail and I collected it from East Dereham Railway Station – and became a great cyclist, transport being scarce. If you were lucky you might get a lift on the Post Office van which made a daily run to Dereham, our main destination. The little country town would be full of servicemen and women, British, Commonwealth and American from the surrounding Bases. The Corn Exchange showed the latest films and in the evenings the pubs would be full to overflowing – thick with cigarette smoke. Many is the night that I have cycled back along the dark country roads with my bicycle dynamo (half blacked out) showing me the way.

 

Bylaugh Hall was very isolated, the little village of Bawdeswell providing the nearest pub and village shop. A local farmer would lead his bull by a rope tied to a ring through its nose, at lunchtime and terrify we poor WAAFs if we ventured to the shop on our bikes. One or two of the women in the village would take in officers’ washing. Cycling to Bawdeswell involved a hair-raising ride through the wood, which in Spring was a mass of rhododendron blooms.

 

A regular Liberty Run was set up – a truck – between the Camp and Norwich, 16 miles away. It left Bylaugh early evening and returned from Norwich Cattle Market at 10.30 pm and as there was no other form of pubic transport you were in dire straits if you missed it.

 

There was little formal discipline – no parades – and there were no fenced-off boundaries, so those erring souls who did not wish to tie themselves down to the official booking-in time could avoid booking-out in the Guard Room by using one of the many unofficial exists into the ‘back line’.

 

A Convenient farm kept our hut supplied with milk, one of our number had a regular liaison with a local farmer so we always had eggs. On Sunday mornings we would give the Cookhouse breakfast a miss, boil eggs, make toast and tea using the boiler-room furnace on the WAAF site. I discovered a gravel pit for swimming, a bike ride way, and sometimes fitted in a swim during our lunch hour. It was a beautiful spot to be stationed in when the weather was fine.

 

During the summer of 1944 Group Capt Porte had a request from local farmers for help with the pea harvest – farm labourers having been called up. Volunteers were called for to go pea-picking. It was during a heat-wave and the airmen worked in the fields stripped to the waist. Several reported sick with severe sunburn and Group Captain Porte warned that any man who allowed himself to get sunburned would be put on a Charge.

 

This is not to say that we did not work extremely hard, and very long hours especially during the six months leading up to ‘D’ Day. One duty we WAAF clerks dreaded was our turn to be Duty Clerk. This meant that following our normal day’s work we would report to the Operations Officer and all night had to pass the teleprinter signals from the Signals Room to the Duty Ops Room Officer. We were also called on for any typing that might be needed. If it was a quiet night we might snatch an hour’s sleep on the camp bed in the office. We could go over to the Cook House for a supper and would be relieved next morning by the day staff coming on duty. At first, after a Cookhouse breakfast we were expected to do our normal day’s work without a break. Eventually we were allowed the morning off before going back to work.

 

Every Tuesday night all WAAFs were confined to camp, it being designated ‘Domestic Night’. We were meant to be spending the evening giving our hut a special clean, mend our clothing, etc. It was a restriction much resented by we girls, especially as no such ruling applied to the airmen. Whether he realised this I do not know, but Group Captain Porte decided to organise an entertainment on Tuesday nights at 8pm, with a small band playing ‘Lyons corner-House’ type music. The band came over from RAF Swanton Morley and was run by Sgt Ray Ellington who had been Harry Roy’s drummer and who I had seen performing at the Croydon Empire in 1939. given the opportunity the band would revert to jazz and had a wonderful boogie woogie pianist. We would also have Spelling Bees, and I remember playing the part of Maria Martin in a scratch performance of “Maria of the Red Barn”. The only comment I received from the Group Captain next morning was “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

 

There are may other recollections such as the ‘odd character’ airman who trapped rabbits in the woods and made a business of selling them to the villagers, the airwoman messenger who left some Top Secret files on the incinerator in ‘The Rattery’ (the haunt of the ACH G/Ds), the WAAF who feigned madness in order to obtain her discharge and one of the inmates of our Hut who went AWOL with an American airman, never to be seen again, etc.

 

Peggy Pollard, LACW

 

 

"Peggy's Story" was of great interest to me, because she cycled the same tracks through the park as I did 9 years later, and she must have slept in the same Nissen huts that I entered when I lived there as a 14 year old, perhaps the Pin-ups I should have looked for were of ... Gregory, Tyrone, & Clarke, and not the girls !

I would like to thank the 100 Group Association secretary, Janine Harrington for acquiring permission for me to include Peggy's recollections.

 

Some interesting looking books have come to my attention, and it is my intention to read some of them as soon as time allows, :- see links below

 

www.amazon.co.uk/100-Group-Bomber-Support-Aviation/dp/184...

 

www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Cold-Dead-Janine-Harrington/dp/190...

 

www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Fields-Norfolk-Histories-Photograp...

 

...Dave.

 

 

Done