Norfolk Pill-Boxes

[Peter Laidler]

My wifes family from Faringdon and Shrivenham have a very warm and close connection with Coleshill house, the ancestral home of the secret army. In fact, we drove past the grounds today to meet friends for lunch in Highworth. Her mothers family firm, Pugh, the plumbers from Faringdon were working in the attic areas of Coleshill house when it is said that one of their hand held blowlamps was not properly extinguished and.... Well the rest is history but hence the warm association. Luckily the Pugh plumbing business survived will into early his century whereas Coleshill house didn't. It really was a run-down shambles by the time it burned down. Wifeys best friend from school lived down the hill, some 50 yards from the house and she took me around the grounds a couple of years ago and showed me where the old loco used to be and the remains of an old tank and 'stuff' in the woods plus grated and sealed entrances were. It was their playground in the 50's. Knapps the builders used a lot of the old house stonework. Shame that there's none left as one of the surrounding walls has just fallen down