The Poundon Pilots
ackie Moreton rediscovers the joy of flying on a trip to the countryside of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
P E chocolate-box villages paint a beautiful picture. Amongst grand and revered names such as Stratton Audley, Marsh Gibbon, Steeple Aston and Middleton Stoney lies a rather small and unassuming hamlet known as Poundon.
Situated about four miles north-east of Bicester and three miles south-west of Steeple Claydon and with a population of just 114, Poundon is a peaceful little place.
Whilst on the surface the hamlet doesn’t appear to hold any significant secrets, pivotal events have happened here in the past that have helped to shape England and the skies above her, and in the present continue to surprise above and beyond the everyday.
Poundon House, a prominent ueenAnne-style property, holds the key to Poundon’s past and is the mainstay of its most prominent secret.
Formerly owned by the military man and gentleman cricketer Colonel ohn Heyward Lonsdale, it was re uisitioned by Winston Churchill and his Special Operations Executive SOE during World War II as a training facility for female agents parachuted across enemy lines.
With the aid of poem-based ciphers and portable Morse radio sets, agents such as Odette transmitted wireless messages back to secret mainland radio stations set up to support the sabotage and resistance activities of the SOE abroad and Churchill’s directive “to set Europe abla e”.
Formerly known as Station 53c during the war, Poundon Hill Radio Station was used specifically for this purpose, and also provided the raw material for Enigma codebreakers based at Poundon and the more well-known Bletchley Park some 20 miles away.
Despite minor setbacks, including the dropping of a bomb at the end of the drive, intelligence work continued on at Poundon House throughout WWII until the late 1970s when the Cold War Period ended. With its direct line of sight to the kraine, Poundon Hill Radio Station carried out operations until as recently as ten years ago.
Arriving in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire area to work at Bicester Village, it is fascinating to discover so much of Poundon’s secret past, and to hear about the vitally important activities that were going on hidden away from the outside eyes of the world.
The location is truly idyllic. Surrounded by green, lush open fields and well-kept farms, it’s almost as if time stands still here, listening to the birdsong and watching the pear blossom slowly climb the walls of the outside barns. It’s easy to understand why this location was chosen by the SOE so many years ago.
In the present my evenings are spent at Manor Farm, a beautiful B B built midway along Main Street. The hospitality provided by its owners, Andrew and eannette Collett, is second to none and every few weeks those staying at the house come together to watch inspirational films with strong biographical stories.
The fledgling Poundon Film Club, with its own cinematic screen projector, runs every Thursday in a large, charismatic workshop at the back of Manor Farm. During the day it’s used to build and restore vintage aircraft
One evening sitting around the
farmhouse table, Andrew suddenly remarks, “Would you like to come and see my aeroplane It’s just over there across the fields.”
After a short pause of astonishment, we jump into the car and head down the lane before turning off on to a small dirt track. Ahead, the metal frame of an aircraft hangar is taking shape and then there she is the aeroplane built by himself from a flat-pack kit shipped over from the nited States of America
Andrew’s aeroplane a Vans RV10 is a beautiful thing to behold. As well as the main build, he completed all of the cockpit electronics himself.
With mandatory Light Aircraft Association LAA examinations and certifications, and final flight tests to certify airworthiness, the project took three years to complete. With a taxiway and landing strip kept nice and trim by a ride-on lawnmower, and illuminated with stronger-than-average garden lights bought at B , Andrew often jokes, “Welcome to Poundon International Airport ”
Later I come to learn about the broader world of the Poundon Pilots that Andrew is part of a small group of men and women in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire area, many with backgrounds in farming and all with a passion for flying light aircraft across the magnificent English countryside.
Living within a small radius of each other and meeting every month, Andrew, Frank, Chris, Arthur, Phil, Pat, Peter and Geraldine adore flying and regularly regale each other with new, intrepid stories of their individual adventures in the skies every time they meet.
The more intricate technicalities of building and maintaining these beautiful aircraft are also typically addressed.
After that, as I drive between villages, I begin to notice the number of air socks dotted here and there to indicate wind speed and direction for take-off and landing, and the number of small wooden or metal structures built not too far away from them.
Hidden away from view, a flying machine of some sort is frequently found within. Driving past ordinarily, you’d never realise what lovely secrets these little sheds hold
Driving in this area of England brings me back along memory lane and the days that I spent here as an Oxford niversity student. At the weekends I would take the train out to Bicester North and walk to the Royal Air Force Gliding and Soaring Centre R.A.F.G.S.C now known as Bicester Heritage.
I used to fly gliders here almost every weekend, completing my Silver C international licence with a distance flight down to Lasham of 4 km, a duration flight of more than six hours alone in the air and a height gain of more than 3,000 feet perhaps the most significant aspects of this aerial award.
Driving past the fields of yellow rapeseed, I remember flying high above them years ago along brilliant, beautiful cloud streets. These types of fields were the ones we were trained to avoid in the event of landing out, however magnificent they looked from the air.
Even today I still look at fields in the way I did then as a university glider pilot. Is the field large enough to land in Is it short grass Are there any animals in the field or electricity pylons close by to avoid One of my favourite memories is flying in over a hedge to land in a field with two young boys sitting on the gate. As I landed they came running over to me, closely followed by a curious Shire horse that had been hiding beneath the canopy of an oak tree. With no mobile phone in those days, the two boys looked after the glider admirably whilst I went to find the farmer and radio back to the Soaring Centre for an aero-tow out.
How amazing that felt, lifting softly above the ground behind the tug, holding my position until once again we were high above the beautiful soft white clouds.
With enough height to get back to the airfield, the pilot of the tug waved his wings and I pulled the release knob to release the rope between us. As he swept down to the left, I turned to the right, gaining position before heading back to the airfield and landing again safely. These were indeed the glory days of youth Every year in une a special celebration of all things vintage and vehicular is hosted by Bicester Heritage at its annual Flywheel event. A dazzling display of vintage aeroplanes lights up the sky with stunning enactments of aerial dogfights from bygone days.
The fabulous Lysander featured in the film “Allied” is one of the larger aircraft on display. Vintage motorcycles such as Lawrence of Arabia’s beloved Brough Superior (from 1931) illuminate a temporary racetrack set up for the weekend as motorcycles from years gone by spin spectacular circles around the dazzling Demon Drome wall of death I pay for a ticket to attend Brightwells Classic Car Auction, being held inside the main hangar. Listening to the auction, I remember the cold weekend mornings spent wheeling the single-seater glider out for circuit flights in the autumn, and beautiful long days in the summer when we’d soar ever higher towards cloud base.
In the evenings I’d bring this beautiful sailplane in to land as the sun fell softly below the horizon line, and push her back into the hangar with my gliding comrades at arms, the evening air cold on my face, back to rest and wait for the party in the bar to end, heads to fall upon pillows and another glorious adventure to begin the next day.
This amazing site has seen so much history, and has been part of so many secrets itself. Many of the Royal Air Force’s most advanced bombers of the time were based at Bicester airfield prior to World War II.
During 1943 to 1944, Lilian Rolfe served as a WAAF at Bicester in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force before going on to become an SOE agent.
She was later captured and executed at Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. Her name is immortalised in the film “Carve Her Name With Pride” alongside Violette Szabo and Denise Bloch.
The site has even been a film set itself with the powerhouse at Bicester Airfield featuring as Hut 11 in “The Imitation Game” the location of the computer designed and built by Alan Turing to crack the Enigma code. Which brings us full circle again to the start of this article where we began.
Parked very close by, I come across a lovely, bright red van with the signatory word Wonka written boldly across it in bright yellow letters. An indication that a certain man with a chocolate factory is on site at the Flywheel Festival, perhaps
Or that something even bolder is at play, whispering to me to acknowledge that our imaginations are everything, and that we should never lose sight of the beautiful and bold adventures we’re brave enough to experience during our youth, and whenever they may happen thereafter.
As I leave this intriguing place from my past, I realise that no matter how many years pass by, such beautiful associations never really leave us.
They are always there in the shadows of our minds to remind us how wonderful life is, and how secrets and stories can often be found where you least expect to encounter them. All we need to do is to take the time to look