Heyshott In Two World Wars

 
1939 -1945
 
We do not know exactly how many Heyshott men were in the forces during the Second World War and there is very little about it in the Parish Council minutes except that Arthur Gumbrell was absent from the meeting in October 1940 because he was in the forces and it was resolved to keep his place open until his return. The names of nine men who died were added to the war memorial in the church. Agricultural workers were in a 'reserved occupation' but, in spite of this, a lot joined up and several of the younger women joined the 'Womens Land Army'.
 
When the war began, village units of the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard) and the Auxiliary Fire Service were quickly organised and Albert Fowler, the Warden of the Cobden Club, was the 'commander' of both. He held their parades on the drive to the Rectory and their headquarters were originally in the village room, opposite the School. Later a Nissan hut was erected in the corner of the field immediately to the north of the Club's garden.
 
One night, when a stick of German incendary bombs was dropped on Ambersham Common, on the east side of the road to Ambersham, a member of the AFS, who lived at what is now Nether Hoyle, phoned Mr. Fowler to tell him that the common was on fire and that he, with some others, was going to try to put out the flames. 'Indeed, you won't' said Fowler ' that is Graffham's responsibility'.
 
But the war had a considerable effect on the village because many families were without their menfolk and they were frightened not only for the men but also because of the considerable amount of air activity. Furthermore, compared to much of Britian, Heyshott was not far from the Channel at a time when there was a very real threat of invasion along the south coast.
 
Many German planes flew south over the village after raids on London and, if the defences had prevented them from dropping their bombs, they would unload them on their way back home. Several bombs exploded in Heyshott. A few landed relatively harmlessly but one destroyed Lt. Col. Miles Reid's greenhouse at Hoyle Farm and three fell at the bottom of the fields below Long (now Nether) Hoyle. One of these, which fell in the woods, failed to explode and had to be dealt with by the Bomb Disposal Squad. Of the other two, one made a pond in the corner of the field and blew the side of a mobile chicken house, completely plucking one of the hens. The latter miraculously survived. The other crater became an excellent place for dumping rubbish.
 
Another string of three or four small bombs fell relatively harmlessly in a feild at Manor Farm on the east side of Hoyle Lane. A few fell without doing much damage on the top of the Downs. At night the cones of the search lights made a thrilling site as they searched the sky for enemy planes and occasionally caught one which appeared like a silver gnat against the black sky.
In 1940 and 1941 streams of German bombers droning overhead on their way to London and the Midlands were an alarming sight, as were the heavy night raids on Portsmouth which produced an ominous red glow in the sky.