Heyshott in Two World Wars

 
One day when Celia Poulton (later Clayton) was riding her bicycle home from school in Midhurst, a very low flying German plane machine gunned the station, and then the road she was on, before bombing the town and doing considerable damage. Celia was absolutely terrified, but fortunately unhurt and, when she turned round, she actually saw bombs drop.
 
Farmers had to put big logs or tree trunks in fields large enough for planes to land on, but a Lysander being flown by two Polish airmen succeeded in landing in the field on the west side of Hoyle Lane. They had lost their way and were in danger of running out of fuel. Later in the day a British pilot arrived and took off without difficulty.
 
A very low flying RAF Blenheim crashed in the field between Coldharbour and the Foundry but although the crew were injured none of them was killed. A Spitfire crashed on the top of the Downs but the pilot, who escaped by parachute, only twisted his ankle. Another British aircraft crashed near the crossroads near Heyshott Common. The pilot's parachute was damaged but he landed safely near Polecats. His plane hit the ground at full speed and almost none of it was left visible. It had been going so fast that it almost completely buried itself.
 
There was a gun emplacement, which still exists, on the heath to the north of the village. there is no record of it being used, but it became an excellent playground for children for many years after the war was over.

Pillbox, Heyshott - photo- Phil Dixon, May 2007 - enlarge

There was a small aerodrome at Ambersham, where one of the Cowdray polo grounds is now. It was surrounded by Dutch barns used as hangers for the Walrus flying boats with folding wings. They made many rescues over the English Channel and were a familiar sight as the flew low over Heyshott.
 
Francis Reid provided space at Hoyle Farm for an Army medical unit with 17 beds for which she was paid 35 shillings a week. Prior to D-day there was an RAF field hospital on the common close to Marsh pond and, Canadian troops were camped on Heyshott and Ambersham Commons on both sides of the road to the railway bridge close to Little London. They often went to the Unicorn in the evenings and were rather noisy as they walked singing back to their camp. One night they noticed a young lady in the upstairs window of her house in Hoyle Lane and they started to serenade her. She had been the school mistress, Miss Standing, who had shortly before married Arthur Gumbrell. He happened to be at home on leave and they departed very quickly when he opened the front door. On another occasion Mrs Jackson, who by then lived in Hoyle Lane, found a couple of soldiers picking peas at the bottom of her garden. She thinks they had walked across the fields from the pub and were just collecting a snack on their way back to camp!
 
As has been mentioned in the chapter about the Schools, evacuees arrived in September 1939 but, when nothing much happened in the first winter of the war, some went home, only to return when the blitz on London began.