Gladys May Radwell b 1920.

Gladys moved to Wood Street in 1963, living at 39 Frog Grove Lane.   Her recollections of some village people includes  Lily Oddy of 12 Frog Grove Lane. She started the ‘Companias’  after the W.I. closed in about 1964, with monthly meeting & speakers, craft, sewing & outings also supporting various charities.   Lily arranged a coach load of elderly people to visit Connie Peters in her house at Old Gables in Pinks Hill for the day. The Companias giving them a full lunch. Gladys & Bill Austin of 14 Frog Grove Lane, for Gladys’ cooking & stalls on the village green. & Bill’s support for the village community.

The Russell Family.

Refer to the Yellow Book for more information.    Described as the ‘founding dynasty of Wood Street.  The earliest recorded resident being John Russell.  In the 1605 survey, there are large areas of land owned by the Russells throughout the parish.  They later concentrated on Wood Street, Old Gables (Dorothy Russell lived there until 1780), Russel Place Farm, & Hurst Farm.

 

Wing Commander Edward Comer Rigg MBE AFC RAF b 1926

Edward moved to Wood Street from London in 1982 aged 56.  He joined the RAF aged 18 in 1944, & the war had finished when he had finished training. He was in the RAF for over 30 years, flying over 60 different types of aircraft from Spitfires and the early jets such as Vampires, Tempests, Meteors and Hunters as well as large transport aircraft. He spent time at Boscombe Down test flying the Hunter, Swift and Javelin.   Edward was the first to assess the Fairey FD2, an experimental aircraft, flying at !,376 mph leading to the development of the Concorde.

Later, having risen to the rank of Wing Commander, he was put in charge of the Medium Range Transport Wing in Aden. Their role was to support the final exit airlift of the British Army from Aden.  After Aden, he went on to Staff College at Bracknell as an instructor and then to London to oversee flying operations at research establishments.    For his test flying work, Edward was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1957 and was appointed an MBE in 1965.

From 1982, when he had moved to Wood Street he worked as an expat. financial adviser. He was an active member of the Village Association and the Horticultural Society. opening the Village show in 2015.

 

 

 

Pat Ryder b 1936

Pat was born at Dunmore Farm, Worplesdon Common, Wood Street in 1936. The farm has a tithe barn mentioned in the Doomsday Book.  Dunmore Farm was a Dairy Farm in the 1900s, it had its own kiln, firing cream jugs for their dairy use. The milk was distributed until the 1930s by horse and cart. Pat’s father ( A. J. Woodman ) & mother ran the farm and milk run.  They left Wood Street & moved up North in 1943, but Pat has many childhood memories of Wood Street:

She recalls, the village green being open – like a little parkin the village centre.  Her mother would walk her to the bridge at Pink’s Hill o watch the steam trains.   A copse on their farm was a breeding ground for pheasants, partridges, hares, rabbits, foxes, & grass snakes would sun themselves there with wildflowers in abundance.

A refugee German family lived with them, Mr & Mrs Held & daughters along with two children evacuated from London. She remembers the first time the air raid siren went off. She vaguely remembers as a child being told that a German plane had crashed in their paddock, & one strafing the village.  Pat recalls the Canadian soldiers camping on the farm. Her sister, Diana, 12 years older, as a teenager,  having a very social time with them.  The Canadians were very kind, building her a swing & making a fuss.  Her mother cooked for them using their rations and whatever was in her vegetable garden.   She understands many of the Canadian regiment were killed in the invasion of France that followed their stay in Wood Street but can’t recall the regiment name. (Possibly Canadian Second Division who had an advanced HQ near Henley Park on the Ash – Pirbright Road.)

 

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