Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

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Phil
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Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Phil » Thu Feb 10, 2022 12:30 pm

A visitor emailed me this query. It may be such that only US troops were at these locations, but he is looking for information related to any wartime information related to these sites.
Hello,

I wonder if you could help me with my research into an army encampment in the grounds of Worthy Park House which is north of Winchester, Hampshire in England. Local people talk of an American Army unit there but this is just hearsay and I'm keen to gather real facts, hopefully to corroborate this.

Looking through your excellent list of army locations in WW2 I see reference to 29th and 49th Ordnance bomb disposal squadrons at Worthy Park and Kings Worthy. Do have any further information about these sites and units e.g. dates, plans, photos etc.

Interestingly, the huts left behind after WW2 were used to accommodate local families at a time of housing shortage as the huts were built to a greater specification than British army nissen huts. We are in contact with a few people who actually grew up there and we have promised to find out as much as we can for them.

If you have no further information could you possibly suggest who might be able to help?

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for time and interest.

Best Wishes,

Derek Brockway on behalf of the Worthys Local History Group
Phil

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:05 am

I’m assuming that your inquirer will be check our site to see what information, if any, we find?

I’ve not researched this type of unit before in the US Army, but I’ll see what I can find.

First, I’ve found that most likely the name of these units was 29th and 49th Ordnance bomb disposal SQUAD (not squadron). Everything I have seen so far dedicates these were smaller “sub units” of larger ORDNANCE BATTALIONS……..so right now, what I’m trying to do is find out “what” Ordnance Battalion these two units belonged to, and then see if I can find any unit histories on them.

I’ll report back what I can find.

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:52 am

While searching for information I found this EXCELLENT site on Military Camps in England. I have NOT found Worthy Park House in it (yet)…..but I might suggest this is definitely a website to contact and see what they have

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/ar ... nloads.cfm

they have information, including camp maps, photo’s of what exists today etc etc that I have NOT seen before, and which I will be examining for.

Some excellent maps showing “where” all the Camps were in England (unfortunately camps are not named on the maps….but shows you the breath and scope of military camps).

NOTE: this includes camps from 1858 - 2000, but also includes WW2 Camps and Overlord Camps etc.

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Phil » Fri Feb 11, 2022 11:26 am

Temujin wrote:
Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:52 am
While searching for information I found this EXCELLENT site on Military Camps in England. I have NOT found Worthy Park House in it (yet)…..but I might suggest this is definitely a website to contact and see what they have.
Great find! I have not had any luck myself finding much detail on Worthy Park House during wartimes.
Phil

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:16 pm

This is a hard one Phil. I haven’t found much on Worthy Park house. I have found info that says the British Army used the site in WW2 but haven’t found much else.

So, I started looking for the “camp” info and found some (some that I had posted previously)…….and haven’t found much on it specifically yet AND this is the first time I found that other link that I posted above. He has some great info on other camps I’ve tried to research in the past (so that’s a big bonus to this search)

And started searching for the 29 or 49th Ordnance Bomb Disposal Squad and again haven’t found anything. I have found LOT’s of info on other similar units but nothing on the 29 or 49th……..if I can find their specific unit they belonged to (a Ordnance Battalion) I might be able to find more info. I’m starting to wonder if either of these units actually existed.

Still looking………

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:37 pm

Unfortunately, Worthy Park House is “just” outside of this map (approx the red circle), to the north east of Winchester (in red square), which is at the top right of this map
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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:57 pm

I’ve been trying to find the “camp” on any official map……..so far no luck……..on this map I’ve place the position (red arrow) and you can see all the KNOWN D Day Marshalling Camps. This camp was just above Southampton………Most of the camps in this area were used by the Canadian’s in their intial marshalling for D Day…………….still looking
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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by BFBSM » Fri Feb 11, 2022 1:57 pm

I haven’t been able to find anything on Worthy Park. I have found dates of arrival in the UK for Bomb Disposal Squads.

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 2:02 pm

Excellent find Mark……..I’m assuming these are US Bomb Disposal Units…….and I see both the 29th and 49th are on this list so that’s confirmation they existed and were in the UK……..

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Re: Worthy Park House, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Post by Temujin » Fri Feb 11, 2022 2:16 pm

OK, now were starting to get somewhere…….found this record on the 29th and their CO (which I will now follow up and see if I can find more)

This is at a document for construction at the Port of Cherbourg
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