The village of Wroxham is 6 miles north-east of Norwich and lies on the southern bank of the river Bure, with the village of Hoveton lying directly opposite on the north side of the river.
Name | Occupation | Posted from | Until |
---|---|---|---|
Sergeant George Henry Mixer | Carpenter's works manager |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private John Lewis Chapman | Carpenter's overseer |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Raymond George Chapman | Foreman - Army hut erector |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Henry Frampton Edwards | Carpenter |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Reginald Herbert Moore | Articulated lorry driver |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Harry Philip Everett Neave | War Office & Admiralty Contractor, Managing Director |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Oswald George Tovell | Carpenter |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Wroxham Patrol’s OB was located in Bear’s Grove, a private woodland to the south-west of Wroxham, adjoining the railway line.
It may be especially well hidden but more likely it was destroyed after stand-down. The gamekeeper has never found an underground structure or anything else that might have been an OB during all the years he has been employed by Mr Trafford, the woodland’s owner.
What we did find is a concrete base of a former structure, origin and purpose unknown. It measures approximately 4.30 (L) x 1.50(W) metres and could have served as a footing for a light building. Only a quarter of the floor has been concreted over. The footing is about 10 centimetres wide and goes 15 centimetres deep into the ground. Set into the concrete all around the rim, as well as into the solid concreted area, are 5/8 of an inch bolts, spaced at regular intervals. These bolts are quite corroded so this is not a new structure. It is located about 10 metres beside a forest track that, according to historic maps, would have been a small public road or a lane or track in the 1940s.
Wroxham Patrol
The site is recorded on Defence of Britain database as an Auxiliary Unit Operational Base – “with hatch controlled by pulling branch connected by wire mechanism. Corrugated iron roof. Brick-built store for explosives, with concrete roof and steel doors. Recorder was unable to locate site".
[Information to recorder from Mr T Colquitt, former member of Norfolk Scout Patrol.] (William Ward, Field visit 1999/7)
TNA ref WO199/3389
Hancock data held at B.R.A
Evelyn Simak and Adrian Pye
Dr William Ward, Defence of Britain.
'Churchill’s Underground Army' (2008) by J Warwicker