Bruton Patrol

The OB was thought to be at Raggs Copse on Dropping Lane Farm, South of Bruton. This was the home of Area and Group Commander Captain “Dickie” Hunt. There was a Observational Post nearby. This copse has been enlarged, replanted and extended so it joins other copses, which makes it all a bigger wooded area making the original copse difficult to locate for sure. In 2017 there were a lot of nettles covering the ground in this area so it is hard to see anything in or on the ground. There are remains of a stone built building in this wood the use for which is unknown.

It is also thought the Patrol had a second base at Milton Clevedon, North of Bruton, at Milton Woods. After a site visit in  2017, and a previous search around 10 years before, all that was found was a hollow in the ground though the wood has full ground cover, blue bells, ivy and nettles, etc, so it is hard to see anything on the ground. The length of the hollow is approximately at right angles to the stream bed, and runs to the stream bank. The approximate South East part of the wood, is more of a possibility as it is higher, and as it has a stream with higher banks, running down this part of the wood, this would be a dryer part of the wood to site an OB, and it would give a good opportunity for a escape tunnel to run out into the stream. The stream that runs down through the wood, could have provided the Patrol with a water source, and a possible escape route out of their escape tunnel.

Sergeant Ted Edmondson remembered using the Operational Base at Creech Hill though this has been recorded as the North Somerset Scout Section base. As the OB was very large it would have made sense for the Bruton Patrol to have made use of the structure especially after the Scouts had been disbanded in late 1942.