West Stoke is the gateway to Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve, a beautiful, important and unusual part of the South Downs.
Name | Occupation | Posted from | until |
---|---|---|---|
Sergeant Arthur Goodger | Farmer |
05 Jul 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Sergeant Robert Stanley Mason | Farmer |
03 Apr 1941 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Algenon Donald Burningham | Coal Merchant |
05 Jul 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private William George Donald Cox | Farm Assistant |
19 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Ernest Edwin Everest | Baker & Roundsman |
01 Aug 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Charles Goodger | Managing Director of Ford & Fordson Tractor Main Dealers & Agricultural Engineer |
14 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Arthur Hamilton Hadland | Farm Worker & Huntsman |
27 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private John Painter Heaver | Poultry & Dairy Farmer. Mill Owner |
30 Oct 1941 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Henry Lawrence Ireland | Dairy & General Farmer |
09 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Henry Parmiter Lock | Foremans Clerk Company |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Ronald Owen Murray | Dental Surgeon |
08 Jun 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Arthur Smith | Farm Tractor Driver & Sub Postmaster |
30 Jun 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private John Edwin Styles | Common Keeper |
09 Jul 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Christopher Yaldren Vickery | Dairy & General Farmer |
30 Jun 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
Private Raymond Harry Wingate | Farm Carter & General Labourer |
20 Jul 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
The OB has not yet been discovered and could have been destroyed at the end of the war. Kingley Vale is an isolated ancient Yew tree plantation set in a natural horse shoe shaped valley, facing south eastwards.
The Patrols Observational Post is sited adjacent to a bridleway that gains access to top of Kingley Vale. This would have been a great vantage point to monitor German movements around the area. It measured 6 feet by 4 feet and was constructed with corrugated iron and wood. Entrance was gained by lifting a branch attached to the two foot square hatch which had a counterbalance weight to assist the process. The OP was known to have a telephone link to the patrols OB sited in the bottom of the valley.
An additional underground store was positioned within the valley for extra food and ammunition.
West Stoke Patrol
Auxilier Alan Heaver from Goodwood Patrol remembered doing a great deal of training with the neighbouring West Stoke Patrol of which his other brother, Jack, was a member. On one such night-time training exercise, the two Patrols had to simulate laying an explosive charge on a guarded anti-aircraft gun at a place called Temple Bar about one mile north of Tangmere airfield. The guards around the 'Ack-Ack' gun had been warned that an attack might be attempted some time that night, and not to fire live ammunition at the attackers.
The two Patrols met up at Shopwyke, about two miles away from the target site. Alan Heaver was teamed up with Stanley Mason, the West Stoke Patrol Leader. As they made their way towards Temple Bar Alan Heaver, being the younger man, started to pull away from Stanley Mason and reached the target site first. He entered the perimeter of the site, got right up to the gun, chalked a swastika on it and escaped the same way without detection. He had completed the exercise long before the other men arrived. Unsure what to do with the remaining time; he decided to have another go and chalk a second swastika on the gun. This was a bad move; he was caught, as were all the others eventually.
All the men were taken to see an army officer at Halnaker Windmill. The officer consoled the men on their failed attack, at which Alan Heaver said he had managed to mark the gun and was only caught on his second attempt. The officer, most put out, demanded to be shown the swastika and drove Alan Heaver back to the site to see for himself.
TNA reference WO199/3391
Hancock data held at B.R.A
Stewart Angell – Fieldwork within Kingley Vale and personal interview with Bob Mason, Stanley Mason’s son,
'The Secret Sussex Resistance' by Stewart Angell