Spaxton Suboutstation

Located at Pightley House, Spaxton, the home of Lieutenant Colonel John Markham Ingram DSO. The wireless was hidden in the outside toilet and adjoining potting shed of the house.  

Ingram's son, 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Ingram, knew nothing of his father's involvement with Special Duties until he returned to Pightley House towards the end of the war to find men removing the wireless set from the outbuilding. He recalled he was surprised that he had never noticed the aerial attached outside before then.

In his memoirs Tom Ingram recalled; "My father, for whom any bodily function caused extreme embarrassment, and who believed in drenching himself every morning with a revolting infusion of senna pods, favoured a large, airy room built appropriately into one end of the potting shed. It was screened from view by impenetrable Laurels. During the war he was made commander of the local underground. If the Germans landed, he and the Rector, who was a Yorkshireman, he learnt me detective stories, were going to contact their fellow maquissards by means of the network of paths which then crisscrossed the fields to every farm and cottage. Some wag decided that what they needed was a wireless transmitter so they could receive their orders. But where to hide it?
One day a squad of Signallers arrived, looked round and pitched on Father’s favourite lavatory at the end of the potting shed. They assumed this was the most impenetrable site to the minds of the enemy. They scooped a hole under the window sill and that was that. All Father had to do was tug one of the sash cords, slide back the sill and there was his wireless. He had the greatest difficulty tuning the battery powered radio he bought so we could listen to George VI’s coronation, so his secret transmitter must have caused enormous operational problems.
Foolishly, I never asked him if he had to transmit in Morse or clear. Safely hidden by the Laurel hedge with his covert wireless station – what was his call sign – he could perform his senna induced duties in secure secrecy."

Ingram's Grandson remembered the house full of mementos of the Raj, a tiger skin rug and a terrifying wild boars head at the top of the stairs. 

Interviewed by Mac Hawkins for his book Somerset at War, Fritz Coles recalled; "I only knew that Reg Shattock was in it, but knew of nobody else. We met at Pightley House, Spaxton and spent a month or two studying identification - enemy tanks, gun carriages, and so on - also German regiments of the line - so we would be able to identify them easily. We had secret meeting places where we could leave messages - there was a place at the top of Enmore Hill - a couple of big stones which was our 'post box'. We never did leave any messages!"

Another man reported to have been involved was remembered as "The Sergeant". It is unknow at present who he was or where his "rank" was associated with. He was a more flamboyant type, possibly an artist and many recall may have been a conscientious objector. He is the tallest man with the beard in the photographs. He may be Arthur Stanley Gair Wilkinson of The Splatts.