MVT 09 Hanging Around Traditional Geocache
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Depending on the time of day it can be a very high muggle area or almost no muggles at all.
Set in the beautiful Forest of Marston Vale. The Vale is one of 12 Community Forests in England. Community Forests were set up around towns and cities in the early 1990s, to improve land affected by industrial use in the past. The Forest of Marston Vale covers 61 square miles of Bedfordshire between Ampthill, Milton Keynes and Bedford
Willington had its war experiences even though it was a small village. Evacuees were billeted here from 1939. The village also had a part in the anti-aircraft defences and had searchlights for a time. Two bombs from the same attack fell nearby one on the railway line between Willington and Blunham and the other in Mr. Lack’s garden which was said to have made a crater you could put a bus in.
Rations were sent to Willington during the war, in July 1942, for emergencies. These consisted of:
230 tins, each containing 15lbs biscuits.
19 cases, each containing 48 tins corned beef.
10 cases, each containing 48 tins soup.
17 cases, each containing 28lbs.sugar.
5 cases, each containing 48 tins condensed milk
6 cases, each containing 20 tins Margarine
5 cases, each containing 25lbs tea.
The supplies were divided into three lots: one was stored at the Vicarage, one in Mr. Stokes barn and one lot at Mr Godber’s. Arrangements were made for Mr Gilbert to act as a butcher in case of need, with a slaughter house on Grange farm. Emergency stocks of flour were kept by Mr Pink for the baking of bread, if necessary.
Prisoners of War were accommodated in camps near the village and over one hundred of them came here to work. Interestingly the trusted ones had cottages which Mark Young owned and went with their jobs in the market garden. Land Army girls from local army camps also worked there.
Concerts were put on in the Village Hall to raise money for the service men when they came home from the war. Willington was one of the first villages to do this. Mr. Pink got a band together with other members of the community. Lily Bygraves played accordion, other members including Frank and Mary Godber, Don and Florrie Stokes and Edna Martin sang and acted. They even took their concert to London.
Sadly a number of men from the village lost their lives in the service of their country during Second World War. Memorials to them, and to the even larger number who died in the First World War, are in St. Lawrence Church and in the Peace Memorial Hall.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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