1936 – 1952 George VI – Loxwood in the Windsor period

John Elliott Dies at Cranleigh, January 1937

John Elliott, whose shop had occupied Hill Top on the Loxwood road for many years, died at Cranleigh in January 1937, aged eighty-eight. The West Sussex Gazette published his obituary on 28 January. Elliott had been a grocer and shopkeeper from the later Victorian period, retiring from the business around 1914. His name was also connected with the Reading Rooms: in 1896 he gave ground for the building, which provided books and a place for clubs and meetings before the Comrades’ Hut was erected after the First World War.

The building and the shop belonged to different parts of Loxwood’s social life. The Reading Rooms had been funded and used by village organisations, while the shop supplied provisions and postal services to households scattered across the nearby farms. By the time of Elliott’s death the stores at Hill Top were trading within a village that had acquired motor buses, a telephone exchange and the proposal for a new permanent hall on Guildford Road.

West Sussex Approves a New Parish for Loxwood, March 1937

West Sussex County Council decided in March 1937 to proceed with an order creating a separate civil parish of Loxwood from part of Wisborough Green. Newspapers reported the decision on 4 and 5 March. The proposed line followed the existing ecclesiastical district in broad outline and took account of the recreation grounds and public property discussed at the December inquiry. The County Council’s approval preceded the formal date on which the new civil parish came into being: 1 April 1938. Petworth Rural District Council retained its district responsibilities for housing, public health and other matters.

The order made arrangements for two councils, with nine members proposed for each at the inquiry. Wisborough Green and Loxwood would have their own parish meetings, minutes and accounts when the division took effect. Loxwood’s ecclesiastical district had already been created in 1873 for Church of England purposes; the county’s order dealt with civil administration, including representation and local expenditure. In April 1937 the building of North Hall gave residents a new place to assemble before the formal civil boundary was altered.

Joy North Lays the Foundation Stone, 3 April 1937

Mark Frederick North of Loxwood House offered to give a site on Guildford Road near the junction with Spy Lane and to pay for a new village hall. North kept an interest in livestock and bred Brown Swiss cattle; his gift addressed a practical problem faced by clubs whose membership and activities had increased since the Reading Rooms opened in the 1890s. The wooden Memorial Hut could accommodate gatherings, but the proposed hall would have a larger main room, a balcony, dressing rooms and space for about 200 people.

Architect Claud Kay designed the building with Rudgwick brick walls, a tiled roof and oak outside joinery. Work progressed rapidly because North wanted the hall ready for Coronation Day. On Saturday 3 April villagers gathered around the unfinished structure while Joy North laid its foundation stone. Miss Slee presented her with an inscribed silver trowel on behalf of the inhabitants. Builders were still completing walls, roof and windows around the ceremony, and the hall’s new pipes and wiring were ready for services that had yet to reach the village.

Major Corrall Farmer spoke at the gathering. He had been associated with the Reading Rooms forty years earlier and had served on local church and village committees. He recalled the earlier meeting places and said that Loxwood had approximately doubled in size during the previous twenty years. The new hall was also being built close to houses and shops along the northern approach, giving the Guildford Road and Spy Lane junction a building used by the whole village.

The Coronation and the Opening of North Hall, 12 May 1937

George VI and Queen Elizabeth were crowned at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 12 May 1937. Archbishop Cosmo Lang conducted the service, and the royal family watched from the Abbey as the king took the oath and received the crown. The BBC transmitted the coronation procession on television, and radio brought accounts to listeners far from London. The date had originally been chosen for Edward VIII’s coronation, which made the day of particular importance to a new king who had inherited the throne only five months earlier.

At Loxwood, Mrs North formally opened North Hall on Coronation Day. Local people entered a permanent brick building that had stood as an open building site at the beginning of April. Its hall provided room for meetings, concerts, dances and the work of the new parish council, with dressing rooms for performers and a balcony overlooking the main floor.

At the village school pupils heard about the new king and the ceremony in Westminster Abbey. In Loxwood the opening of North Hall brought a second celebration on the same day, with villagers assembling at the building given by Mark Frederick North of Loxwood House.

Fred and Mary Kilner Carry the Villages, 1937

Fred Henry Kilner had bought the Sunbeam Bus Service from Jesse William Wise in April 1933, paying £450 for a business that included a fourteen-seat Dodge bus. He based the operation in a former coal yard on Guildford Road between Linden House and the telephone exchange. By the middle of the decade the business had expanded to regular journeys between Plaistow and Horsham through Ifold, Loxwood, Alfold, Tismans Common and Bucks Green. School journeys, excursions and private hire added to the ordinary passenger service.

The figures for 1935, still useful in George VI’s opening year, recorded 39,142 tickets, 4,276 journeys and 57,800 service miles. A family could take a bus into Horsham for shopping or to change trains, while a schoolchild might travel to Billingshurst or Wisborough Green. The operator had to keep the timetable, collect fares, maintain tyres and engines and comply with the conditions imposed by the Traffic Commissioner. Mary Kilner held a licence to drive public-service vehicles and took the wheel when necessary; their daughter Freda later worked on the vehicles as a conductor and driver.

The buses were remembered for the practical details of village travel. Passengers sometimes brought baskets of poultry, parcels and bulky goods, and one attempted to board at Plaistow with a live calf. Fred accepted chickens in baskets but refused the calf. These vehicles carried the district’s ordinary journeys through the remaining peaceful months and were later adapted to the demands of the armed forces, evacuees and war workers.

The Medieval Altar Stone Is Reconsecrated, 5 December 1937

At Wisborough Green the great medieval altar stone associated with Loxwood’s first place of worship was brought back into church use. On 5 December 1937 George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, reconsecrated it for worship at St Peter ad Vincula. The stone had been found in the vicarage garden earlier in the decade. Its connection with Loxwood had been recorded by Henry Frederick Napper in 1883, when he described how the altar had been removed from the chapel during the Reformation and concealed in the chimney of the neighbouring priest’s house, now Church Cottage.

The stone bears medieval consecration crosses and is made from sandstone associated with Henley Hill. After its removal from Church Cottage it had been carried to Wisborough Green vicarage, where it was used as a garden seat. In the twentieth century clergy recovered it from the garden and arranged for its examination and return to worship. The ceremony of December 1937 reunited the old chapel stone with the mother church from which Loxwood had separated as an ecclesiastical parish in 1873.

The Memorial Hut Is Put Up for Sale, January 1938

North Hall’s opening changed the future of the wooden Memorial Hut opposite the churchyard. In January 1938 the old building and its contents were advertised for sale by tender. The advertised structure measured sixty feet by twenty feet, with a small shed. The sale included the piano, about fifty chairs, card tables, lamps, crockery, curtains, stage and clock that had furnished concerts, meetings and whist drives for fifteen years.

Inspection was arranged on specified days in late January and early February, and tenders were due by 12 February. The hall was sold later that year. The former servicemen who had carried its building and fitted it out after the First World War had left the village a lasting series of meetings, performances and photographs.

North Hall Hosts the Clubs, Early 1938

North Hall quickly acquired a public calendar. In February 1938 R. G. Blackman’s Popular Concert Party advertised a performance to raise money for hall funds, with tickets priced between threepence and one shilling. The following month the West Horsham Group of Women’s Institutes held its annual conference in the building. Miss Farmer welcomed the visitors on behalf of Loxwood Women’s Institute, recalling that earlier halls had been too small for such a gathering.

Loxwood Becomes a Civil Parish, 1 April 1938

On 1 April 1938 the new civil parish of Loxwood was formally created from the northern part of Wisborough Green. The administrative change covered approximately 4,535 acres. Loxwood now belonged to Petworth Rural District as a distinct civil parish, and the separate parish council could undertake the duties assigned to it under local-government law. Wisborough Green kept its own parish council and continued to administer the territory that remained within its boundary.

The line altered the civil status of properties with long connections to Wisborough Green. Brewhurst Mill, Drungewick and much of the country around the River Lox entered Loxwood civil parish, while Newpound and the older centre around Wisborough Green church remained in the neighbouring parish. The church boundary established during Victoria’s reign had supplied much of the basis for the division. The decision reported in March 1937 was thus followed by the legal commencement in April 1938.

Water and Electricity Reach Loxwood, 1938

Mains water and electricity reached Loxwood during 1938, following the promises discussed at North Hall’s foundation ceremony the previous year. Contractors laid or connected the necessary distribution services, and houses and businesses could arrange individual connections. North Hall had been provided with pipework and electrical wiring before the supply was ready, so the new building could make use of the incoming services. Lighting extended the usefulness of its main hall for evening performances and meetings.

For individual households the change depended upon whether the owner paid for a connection and installed pipes or wiring inside the property. Some residents continued to draw water from wells or pumps and to use older forms of lighting and heating. Mains drainage developed in stages during the 1940s. The village’s new services required upkeep by supply authorities and contractors, and the roads carried new cables and pipes beside older ditches and drains.

North Hall had been wired and fitted with pipes during construction, so its managers could connect the new services once they reached Guildford Road. The improvement made it easier to light the main room for meetings and to supply water to its kitchen and lavatories.

The King and Queen Visit France, July 1938

George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a state visit to France from 19 to 22 July 1938. President Albert Lebrun welcomed them in Paris, where crowds gathered along the streets for the royal procession and public receptions. On 21 July the visitors travelled to Versailles and attended a formal meal in the Hall of Mirrors. The visit took place as Neville Chamberlain’s government sought to maintain cooperation with France while the governments of Europe debated Germany’s territorial demands.

The royal party travelled through Paris, where crowds lined the decorated streets, and attended a reception at the Palace of Versailles on 21 July. The visit took place during diplomatic consultations about Germany’s territorial demands in central Europe. Newsreel audiences in towns around Sussex could see the ceremonies soon afterwards.

Munich and the Approach of War, 1938

While Loxwood connected its new services, Neville Chamberlain’s government confronted the territorial demands of Adolf Hitler in central Europe. The Munich agreement of September 1938 ceded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany under arrangements agreed by Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Chamberlain returned to London and announced his agreement to the public. German forces occupied the Sudetenland in October. The government accelerated air-raid precautions and other civil-defence planning. Counties arranged wardens, first-aid training, emergency communications and arrangements for receiving children evacuated from large towns. The work involved councils, school authorities, constables, doctors and volunteers.

Thomas Wells Dies at Church Cottage, November 1938

Thomas Wells died on 14 November 1938. He had bought Church Cottage in June 1916 after the chapel trustees sold the former church properties, and the old timber-framed house had remained occupied by his family. The cottage stood at the junction of Station Road and the road through the upper village, beside the site of the medieval chapel demolished at the beginning of the century.

For the Wells household the cottage was a home, with a long history of alterations and repairs. Its heavy oak timbers and Horsham stone roof belonged to a building erected early in the fifteenth century, while its rooms had accommodated clergy and later tenants. A photograph made during the 1940s would show the cottage standing close to the pond and modern road traffic.

The New Telephone Exchange, 1939

Telephone connections had reached Loxwood during George V’s reign. The first exchange worked through a manual switchboard at the Post Office beside the village pond, and early numbers identified individual subscribers, including the Post Office, Ifold House, Aylward, Smith & Co and Hill Top Stores. A rural automatic exchange opened on Guildford Road in 1933, replacing the operator’s local connections with electromechanical switching controlled by a caller’s dial.

In 1939 the village received a new low brick exchange building and updated UAX13 equipment on Guildford Road. A notice told subscribers to wait for a dialling tone, described as a continuous low purring sound, before dialling. Number changes accompanied the developing service. The exchange mattered to businesses whose customers and suppliers were in Horsham, Guildford or London, and it was increasingly useful to households arranging journeys, deliveries or medical help. The new brick building stood near Kilner’s bus depot, a short distance from the properties around Linden House. Telephone poles and overhead wires were already familiar sights beside the pond.

North Hall’s March 1939 Events

The village’s theatrical and social life continued during the next spring. In March 1939 more than a hundred people attended a variety entertainment by the Petworth Imps, including sketches, choruses and short plays. The Alfold and Loxwood Horticultural Society also met at North Hall to prepare its summer show.

The King and Queen Visit Canada and the United States, 1939

George VI and Queen Elizabeth crossed the Atlantic in May 1939 for a Canadian tour and a visit to the United States. They travelled through cities and communities, met Canadian officials and servicemen and became the first reigning British monarchs to enter the United States. President Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed them, and the royal visit drew widespread newspaper and newsreel coverage at a time when relations between European powers were deteriorating.

The royal journey made use of railway trains, ships, motor vehicles and radio broadcasting that had transformed the movement of people and news since the Victorian years. Loxwood residents could follow reports through newspapers, radio receivers and cinema programmes shown in nearby towns.

Germany Invades Poland and Britain Declares War, September 1939

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. On Sunday 3 September Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced by radio that Britain was at war with Germany after its demand for German withdrawal went unanswered. George VI spoke to the nation that evening, calling for steadiness and resolve. Britain’s declaration brought mobilisation, emergency regulations and preparation for air attack into villages throughout Sussex.

The government’s arrangements altered familiar buildings and routines. Householders were instructed to conceal lights after dark, keep gas masks and follow civil-defence advice. Schools and authorities prepared to receive children from districts considered at greater risk of attack. Men were called into the armed forces, while others were assigned work essential to farming, transport, food supply and the maintenance of public services. The King remained in London with Queen Elizabeth for much of the war, and their later visits to bombed communities became widely reported.

In Loxwood the motor service was a necessary means of reaching Horsham and the railway. Fred and Mary Kilner soon carried evacuees, service personnel and workers on journeys that combined ordinary passengers with wartime duties. Shops that had supplied groceries from the pond and Guildford Road came under new controls on food, fuel and materials. The farms around Brewhurst, Ifold, Drungewick and Kirdford continued producing food while the government prepared to direct the use of agricultural land and labour.

Children and Families Are Evacuated into Sussex, September 1939

Thousands of people left London and other threatened urban areas under the evacuation scheme at the beginning of September 1939. West Sussex received approximately 42,000 evacuees that month, distributed through schools, reception centres and household billeting arrangements. Teachers accompanied some school groups, and council officials helped identify households able to provide rooms. Host families needed bedding, meals, clothing arrangements and instructions about payment and schooling.

The western Weald received a share of this movement. At Ifold, local accounts record evacuated families occupying houses, huts and converted garages, while households elsewhere in the district also accommodated newcomers. The difference between a town child’s former school and a village school could be considerable: classes might be smaller, journeys longer and play areas surrounded by fields. Children used to streets and buses now shared homes with families whose days began with livestock and milking. Rudgwick received Pennthorpe School, which moved from Chislehurst to Gibbons Mill. Rooms at the old mill house were adapted for teaching and sleeping, and its private generating and pumping plant helped provide services to a country property.

The Register of 29 September 1939 Records Village Occupations

Officials recorded the civilian population of England and Wales on 29 September 1939. The National Register listed names, birth dates, addresses, marital status and occupations, providing the information needed for identity cards and, shortly afterwards, ration books. The register took the place of a wartime population count: the 1931 census for England and Wales was later destroyed by fire, and no census was taken in 1941.

At Orchard House on Station Road the Field family kept dairy cattle and poultry. The register described eighteen-year-old Robert Field as a cowman. At Spy Farm Frank Chase was recorded as a dairy farmer. The entries identify agricultural work that would continue throughout the war and help explain the later development of the village milk rounds. The village also contained shop assistants, teachers and transport workers whose occupations were vital to the running of its shops, school and bus services.

The same street could contain an agricultural worker, a retail shop assistant and a household with a telephone subscription. Official occupations tell part of the story; the work of collecting fuel, maintaining gardens, preparing food and caring for children was also essential to the households recorded in the register.

Fuel, Food and the First Ration Books, Winter 1939–1940

The government placed controls on food supplies and organised rationing to allocate restricted commodities. Petrol rationing began soon after the declaration of war, and food rationing started in January 1940 with butter, bacon and sugar. Customers registered with particular retailers, and shopkeepers had to check coupons alongside cash payments. Grocers managed stock under Ministry of Food instructions and accounted for goods that had once been ordered according to ordinary trading demand.

At Loxwood the Combination Stores, Hill Top Stores and other retailers served customers from farms and cottages over several miles. A woman collecting provisions had to consider the coupons available to her household, the goods currently in the shop and the journey home. Some people arrived by bicycle or bus; others walked from Spy Lane, Brewhurst or surrounding holdings. The baker and dairy farmers continued to supply essential food, and home-grown vegetables became more important as imported supplies were restricted.

Transport businesses faced their own controls. Kilner’s garage needed petrol, tyres and spare parts for vehicles serving public routes and contracts. Farmers required fuel for engines and machinery, as well as feed for animals and access to markets. Merchants made deliveries through a network in which road and railway transport were increasingly planned around wartime priorities.

The Fall of France and the Defence of Southern England, May–June 1940

German forces invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France in May 1940. Winston Churchill became prime minister on 10 May, succeeding Chamberlain, and formed a government including Conservatives, Labour ministers and other parties. George VI worked closely with Churchill during the ensuing military crisis. Allied troops were forced towards the Channel coast, and Operation Dynamo evacuated more than 300,000 men from Dunkirk between late May and early June.

Sussex fishermen and boat owners joined those who helped bring men away from the French coast. The prospect of invasion made the coastline between the Thames and the Solent an immediate defence concern. Military authorities built or prepared barriers, roadblocks and coastal positions, and the inland roads carried soldiers, equipment and supplies. A motor driver travelling south from Loxwood towards Pulborough or Chichester encountered a region where the army was rapidly rearranging its defences.

The government called for volunteers to join the Local Defence Volunteers on 14 May. Those units were renamed the Home Guard in July. Men too old for ordinary military service, men in reserved occupations and other volunteers undertook observation, patrol, guard and training duties while continuing their jobs. In a rural district they knew the lanes, stream bridges, road junctions and fields that could be important in a defensive emergency.

The Loxwood Home Guard at Lakers Lodge, 1940

Lakers Lodge became the local centre associated with Loxwood’s Home Guard. The large house and grounds had belonged to the Napper family, whose connection with the chapel trustees reached back through earlier centuries. A photograph in the Loxwood collection identifies the house with the Home Guard during the Second World War. Men who had worked on farms or in village trades could assemble for instruction, carry out patrols or go to designated posts before returning to their ordinary employment.

The roads around the village presented practical defensive questions. The north–south route crossed the River Lox at the bridge below the Onslow Arms and then climbed towards Guildford Road. Routes east led through Brewhurst and Drungewick, while the road towards Plaistow passed through Ifold. Military planners elsewhere in the district considered bridges and crossroads useful points to watch, especially where traffic was channelled through narrow crossings. A dated photograph places members of the Home Guard at Lakers Lodge, where the grounds could accommodate their gatherings and exercises.

The Home Guard also depended upon village workers who could repair bicycles and engines, carry messages and maintain weapons or clothing. Farmers knew gates and paths leading across their land; tradesmen were familiar with vehicle routes and buildings; ex-servicemen brought military experience. Their training took place while the regular Army prepared for the defence of Britain after Dunkirk.

Air Raids and Emergency Services in Sussex, 1940

The first high-explosive bomb recorded by Sussex police in the county fell at Cowfold on 29 May 1940. Later attacks reached inland towns as well as coastal targets. Worthing, Shoreham and other coastal settlements faced repeated raids. Some enemy aircraft released bombs while returning from or abandoning operations against other objectives. Houses, shops, roads and public buildings were vulnerable even many miles from a major military base.

A county air-raid network collected reports from local wardens and police, and councils arranged emergency services, equipment and temporary accommodation for people driven from their homes. The parish and rural district authorities had to respond to requests for help while schools and farms continued to operate. County records include emergency committee minutes, air-raid correspondence and incident logs that can be used to distinguish particular bombings from general wartime recollections.

Battle of Britain and Raids across Sussex, Summer–Autumn 1940

The German air force attacked airfields, ports and communications during the summer of 1940. Fighter aircraft operating from airfields in southern England met the raids over the Channel and the counties inland. RAF Tangmere was a major fighter station controlling part of the southern sector, and dive-bombers attacked it on 16 August, killing thirteen people. Two days later the Fleet Air Arm station at Ford was attacked, with thirty-nine killed. The losses were recorded across Sussex as the Battle of Britain continued.

Aircraft also crossed the Western Weald, where residents heard engines and sometimes saw aircraft fighting overhead. Sussex police and emergency records recorded bomb damage and aircraft crashes beyond the main airfields. A contemporary fire-service diary describes a Spitfire coming down at Loxwood during the September 1940 air fighting, calling the aeroplane a complete wreck. The diary gave no pilot’s name.

Air-raid precautions reached ordinary houses. Windows had to be blacked out after sunset, and wardens watched for light escaping from curtains or doors. Fire precautions included buckets, sand and training in handling incendiaries. Families listened for warnings and tried to distinguish the sound of friendly and enemy aircraft. The darkness complicated the work of anyone travelling home from a farm or returning by bus along the unlit roads.

Buckingham Palace Is Bombed, September 1940

On 13 September 1940 German aircraft bombed Buckingham Palace. Bombs struck the palace buildings and grounds, damaging the private chapel. Queen Elizabeth wrote to Queen Mary describing the attack, and the King and Queen visited the East End of London later the same day to meet people affected by the Blitz. Buckingham Palace was hit repeatedly during the war; the royal household nevertheless continued its public duties in London.

News of the bombing reached Sussex at a time when households were observing blackout regulations and aircraft were regularly heard overhead. The Palace had become an air-raid target in the same national system of warnings that reached houses in Loxwood, the market towns and the Sussex coast. In November 1940 bombers attacked Horsham, damaging buildings in a market town to which Loxwood residents regularly travelled for shops and transport.

The Milk Rounds and the Work of Dairy Farms, 1940–1941

Milk production was an important part of Loxwood’s farm economy. The Field family at Orchard House on Station Road and Frank Chase at Spy Farm kept dairy cattle, while other herds supplied customers in the surrounding villages. Milk had to be drawn every morning and evening, collected in clean containers and delivered promptly. The early Sweephurst round near Wisborough Green used a three-wheeled handcart with a seventeen-gallon churn, allowing the roundsman to measure a customer’s purchase into a jug at the doorstep.

Motor vans gradually replaced much of the handcart work. Maurice Carter took over the Sweephurst concern in 1938, and the business later used a small Austin van to deliver milk still carried in churns. Farmers producing for larger distributors arranged collection by commercial buyers. The war added fuel controls and pressures upon cattle feed, but milk remained an essential food and a regular household purchase.

The government and local authorities were also concerned with food safety. Dirty containers or prolonged storage in warm conditions could spoil milk, and the dairy industry gradually introduced testing, cooling, pasteurisation and bottles that could be washed and reused. These developments required equipment, hot water and transport. A separate business called Loxwood Dairy would appear in the records during the later war years, while established farm rounds continued serving the district.

Wartime Voluntary Work at Willetts and Linden House, 1940–1941

Some Loxwood houses acquired new duties as volunteers arranged practical help for wartime needs. Willetts, beside Loxwood Place near the village pond, served as a Red Cross station. The work of Red Cross volunteers in wartime Britain included training, collecting medical and comfort supplies, preparing dressings and assisting people displaced by fighting and bombing. Willetts gave the volunteers a village address near the pond and the principal road.

Linden House was used as a centre for bottling and preserving. Fruit and other suitable produce could be prepared for storage, making more effective use of garden and orchard crops when sugar, fuel and transport were subject to controls. Such work involved cleaning jars or bottles, heating and preparing food and organising containers and deliveries. Linden House stood on the Guildford Road close to the telephone exchange and Kilner’s yard, where villagers could reach it along a familiar route.

Farming, Labour and the Women’s Land Army, 1941

Government agricultural officers directed farmers to increase food production as shipping losses restricted imports. Grassland was ploughed on some holdings, drainage and field maintenance were encouraged, and tractors became increasingly important where farmers could obtain equipment and fuel. The Western Weald’s heavy clay made the timing of work difficult; horses and tractors needed to enter fields when the soil was workable, and winter rain could close narrow gateways or turn tracks into deep ruts.

Some young agricultural workers entered the armed forces, while other men remained in reserved work on farms, in dairies and at mills. Members of the Women’s Land Army took jobs with livestock, crops, gardens and fruit picking. Their duties could include milking, feeding animals, harvesting, loading produce and driving tractors. Around Kirdford and Plaistow women also worked with orchard fruit and in packing rooms, contributing to the quantities of food shipped beyond the district.

Woodland businesses supplied poles, pit props, fencing material, firewood and other products needed during the war. Plaistow’s walking-stick industry employed skilled workers in a factory developed from older craft trades, and estate timber continued to be cut and carted. The same narrow lanes carried coal deliveries, timber wagons, farm produce and military vehicles, which placed additional demands on road maintenance.

Winterton Hall’s Performance Continues under Enemy Aircraft, April 1941

Plaistow’s Winterton Hall hosted a performance of the comedy Tilly of Bloomsbury in April 1941. Edward Horsman, a local Air Raid Precautions volunteer, produced the play and took a part on stage. Edward Turnour, sixth Earl Winterton, attended as president of the village Social Club. The hall, provided by the Winterton family before the First World War, had become a place for meetings, dances and entertainment near the centre of Plaistow.

During the third act the electric lights failed while many enemy aircraft were overhead. The audience included children, and the performers continued during the interruption. Eileen Johnson and John Ingram carried their scene through the darkness until the play resumed. A newspaper report on 24 April recorded the event.

German Attacks on the Soviet Union and the Wider War, 1941

In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union, opening a vast new eastern campaign. Britain and the Soviet Union became allies against Germany, while the Royal Navy continued to protect supply routes through the Atlantic. In December Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered the war against Japan. Germany declared war on the United States shortly afterwards, enlarging the coalition fighting across Europe, Asia and the oceans.

The war’s global expansion increased the demands on British industry and agriculture. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians needed food, clothing, vehicles, medicine and fuel. War factories used skilled labour and raw materials, while farmers supplied cattle, grain, milk and vegetables under government controls. The public could follow the campaigns through radio bulletins, but local shopping remained governed by ration books and the supplies available to each registered retailer.

Clothing rationing began in June 1941, adding further coupons and restrictions to the budgets of village families. Householders repaired garments, altered older clothes and reused cloth when suitable materials were scarce. Shops ordered stock subject to controls on cloth, fuel and transport. A dressmaker, tailor or cobbler found increased demand for repairs as households tried to make existing goods last longer.

Dunsfold Airfield Is Built and Opens, 1942

Work on an airfield at Dunsfold brought a major military building project into the countryside north of Loxwood. Contractors levelled ground, laid runways and taxiways, erected hangars and service buildings and provided roads, stores and accommodation for the men who would use the station. Canadian military engineers began construction on 11 May 1942 and handed the completed station to the Royal Canadian Air Force on 16 October and was used by Canadian and other Commonwealth aircrews during the war. Heavy construction traffic and later aircraft maintenance required labour and materials that connected the new base with Guildford, Godalming, Cranleigh and surrounding villages.

The airfield’s arrival created employment different from the usual farm and woodland work. Mechanics repaired aircraft engines and airframes; drivers carried fuel and equipment; stores staff accounted for supplies; clerks managed paperwork and accommodation. Nearby businesses supplied some of the daily needs of workers and servicemen.

Canadian Troops at Shillinglee and Wisborough Green, 1942

Canadian troops became a familiar presence in parts of western Sussex. Lord and Lady Winterton allowed Shillinglee House to be used by Canadian servicemen, whose accommodation and vehicles brought military activity into the estate’s grounds and the lanes around Plaistow. Other Canadian personnel were stationed near Wisborough Green, where church and village commemorations later recorded a close connection with their units. The men trained for duties overseas while local residents continued farming, shopping and travelling on the same roads.

The 2nd Canadian Division was associated with the district before its departure for the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942. The attack against the defended French port suffered heavy casualties, including many Canadian killed, wounded or captured. News of the operation reached Sussex families who had met or hosted the men during their stay. The church and village at Wisborough Green retained a particular memory of the Canadian soldiers.

Daily contact had included more ordinary experiences. Soldiers bought provisions, attended church and concerts and travelled by military transport or local buses. The use of country houses as billets required water, cooking, heating and maintenance, while a sudden movement of troops could fill narrow roads with vehicles.

Loxwood Loses Leslie William Cole, September 1942

Sapper Leslie William Cole of the Royal Engineers died on 22 September 1942. He was the son of Henry and Elizabeth Cole and the husband of Olive Cole of Loxwood. The parish buried him in St John the Baptist’s churchyard, where his grave is recorded as number 196. The village had commemorated the losses of the First World War inside the same church since 1921, and wartime graves added the names of another generation of servicemen.

The Royal Engineers constructed and repaired military works including bridges, roads and defensive positions and dealt with other technical duties wherever British forces were serving. Loxwood’s church register and war grave identify Cole and his family; they do not by themselves specify the circumstances of his death. His grave gives the district a particular loss to set beside the military news reaching the village in September 1942.

The Bombing of Petworth Boys’ School, 29 September 1942

At 10.50 on the morning of Tuesday 29 September 1942 a German Junkers 88 attacked Petworth and dropped a bomb on the Boys’ School. Twenty-eight boys, two teachers and two other civilians were killed. The pupils were aged between seven and twelve. Rescue workers reached the damaged school, and photographs recorded the destruction and the efforts to find and recover those trapped. The attack brought the air war directly into a market town that supplied surrounding farms and villages.

Petworth held a public funeral for the children and adults. Army lorries of the Toronto Scottish Regiment carried the coffins to a communal grave in the cemetery on the Billingshurst Road. The deaths were mourned far beyond the town, including among families across the Western Weald who knew Petworth through its market, shops, schools and the Leconfield estate. The bombing also sharpened concerns about the protection of children in rural schools, even in places outside the principal industrial and port targets.

The children of Loxwood, Kirdford, Plaistow and Wisborough Green continued to attend their own village schools through the war. Petworth’s school stood in the same market town to which their families travelled for shopping and other business, and the public funeral was reported throughout Sussex.

Agricultural Work and the Kirdford Growers, 1942–1943

The cooperative fruit growers at Kirdford had built an organisation for grading, packing and marketing produce before the war. The Pound Common packhouse had opened in 1931, and Kirdford Growers Limited began in 1934. Members brought fruit from orchards around the village, where it could be sorted, packed and dispatched towards larger markets. The work employed local women and younger workers, and the seasonal harvest required additional help when fruit ripened together.

During the war the packhouse served new purposes associated with the Home Guard and the National Fire Service, while fruit production remained important. Women of the Land Army and local workers picked and packed produce, and official food controls affected prices, transport and distribution. Farm carts and motor vehicles brought crates to the building, and the railway and road network moved them onwards.

Another local business, Kirdford Creamery, had handled milk from several dairy farms since 1911. By the middle 1930s it was sending large quantities in bulk to United Dairies at Streatham. The creamery closed in 1943 amid restrictions on petrol and wartime transport. Milk production on farms continued, with collection and marketing arrangements changing as distributors adapted their routes.

North Hall Distributes Ration Books, 24 June 1943

In June 1943 North Hall became a temporary Ministry of Food distribution centre. Notices instructed Loxwood residents to collect new ration books there on Thursday 24 June between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon. The task required officials to check entitlement, organise the books and deal with people arriving from cottages and farms.

A household’s ration books determined how its members obtained restricted foods from their registered retailers. Grocers had to count coupons and monitor deliveries, while official changes to allowances affected the quantities families could obtain from week to week. A village shopkeeper working through a long queue needed accurate records and knowledge of the current rules.

The King Visits Troops and the War Reaches Italy, 1943

George VI continued visiting military units and industrial workers while Churchill’s government directed the war. Following Allied success in North Africa, the king visited troops there in 1943. Allied forces landed in Sicily in July and moved into mainland Italy in September, and the campaign required long supply routes, air support and difficult fighting through mountains and defended towns. Families in Sussex with men serving overseas followed reports through radio news and official casualty notices.

The armed forces relied upon a large supply organisation in Britain. Airfields, depots, railway goods yards and ports handled vehicles, food, clothing, fuel and munitions. Dunsfold continued as an operational airfield, and the Sussex coast prepared for still larger military movements. Loxwood and neighbouring villages supplied agricultural produce, labour and services while local men served in different branches of the forces. Women worked in military and civilian roles, including clerical duties, communications, medical work and industry. The Women’s Institute and other voluntary bodies also organised practical assistance, parcels and fundraising.

Two Mitchell Bombers Collide near Pallinghurst, 7 January 1944

At about 1.35 in the afternoon of 7 January 1944 two RAF Mitchell bombers collided as they approached Dunsfold airfield after operations against flying-bomb sites in occupied France. One aircraft belonged to No. 180 Squadron and the other to No. 98 Squadron. Both came down on the Pallinghurst estate near Rudgwick, one in an orchard and the other close to the stables and county boundary. All eight members of the two crews died.

The pilots were Flying Officer Ernest Fooks of 180 Squadron and Warrant Officer Terence Riordan of 98 Squadron. The falling aircraft and their bombs damaged stables, cottages and parts of Pallinghurst House. Emergency reports recorded fires, unexploded bombs and a civilian casualty. Emily Harwood, daughter of the estate gamekeeper, later described bombs falling near her father and an injured member of the householder’s family being thrown into the pond by the blast.

Fire crews and RAF bomb-disposal personnel attended the estate. West Sussex emergency logs recorded the recovery of bodies and the disposal of explosives during the afternoon. The accident occurred on the Guildford Road near Rudgwick, within the network of lanes used by people travelling between Dunsfold, Tismans Common, Alfold and Loxwood.

Preparations for the Invasion of France, Early 1944

The government and Allied commanders prepared an invasion of German-occupied France during the first months of 1944. Southern England accumulated troops, vehicles, landing craft and supplies. Temporary camps, guarded roads and military convoys appeared across the counties near the coast. West Sussex airfields took part in operations supporting the planned landings, and the approaches to Shoreham, Littlehampton and other ports carried material for forces assembling nearby.

In the countryside around Loxwood, residents were accustomed to military traffic that had begun years earlier. The roads through Ifold and Plaistow could be damaged by tanks and heavy lorries, especially where narrow lanes and clay ground had originally been intended for horse-drawn carts. Kilner’s buses carried civilians alongside personnel travelling to camps and stations, and the drivers had to keep operating under fuel and vehicle restrictions. The Royal Air Force and other services used airfields such as Dunsfold, bringing aircraft over villages where farming proceeded beneath their routes.

The scale of the preparations was larger than any earlier movement through the district. Military secrecy restricted some public information, and ordinary residents could see vehicles, troops and aircraft without knowing the details of the coming operation. Councils, police and transport operators handled the disruption as the spring campaign approached.

D-Day and George VI in Normandy, June 1944

Allied forces landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Soldiers crossed the Channel in landing craft, paratroopers descended inland, and aircraft attacked transport links and defensive positions. British, Canadian, American and other Allied units began establishing the bridgehead from which the campaign in France would continue. Sussex ports and airfields contributed to the movement of troops, equipment, ammunition and wounded men.

On 16 June George VI visited British troops in Normandy, ten days after the landings. The king met commanders and servicemen in the recently established bridgehead before returning to Britain. His visits to troops were part of his wartime duties and were later followed by journeys to Italy and the Low Countries. News from France was watched carefully in the Western Weald, where Canadian troops had previously been billeted and where families knew soldiers serving in the campaign.

Flying Bombs over the Western Weald, Summer 1944

The first V-1 flying bombs were launched against southern England in June 1944. The weapons used a pulsejet engine to carry an explosive charge across the Channel; when the engine stopped, the projectile descended and exploded. Fighter pilots and anti-aircraft batteries tried to intercept the weapons before they reached houses, factories and transport centres. Residents in Sussex could hear the distinctive engine and watched the sky as the attacks continued.

On 12 July George VI and Queen Elizabeth inspected damage at East Grinstead following a flying-bomb incident. Two days later, on 14 July, they visited RAF Tangmere for an investiture. The King presented honours and met servicemen at an airfield that had been attacked in the Battle of Britain four years earlier. Sussex newspapers reported both visits while warnings and air defence operations continued.

On 30 July a flying bomb fell at Cox Green near Rudgwick, close to the countryside adjoining Loxwood. Wardens, police and rescue teams dealt with strikes and unexploded weapons, and councils assessed damage to houses, roads and public services. The recorded incident at Cox Green placed the flying-bomb campaign among the farms and hamlets that used Rudgwick station and the roads linking Horsham with the Western Weald.

The Dependants Acquire Hill Top Stores, 1944

In 1944 Aylward, Smith & Co, the business owned by members of the Dependant congregation, acquired Hill Top Stores on Loxwood’s main street. The older grocery and drapery shop had been developed by John Elliott and his successors. Its purchase brought another trading premises under the same company that operated the Combination Stores beside the village pond.

The business could obtain groceries, clothing and domestic goods through regulated wartime supplies and deliver them to customers from farms and cottages throughout the parish. Aylward, Smith & Co later owned more land in the village centre, including Loxwood Place following the fire of 1948. The acquisition of Hill Top in 1944 preceded that larger purchase.

Worship and Losses in the Neighbouring Parishes, 1944–1945

Village churches recorded the consequences of war through prayers, services, memorials and the news brought to clergy by families. At Kirdford in 1944 a Rogation procession moved through fields important to the wartime food supply. Rogation worship asked blessing upon crops and labour, following routes that led churchgoers out among the fields they cultivated. The procession connected an established Church of England custom with the government demand for food from farms.

Kirdford’s vicar, Edward Sidebotham, suffered a family loss when his son Peter was killed in naval operations near Antwerp. A church where the bells had been muffled in 1914 now faced new deaths among another generation of servicemen. Clergy also conducted baptisms, marriages and funerals for villagers whose lives continued through the war.

Loxwood’s parish church at Vicarage Hill held services under the same national conditions. Its First World War Roll of Honour reminded people of earlier losses, while relatives serving overseas sent letters and awaited replies. Nearby, the Dependants’ chapel in Spy Lane retained its own religious congregation, and families attended services according to their traditions.

Albert William Howick Dies and Is Buried at Loxwood, October 1944

Private Albert William Howick of the Pioneer Corps died on 21 October 1944, aged thirty-eight. He was the husband of Violet Howick of Loxwood and was buried at St John the Baptist’s. The Pioneer Corps supplied men for military labour, transport support and essential works in Britain and overseas. The churchyard provided a grave for Howick within the parish where his wife lived.

After the war his name and that of Sapper Leslie William Cole were added to the church’s memorial tablet beneath the twenty-four names recorded for the First World War. The tablet stood inside the church on Vicarage Hill, opposite the school which had taught successive generations of Loxwood children.

Sunbeam Changes Ownership, January 1945

The Kilner family had kept Sunbeam buses running throughout the war despite the shortage of vehicles, tyres, parts and staff. In January 1945 Fred and Mary Kilner became directors of F. H. Kilner (Transport) Ltd during an arrangement involving Hants & Sussex Motor Services. Fred agreed terms including payments for two buses and goodwill in the stage service. The Sunbeam name continued on buses serving the village even as the management and financial interests changed.

Victory in Europe, May 1945

German forces in Europe signed surrender instruments in May 1945, and Britain celebrated Victory in Europe Day on 8 May. Crowds assembled around Buckingham Palace, where George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret appeared on the balcony. Churchill addressed the country, and towns and villages held thanksgiving services, gatherings and celebrations after nearly six years of fighting.

In the Western Weald churches rang bells and communities arranged observances appropriate to the news. Loxwood had North Hall available for public meetings and a church whose congregation had prayed through the years of conflict. The village’s workers and families still had members of the armed forces overseas, and operations continued against Japan until August. Food rationing and material shortages also remained in force, affecting celebrations as well as ordinary meals.

The country faced the task of bringing people home, releasing men and women from military employment and repairing damaged houses and public buildings. For farmers and small businesses the end of European fighting meant adjustments in labour and purchasing while wartime controls continued.

Dunsfold Receives Prisoners of War, 1945

During 1945 Dunsfold airfield took part in Operation Exodus, the return of prisoners of war held in German camps. Aircraft brought released servicemen to Britain, where crews and ground staff arranged their arrival, medical checks and onward transport. Dunsfold Airfield History Society records approximately 47,000 people repatriated through the station during the operation.

The use of the airfield for repatriation placed returning men close to the villages and roads which had carried military traffic throughout the war. In the same months Dunsfold’s runways, hangars and maintenance workshops remained substantial industrial premises; they would attract civilian aviation work after the military station was declared inactive in 1946.

The Hourly Sunbeam Timetable, July 1945

On 9 July 1945 a new hourly timetable began between Horsham and Plaistow for much of the day. A bus left Horsham at 8.22 in the morning and then hourly until the evening, while departures from Plaistow also followed an hourly pattern. A special early weekday journey left Loxwood at 7.35, reached Alfold five minutes later and arrived in Horsham shortly after eight. Residents could now plan shopping, work and railway connections around a more regular service than had been available before the war.

This timetable also made differences between route licences increasingly visible. An operator could carry passengers over a road but be prohibited from setting them down or picking them up on certain sections reserved to another company. Those restrictions would cause a public dispute the following year, when waiting travellers complained about buses passing with seats available.

Labour Wins the General Election, July 1945

Britain held a general election on 5 July 1945, with results announced on 26 July after votes from members of the forces overseas had been counted. Clement Attlee’s Labour Party won a large parliamentary majority, and Attlee became prime minister while Churchill moved into opposition. George VI appointed the new ministers and continued his constitutional duties as the country shifted from wartime government to reconstruction.

Labour’s programme included social insurance, public housing, changes in the ownership of major industries and a comprehensive health service. For the people of Loxwood these policies would eventually affect medical care, pensions, unemployment protection and the powers of authorities responsible for building homes. The immediate village problems remained practical: finding building materials, maintaining buses, obtaining coal and food, and providing work for those leaving the armed forces.

Victory over Japan, August 1945

Japan announced its surrender in August 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war. Britain marked Victory over Japan Day on 15 August, and George VI addressed the country again. Servicemen in Asia and the Pacific would return in stages, while prisoners of war and other people held overseas faced journeys home under difficult conditions.

For communities across West Sussex the victory completed the armed conflict that had begun in September 1939. The government continued to control food and other scarce supplies, and people had to find work and accommodation after demobilisation. Some former service personnel returned to family farms or trades; others sought jobs using technical skills gained in military engineering and transport.

Local war memorials and church records provided places to name the dead, while the new post-war government developed plans for housing, health and welfare. The numbers of people returning, the availability of houses and the condition of public services became pressing questions in the villages as well as in the towns.

Loxwood Dairy Receives Registered Customers, September 1945

A Ministry of Food notice published on 20 September 1945 gives the first firmly dated reference to the business called Loxwood Dairy. The notice transferred customers previously registered for milk with Herbert Field of Orchard House to the new proprietor, Miss Kilner, at Loxwood Dairy on Guildford Road. Registration for milk was a wartime arrangement, and the transfer required an official announcement so customers and suppliers knew which retailer held their accounts.

The depot stood near North Hall, beside a small culvert on the northern road. Its business developed from a district where dairy farms and small retail rounds were already established. Milk could be delivered in cans and measured into a householder’s own jug, while larger dairies increasingly used washed glass bottles and motor vehicles. The new retail enterprise connected dairy production with the delivery of a regular household necessity.

The Kilner name was already familiar through the bus and coach service, and the family held property around the Guildford Road depot. The dairy and transport businesses occupied different premises and carried out separate work, but both depended on reliable local routes and daily timetables. An elderly householder waiting for a milk delivery and a worker waiting for the early bus were part of the growing network of services centred on Loxwood.

The Bus Stop Dispute, 1946

In March 1946 about a hundred residents signed a petition protesting against restrictions on where the Kilner and Hants & Sussex buses could stop between Bucks Green and Horsham. Aldershot & District held protected rights over parts of that road, so passengers waiting for a short journey could see a vehicle pass with spare seats while its driver had no licence to pick them up. The petition led to an inquiry by the Regional Transport Commissioner at Horsham Town Hall.

The licensing system was especially awkward for people living outside larger settlements. A worker near Bucks Green might need a few miles’ transport, while a through bus used the same road on its way towards Horsham. Schoolchildren, shoppers and elderly travellers could be affected by the conditions of a licence they had never seen. The inquiry concerned the actual stopping and carrying rights of bus operators, alongside the needs of the people using the service.

The following year brought another view of the difficulties of operating rural buses. A woman driver who joined the Loxwood depot in early 1946 later recalled taking vehicles out before dawn, travelling empty to Plaistow Church and beginning the first service around seven o’clock. The job required careful attention to narrow lanes, other drivers and passengers who expected to be set down close to their own gates.

Loxwood Church Installs a Second World War Memorial Window, 1946

In 1946 W. Morris Studios supplied a stained-glass memorial window for St John the Baptist’s Church at Loxwood. The window in the second opening of the south aisle depicts St George and St Michael. Its installation followed the additions of Leslie William Cole and Albert William Howick to the church memorial and placed the new war commemorations inside the building opened in 1901. The church continued to serve people who attended worship and remembrance services, while relatives visited the graves in the churchyard.

The National Insurance Act and Housing after War, 1946

Parliament passed the National Insurance Act in 1946, establishing a new system of contributions and benefits that would begin operating in 1948. Government ministers also worked on a health service and new housing programmes. Rural district councils faced a shortage of homes suitable for returning servicemen and new families, and many cottages still relied upon wells, old sanitation or cramped accommodation.

The problem was familiar around Loxwood and Ifold. Houses had been built along the main roads and on former estate plots, but a growing population needed additional dwellings with modern services. Petworth Rural District Council had to obtain land, prepare plans and arrange building contracts in competition with demands for labour and materials elsewhere. Work on a planned council estate at Nicholsfield belonged to the next reign, but the shortage of suitable homes and the search for sites were already apparent during the post-war years.

On farms, employers and workers also faced changes. Some men returned from military service to work with livestock or crops; others had learned vehicle maintenance, machinery repair or driving. Farmers considered tractors and mechanical equipment as shortages of labour encouraged new methods. The transition took place at different speeds on large estates, dairy farms and small holdings.

The Severe Winter and the Plaistow Road, 1947

The winter of 1946–47 brought prolonged frost, heavy snow and disruption to transport and fuel supplies. Snow blocked rural roads, ice formed after thaw and renewed snowfall, and railways and power stations faced serious difficulties. The government’s fuel restrictions affected industry and households, while farmers struggled to reach animals, move milk and obtain feed.

A driver working for the Loxwood bus depot remembered severe conditions on the Plaistow route. German prisoners of war from Kirdford and Wisborough Green were sent with picks and shovels to clear the road. The driver and conductress passed food and cigarettes to men working beside the bus. Their account records a specific effort to keep a local public route usable when ordinary road maintenance and traffic were overwhelmed by the weather.

At the depot, starting engines and filling radiators presented further problems. The driver recalled that antifreeze was unavailable, so water had to be drained at night and replaced in the morning. Manager Tom Edwards dug a hole to collect water for the radiators when the garage itself lacked a mains supply.

The King’s Family Visits South Africa, February–April 1947

George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters travelled to southern Africa early in 1947. The tour included South Africa and visits to neighbouring territories, and the royal family appeared at public ceremonies while the King carried out duties connected with the Commonwealth and empire. Princess Elizabeth celebrated her twenty-first birthday during the journey and made a broadcast pledging a lifetime of service to the Commonwealth. The visit took place while Britain faced shortages of coal, food and housing and continued to spend substantial sums on reconstruction. Newspaper and radio reports described royal engagements overseas alongside stories of the hard winter at home.

Mechanised Milking and Rural Employment, 1947

Around 1947 the herd from the Sweephurst dairy business was moved to Harsfold Farm, where newer equipment could be used. An Alfa Laval plant milked cows using vacuum power from an electric pump, while a Lister petrol engine offered an alternative if the electrical supply failed. Hot water, milk cooling and cleaning equipment required investment, regular attention and trained workers. The change affected the routine of milking and the speed with which milk could be prepared for sale.

The wider Rudgwick area still contained numerous dairy farms, with a later comparison counting more than twenty in 1946. Herds varied in size, and some farms sold to major distributors while others maintained doorstep rounds. New machinery made it possible to milk more cows with fewer people, but the cost of a plant, cowsheds and refrigeration could be substantial for smaller holdings. Brewhurst, Loxwood Place and surrounding farms continued to depend on roads for moving animals, feed and produce. Mechanical equipment added requirements for fuel, spare parts, drainage and regular servicing.

India and Pakistan Become Independent, August 1947

The Indian Independence Act received royal assent on 18 July 1947. Parliament established two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, from 15 August, ending the United Kingdom government’s responsibility for the administration of British India. George VI became monarch of the new dominions under their constitutional arrangements. Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, supervised the transfer while political leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah prepared their governments.

The partition divided provinces and communities and was accompanied by communal violence and the displacement of millions of people. News reached Britain through newspapers, newsreels and radio at a time when many families had relatives who had served in India during the war. The Act marked a major change in the empire over which George VI had reigned at his coronation. The Indian Independence Act authorised the king to remove the title Emperor of India by proclamation; he completed that formal change the following year.

Cranleigh Holds Its First Agricultural Show, 4 October 1947

On 4 October 1947 Cranleigh held an agricultural show at Knowle Park. The programme included 127 cattle entries, a ploughing match and sixteen sideshows connected with farming. The event brought together livestock owners, judges, farm workers, equipment suppliers and spectators from the village and surrounding parishes.

Farms around Alfold, Rudgwick and the Western Weald were adjusting to new prices, feed supplies and machinery after the war. A show provided a place to examine cattle, discuss husbandry and compare the work of horses and mechanical implements. Visitors approaching Cranleigh from Loxwood could travel by road through Alfold or use the regional railway network for journeys farther afield.

Princess Elizabeth Marries, November 1947

In November Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey. The wedding drew national attention, and communities still living with rationing arranged their own celebrations or listened to the broadcast and news coverage. George VI attended as father of the bride, while he continued his duties with Attlee’s ministers.

Railways Pass into Public Ownership, 1 January 1948

On 1 January 1948 the Transport Act of 1947 brought the major railway companies into public ownership. The Southern Railway became part of British Railways under the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission. Passengers and goods on the lines through Rudgwick, Cranleigh and Billingshurst continued to use the same stations, where staff handled tickets, parcels, livestock and other freight under the new ownership.

The Commission also received responsibilities for various inland waterways and road-haulage businesses. At Loxwood, the abandoned Wey and Arun Junction Canal still crossed the fields near Brewhurst, while railway stations and Kilner’s bus service provided the practical means of travel. The change of railway ownership took place after years of wartime government control over transport schedules and priorities.

George VI Relinquishes the Imperial Title, 22 June 1948

On 22 June 1948 George VI issued a proclamation removing the words Emperor of India from his royal titles. The Indian Independence Act of the previous year had authorised the change after India and Pakistan became independent dominions. The proclamation altered the official words used in royal documents, while George remained king in each dominion under its constitution.

The removal also required changes to inscriptions and official insignia. Royal cyphers, seals and honours which had used the imperial initials were adapted to the shorter royal title. The proclamation marked another formal step away from the imperial style adopted for Queen Victoria in the 1870s.

Skyways and the Opening of the Berlin Airlift, 1948

After the wartime station at Dunsfold was declared inactive in August 1946, the charter company Skyways Ltd leased its runways, hangars and workshops. Its engineers repaired and tested aircraft, and its crews flew charter work including journeys connected with overseas oil companies. By 1948 the organisation employed more than 1,300 people at the airfield, including a large body of engineers and about 350 aircrew. Workers travelled to the site through Dunsfold, Alfold, Cranleigh and neighbouring roads.

On 24 June 1948 Soviet authorities blocked the principal land routes into West Berlin. Britain and the United States responded by organising an airlift of food, coal and other necessities. Skyways joined the civilian operation using Avro York and Lancastrian aircraft, supported by its engineering base at Dunsfold. Crews required daily aircraft servicing, navigation arrangements, supplies and safe handling at crowded airports.

Pound Cottage Advertises Powered Cultivation, June 1948

In June 1948 a business called Garden Cultivations at Pound Cottage advertised rotary cultivating and grass cutting in the West Sussex County Times. Customers were invited to telephone Loxwood 328. The notice named a specific kind of powered work that local gardeners and smallholders could hire as petrol engines and mechanical tools entered smaller rural businesses.

Pound Cottage stood in Spy Lane, where cottages and farmsteads had been associated with the Dependants and working households since the nineteenth century. The advertised number also shows the usefulness of the telephone exchange installed on Guildford Road in 1939: a person needing a lawn or plot cultivated could contact the contractor through a numbered line.

The Fire at Loxwood Place, 28 June 1948

In the early hours of Monday 28 June 1948 fire broke out at Loxwood Place, the large timber-framed farmhouse opposite the old church site. Its occupiers were mining engineer Arthur Michael Carlos Robinson and his wife Diana, who had recently returned from West Africa. They lived in a house whose heavy oak structure and Tudor alterations had been described by people who examined the building during earlier repairs.

Neighbours raised the alarm while people inside were asleep. Mrs Turrell, whose husband had been caring for the property, escaped by jumping from a window and was injured. Village postmaster Frederick Muggeridge was among the first at the scene. He later described the speed and heat of the blaze, which spread through the timber and plaster structure. Newspapers reported that the house had become a ruin in less than two hours.

The fire destroyed the historic farmhouse that had been drawn by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm in 1791 and examined during work in 1913. Photographs of the ruins showed the massive oak timbers amid collapsed brickwork and roofing. The old granary in the farmyard remained standing, its raised wooden structure having been used for grain storage. The loss removed a building associated with the medieval farmstead, the nineteenth-century Churchman family and John Arthur Garton’s summer festivals.

The National Health Service Begins, 5 July 1948

On 5 July 1948 the National Health Service began operating in England and Wales under the National Health Service Act of 1946. The government brought hospitals into a new national system and arranged medical services through general practitioners, pharmacists, dentists and other providers. The changes placed hospital treatment and many ordinary health services under arrangements intended to make care available according to need, financed through public funds.

Residents of Loxwood had previously obtained medical help through practitioners serving nearby villages and towns, voluntary and local hospitals, insurance and other forms of assistance. Cranleigh Cottage Hospital, established in the nineteenth century, entered the NHS in 1948. Patients could obtain treatment within a wider network of hospitals, while local doctors continued serving the surrounding countryside.

The new system also affected childbirth, childhood illness and the treatment of older people. A household in the scattered farms still needed transport to reach a hospital or specialist. Buses, private cars and ambulances remained important, and the availability of a telephone could help people summon urgent assistance.

Aylward, Smith & Co Acquires Loxwood Place, 1948

After the fire, Aylward, Smith & Co acquired the remains of Loxwood Place, the granary, a warehouse and adjoining land. Loxwood History’s property notes record a price of £11,400 for the holding and about ten acres. The company undertook the work needed to put the property back into use. The granary and yard were retained, and plans for a replacement farmhouse followed the loss of the great timber-framed building.

Aylward, Smith & Co was the trading company associated with Loxwood’s Dependants and the Combination Stores. The company had also acquired Hill Top Stores in 1944. Its purchase at Loxwood Place placed another old central village property within the holdings of an organisation whose shops, farms and houses had expanded since John Sirgood’s time.

North Hall hosted a different kind of event in November 1948. The National Agricultural Advisory Service advertised a showing of The Science of Milk Production for farmers, herdsmen and members of Young Farmers’ Clubs. The film described American research into milking methods and was accompanied by explanation and discussion. The National Agricultural Advisory Service used North Hall to address people working with dairy cows in the villages that supplied milk to local retailers and wholesalers.

Britain Joins the North Atlantic Treaty, April 1949

On 4 April 1949 representatives of twelve governments, including Britain, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington. The agreement provided for cooperation among its members and collective defence if one of them was attacked. British forces continued to serve overseas after the Second World War, and the new treaty placed them within an alliance that included the United States and Canada.

The signing occurred during the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. British and American aircraft were carrying supplies into the city, and civilian companies were helping with the flights. At Dunsfold, Skyways crews and engineers prepared the aircraft which made repeated journeys to German airfields in the closing months of the blockade.

Skyways Continues the Berlin Airlift, 1949

Throughout the first part of 1949 Skyways crews continued carrying supplies into Berlin. The Dunsfold Airfield History Society attributes 2,730 civilian airlift flights to Skyways. One Skyways Avro York crashed at a Berlin airport in 1949, killing three crewmen, whose names were later recorded on the airlift memorial at Tempelhof.

The Soviet blockade ended in May 1949, but air deliveries continued for a time while stocks were rebuilt. The eventual reduction in flying led to the loss of work at Dunsfold, where hundreds of employees depended upon aircraft maintenance and charter contracts. Some workers had arrived at the airfield through the wartime expansion of aviation in the district; others had moved into engineering from different trades.

Shops and Everyday Life in the Village, 1949

Photographs of Billingshurst High Street in 1948 and 1949 show busy shopfronts and customers using older premises alongside newer motor traffic. Village shops in the wider district still played a central part in household purchases. At Loxwood, the Combination Stores sold groceries and other goods; Hill Top Stores had passed into the hands of Aylward, Smith & Co and was later advertised as a shop dealing in antiques and curios. The Post Office, pubs, dairy and transport depot each provided services used by people from neighbouring farms.

Britain continued rationing several foods after the war, while controls on building materials affected repair and new construction. Grocers ordered goods through wholesalers and distributors and managed registered customers. Families combined coupon purchases with food grown in gardens or obtained from farms. Electricity, refrigeration and motor transport had altered the possibilities for stocking perishable goods, although equipment and supplies remained unevenly distributed among smaller premises. George VI’s government devalued sterling in September 1949 as ministers tried to respond to pressure on Britain’s overseas finances. Importers paid different sterling prices for goods and materials purchased in dollars after the September change.

New Homes and the Former Ifold Estate, 1949–1950

Housebuilding after the war proceeded under planning controls and shortages of labour and materials. The former Ifold estate contained a growing number of plots, small houses and chalets, and new residents relied upon village roads for shopping, schooling and journeys to work. Some plots were occupied by families who had moved from towns, while others remained in use for gardens or smallholdings. Local councils had to address questions of drainage, public access and the position of houses built along estate roads.

Loxwood’s own road pattern was also changing. The village pond and older houses remained near the junction with Station Road, while North Hall and houses along Guildford Road brought activity farther north. The open land between those roads and Spy Lane offered a possible area for planned housing. Petworth Rural District Council would later develop Nicholsfield, beginning in 1953 after George VI’s reign, but the need for modern homes already occupied councillors and families.

The Replacement Farmhouse at Loxwood Place, by 1950

By 1950 a new brick farmhouse had been built at Loxwood Place on the site of the building destroyed in June 1948. The company Aylward, Smith & Co had acquired the burnt property with the granary and adjoining land. The new house stood beside the historic yard, where the granary continued to be used. Photographs from the end of the decade record the changed buildings opposite the pond and the old chapel site.

The company also held Hill Top Stores, acquired in 1944, and operated the Combination Stores under the commercial organisation associated with Loxwood’s Dependant Brethren. The rebuilding of Loxwood Place was one of the property investments made while the company continued trading in groceries and other village goods.

The 1950 Election and the Korean War

Britain held a general election in February 1950. Clement Attlee remained prime minister with a much reduced Labour majority, and Parliament continued discussing housing, food, industry and the financing of public services. George VI carried out his constitutional duties, meeting ministers and receiving government papers while his health was beginning to deteriorate.

In June North Korean forces invaded South Korea. Britain joined the United Nations military effort, sending forces and supplies into a conflict that increased the demands upon defence spending and military personnel. The new war in Asia came only five years after the end of fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Families in Sussex again followed military news and considered the effect of service on men who might otherwise have worked in farming, transport or skilled trades.

Hawker Aircraft Takes Over Dunsfold, December 1950

Skyways entered voluntary liquidation in March 1950 after the loss of substantial charter and airlift work. Hawker Aircraft subsequently acquired the Dunsfold airfield lease, with the transfer recorded in December 1950. The runways, hangars and engineering buildings were retained for aircraft development and testing. For workers in the surrounding villages, the change brought a new employer onto a site already familiar from wartime aircraft and post-war airlift operations.

Hawker’s aircraft production and test programme included naval fighters and development work connected with new jet designs. Its engineers needed workshops, instrumentation, pilots, mechanics and vehicles for moving equipment across the site. The airfield’s employment extended beyond the old agricultural economy of Dunsfold and Alfold, while its access roads continued to carry staff and supplies from nearby towns.

Plaistow Gains Its Parish Council and the Census Is Taken, April 1951

On 1 April 1951 Plaistow became a separate civil parish after a county inquiry and the County of West Sussex (Parishes of Kirdford and Plaistow) Confirmation Order. The new parish was formed from the Plaistow ward of Kirdford. A. E. Curtis became its first council chairman, and elected councillors dealt with local roads, recreation property, the village hall and matters referred by Petworth Rural District Council. Holy Trinity Church remained within the Church of England parish of Kirdford with Plaistow.

On Sunday 8 April the government conducted the first full census of England and Wales since 1931. Enumerators collected information on households, ages, occupations and housing after the interruption caused by the war and the separate National Register of 1939. Loxwood had been a civil parish since 1938, so its residents were counted within a district created from Wisborough Green in 1938.

Plaistow’s council received Winterton Hall from the sixth Earl Winterton in June 1951. A conveyance dated 9 June placed the building in the council’s ownership for one pound. Admiral George Price Webley Hope also gave land for a recreation area in Plaistow during that year.

Festival of Britain and the King’s Illness, 1951

Britain organised the Festival of Britain in 1951, with its principal South Bank Exhibition in London and events in other parts of the country. Displays of science, design, architecture and industrial production offered visitors a view of what engineers, artists and manufacturers were creating after years of wartime restriction. Schoolchildren and adults from across Britain travelled to the exhibitions using railways, coaches and buses.

For Loxwood families a journey to London or a coastal event depended upon reaching a railway station or arranging a coach. Kilner’s former Sunbeam route continued serving the district within the Hants & Sussex organisation, while private cars were becoming more familiar along the roads. The churches and North Hall offered their own local programmes of recreation and meetings during the festival year.

George VI underwent a major lung operation in September 1951 after doctors became concerned about his health. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh assumed more public engagements, and the King carried out fewer duties. In October Churchill returned as prime minister following the general election. The King appointed the new government while continuing his recovery at Sandringham and other residences.

George VI Dies at Sandringham, 6 February 1952

George VI had been treated for serious illness in 1951 and spent much of the following winter at Sandringham. On 6 February 1952 he died there in his sleep, aged fifty-six. His elder daughter Elizabeth, who was visiting Kenya with the Duke of Edinburgh, succeeded him immediately as Queen Elizabeth II. The news interrupted the royal couple’s tour and brought them back to Britain.

At Loxwood, St John the Baptist’s Church stood on Vicarage Hill with the memorials of men killed in both world wars. North Hall, built for George VI’s coronation, remained the meeting place for the parish council and village organisations. Following the accession, the parish minister used Elizabeth’s name in the royal prayers. The change of monarch came as the village was planning further homes within the roads between Station Road, Spy Lane and Guildford Road.