When you write your childhood memories there are many things that you cannot remember at the time of writing, but additional memories come to you at the most unexpected times of the day or night; mostly when you are unable to record them. Therefore, I have tried to remember the following the best I can.
During the Second World War a spitfire fighter plane crashed in my grandmothers, (Nanny Taylor) garden at number 3 Church Street, Stratton St Margaret, Swindon. She had just finished putting some washing on the clothes line in the garden that ran parallel to Ermin Street, when the spitfire crashed; luckily she had just returned to the kitchen, so was not hurt in any way. Sadly the Canadian pilot was killed instantly. His spitfire had developed engine problems and he had tried to crash land along the straight part of Ermin Street with the result that the plane crashed into the top of a tree at the junction of Ermin Street and Church Street, with most of the wreckage in Nanny Taylors back garden. The spitfire had taken off on a test flight from the nearby Vickers Armstrong works airfield, which had then ended in disaster. I remember my mother had been very worried at the time and had caught a Bristol bus to Stratton to see that my grandmother was alright. During our childhood, mother took my brother and me to see Nanny Taylor quite regularly, either on the bus or the train. When we went by train we were allowed to buy some Nestle’s chocolate from the machine on Highworth railway station. Very often my friends and I used to wait for the freight trains to come into Highworth railway station, from Swindon, to watch the shunting. On one occasion we were allowed to stand in the cab of the engine while it went down the loop line from the front to the back of the line of trucks. The driver and fireman stood in the doorways of the engine so that we wouldn’t fall out; passengers in the cab were not allowed, so we were very lucky to have a ride.
After the war my brother Roy and I went with the Highworth 1st St Michael’s scout troop for the summer camp at Corfe Castle in Dorset. We were taken in one of Teddy Drew’s utility buses driven by Bill Whittaker. We camped in the corner of a field near a wood for shelter, because I remember the wood was full of tall bracken. Mr Tanner was scoutmaster with Mrs Tanner doing the cooking. I was in Woodpigeon patrol with Pete Webb as patrol leader; on one occasion we were invited by the 1st Wimborne Troop to their camp in the next field to ours, and afterwards they were invited over to our camp. We had a singsong round the camp fires with their Assistant Scoutmaster (who was an ex German POW) playing the mouth organ; it was just like a mini Jamboree. During the last week of camp, Graham Tanner and John Brook; who were senior scouts; joined us for the rest of the camp. During the middle Sunday of the fortnights camp we were invited by the vicar to a church service at Corfe village church; afterwards we were all invited into the vicarage for a glass of lemonade and a currant bun each.
On the last day of the camp Bill Whittaker came with Teddy Dew’s bus to pick us up. During that last Saturday it poured with rain all day, and it was very wet taking the tents down. When we had them packed in the coach, Bill Whittaker closed the back door, but unfortunately someone had left a tent pole sticking out the back of the bus which resulted in the back window of the door being smashed. I remember Bill saying, “what will Teddy Drew say about this, I shall be in trouble now”. When we got to Corfe village Bill had to go into a grocers shop to get some cardboard to block the back window up. We never found out how he got on with Teddy Drew afterwards.
The Archer Family Tree 