Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I had to be in Oxford for a couple of hours, so it was organised to start at 8am, in case it was a nice day - which it was.Last Friday I said:Today, I went on a road trip - into the past...
Details later.
I noticed that Oxford has the same sort of traffic mayhem that we have - monster potholes, semi-abandoned roadworks, crazy traffic management, signage that abandons you half-way through the journey at crucial points, all the usual stuff.
It also has a far greater proportion of black cars than we do up here.
Anyway, I met this nice lady who squeezed my arm, pinched my thigh and told me that my heart is in the right place. By 10am, I had made my excuses and left.
I headed west towards the Cotswolds, where I lived for a few years in two batches in the 60s. Two of my residences have subsequently been opened to the public.
I descended through Burford, into the Windrush valley, where a buzzard was quartering this wet meadow, but he wouldn't participate in a photo session.
The first target was what is now called Upper Rissington, but was RAF Little Rissington in my day - Central Flying School and home of the Red Arrows and their Folland Gnats.
Due to the nature of the station's tasks, it had a particularly large Officers' Mess, where my father worked - it appears to be being converted into apartments now that the whole place has been sold off and civilianised.
The nice Polish security man let me in through the barriers for a few pictures.
In the winter of '63, the snowfall was fairly dramatic and there is a well-known picture of the snow tunnel that was dug out to access the main entrance to the mess