Military

There have been five significant periods in the military history of Pulford and Poulton: Roman from the first until the beginning of the fourth century; Norman from 1066; the English Civil War, 1642-1646; World War I, 1914-1918; and finally, World War II, 1939-1945.

RAF Poulton

Poulton served an important role in the Second World War in pilot training as a satellite airfield to RAF Hawarden. Occupying the Duke of Westminster’s land close to Eaton Hall, the airfield of three runways, taxiways and dispersals was completed by George Wimpy & Co. in March 1943 to become the base for No.41 Operational Training Unit (OTU), amongst other units. It provided pilot training on a variety of military aircraft including Harvards, Oxfords, Hurricanes, Mustangs and Spitfires. More specialised Beam Approach Training (BAT) flights took place with the Airspeed Oxfords, an automatic radar flight landing system.

A detachment of Bristol Blenheims was based at Poulton for a short time in early 1944.

Poulton Airfield

Remains of Poulton Control Tower c.1973 (Barry H. Abraham)

Plan of Poulton Airfield

Although RAF Poulton was short lived - it closed operationally in June 1945 - it provided the essential pilot training for RAF, Royal Canadian Airforce and ‘Free French’ pilots, and some other nationalities, before their posting to Operational Units. At the height of its operations, there were over 1,000 personnel at RAF Poulton. Training activities conducted there included bomb-dropping drills at Fenn’s Moss close to Whitchurch and air-to-ground firing exercises at the Prestatyn Ranges.

The base was without permanent hangars and had minimal accommodation units, which comprised an officers' mess, a sergeants' mess, an airmen's institute, and living quarters for WAAF, all situated near Yew Tree Farm and Chapel House Farm.

Eaton Hall itself served as a military hospital during part of the war, before becoming the temporary home of the Royal Naval College after the college buildings at Dartmouth were bombed.

Mustang Mk 1 (Royal Air Force official photographer, Harvey (Mr), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The pilot walked away from this spectacular Mustang crash at Poulton on 14th August1943 (Grosvenor Family Archive)

At the stage of the war in 1942 airfields were being opened at a rate of one a week. There were nine WWII airfields in Cheshire. The nature of construction and building was quick and temporary, but the runways had to be able to take the constant pounding of landings and take-offs.

Only remnants of the runways now remain at Poulton, all buildings including the Control Tower having been demolished many years ago. Dr. Kevin Cootes, the Director of the Poulton Research Project, recently undertook an archaeological survey of the site documenting the history of the airfield and identifying the extent of individual structures still surviving.

RAF Poulton in 2019 showing partial replacement of runways with trees (Dr. Kevin Cootes)

Intact Stanton Shelter, with Airmen’s Barrack Hut in foreground (Dr. Kevin Cootes)

A German Bomber crashes in Pulford

On the night of 2nd November 1941, during an air raid over Merseyside, a German Junkers Ju88 bomber crashed on Brookside Farm.

The Home Guard keep watch over the crash site.

A captured Ju88 on display in Whitehall in 1946

Gerry Fair, a future Lord Mayor of Chester, witnessed the crash aged 17 years and recorded the event in his memoirs:

‘The plane was a Junkers Ju 88 and I still have some parts of it, which were loaned to the Grosvenor Museum in 1988. I was standing on the lawn at Brookside about 10pm on 2nd November 1941, watching the raid on Merseyside. It was, of course, dark but quite cloudy, and because the searchlights were reflecting on the cloud this tended to make it appear quite like a bright moonlight. I became aware of a German plane flying West to East just below the cloud. As far as I could see there was nothing wrong with it. It appeared to pass right overhead, all of a sudden, the engine opened up to a roar and then it started to dive flat out towards me. It hit the ground at great speed in the field we call Pheasant Field about 400 yards from where I was standing and blew into thousands of pieces most of which seemed to be on fire.

The nearest pieces fell behind the farm about 100 yards away and I must say that it made my heart miss a beat. At that point no one knew exactly what had happened. We did not know whether there were any unexploded bombs, but care had to be taken because there was a large fire where it had actually hit the ground and ammunition was exploding. We did not know whether any of the crew had parachuted to safety, but open parachutes were found, hence the rumour and the search by the Home Guard. Father rang for the Home Guard to turn out and, as we walked a little nearer to the plane through the smaller fires, people started to come in droves to see what had happened. Very quickly the police and the army arrived to control the crowd and keep them back from the area.

But, of course our family had a grandstand view. I cannot remember what time we got to bed, but by the time we left the scene, it was decided that there were no unexploded bombs, and that all of the aircraft’s crew were dead, and the fires were more or less out. Just a group of soldiers were left to guard the plane.

Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, an early breakfast and off across the fields to witness a scene of utter destruction. It was clear that the plane had flown straight into the ground…..There were pieces of body and clothes all over the field and on the hedge….(and) a strange green dye that spread all over the fields. (This was a dye that was used to help rescue aircraft that fell into the sea.)’

Pulford War Memorial

Names on the Memorial

Menu Card from Memorial Dinner, 5th December 1919

World War I Roll of Honour

Charles Broadhurst

Richard Broadhurst

John Stockton

Ernest Thelwell

Summary details of the fourteen individuals named on the Pulford War Memorial who died in the First World War are given here, together with one from the Second World War. The memorial stands in front of the Village Hall. There is a second memorial in the grounds of St. Mary's Parish Church, commemorating all who served in the First World War.

The Roll of Honour at the 'Welcome Home Dinner' given at the Grosvenor Arms, Pulford, in December 1919, lists 61 survivors and 11 fallen (although the Memorial gives 14 names) out of a population of about 600.

Fuller details of family history and military service are contained in the digital archive. It has not been possible to find the records of everyone and in some cases assumptions have been made based on the best information available (e.g. the actions their unit was involved in at the time of death).

1914-1918

Charles Broadhurst

Born Pulford, 2nd June 1897
Private, 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment)
Posted missing at the Battle of the Aisne, 27th May 1918
Name listed on the Soissons Memorial, Aisne, Pas de Calais, France

Richard Broadhurst

Born Pulford, 31st July 1893
Private, 3rd Company, 13th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
Died of wounds on Vimy Ridge, 4th May 1916
Buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France

George Alfred Davies

Born Bow, London, about 1892
Private, 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Died of wounds at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, 19th November 1918
Buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Pulford

Joseph Davies

Born Malpas, Chester, 1876
Driver, Army Service Corps
Died of wounds in a military hospital in this country, 8th January 1918
Buried at Aldford

James Davies

Born Poulton, about 1893
Sergeant, "A" Battery, 296th. Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Killed in action in Battle of the Somme, 12th April 1918
Buried in Bienvillers Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Thomas Davies

Born Rossett, about 1877
Private, 1st. Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Killed at Battle of Loos, 25th September 1915
Commemorated at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Edward Thomas Edwards

Born Tattenhall, 1892
Private, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) and 1st. Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
Injured in Battle of the Somme, 1916
Died of wounds in hospital in Rouen, 29th September 1916
Buried in St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France

Harry Gibson

Born Pulford, about 1897
Gunner, "D" Battery, 186th. Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres), 20th September 1917
Buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium

Cecil Griffiths

Born Pulford, 10th December 1899
Private, 1/4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment
Killed in action, 3rd October 1918 (action uncertain)
Buried in Glageon Communal Cemetery Extension, Glageon, France

Bertie Jones

Born Saighton, Cheshire, about 1897
Private, 1st/15th Battalion, London Regiment - Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles
Killed in action at First Battle of Bapaume (the Somme), 25th March 1918
Commemorated at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Ernest Edward Leech MM

Born Rossett, 1887
Lance Sergeant, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Awarded the Military Medal, January 1918
Killed in action at Battle of The Scarpe, 27th August 1918
Final resting place unknown; named on panel at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Joseph Probin

Born Barrow, Cheshire, 2nd October 1888
Private, 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards
Killed in action at the Battle of Poelcappelle, Flanders, 9th October 1917
Reburied from battlefield burial ground at Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boezinge, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium

John Stockton

Born Croxton Green, Cholmondeley, September 1878
Private, 8th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Died from wounds at Bait 'Isa, in attempt to relieve Kut-al-Amara, Mesopotamia (Iraq), 21st April 1916
Buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq

Ernest James Thelwell

Born Woodchurch, Birkenhead, 22nd March 1892
Private, King's Company, 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Killed in action in the Battle of the Somme, 25th September 1916
Commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, Pas de Calais, France

1939-1945

William Woodall

Born Nantwich, 27th June 1919
Sergeant Navigator, 70 Squadron, RAF Volunteer Reserve
Died in Yugoslavia, 19th November 1944
Buried in a collective grave in Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia

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