Alma Park
Alma Park, the name and its origin
Alma Park was never the name of the Depot. It referred to the use of the camp as postwar housing.
The Brownlow family planted Alma Wood on the escarpment above the Depot location about 1856 based on a 1933 estate map. This was to commemorate Lieutenant and Captain vice Horace William Cust of Her Majesty's Regiment of Coldstream Guards. He fell at the Battle of Alma, 20 September 1854, aged 25. He was the nephew of the 1st Earl Brownlow and first cousin once removed of the 2nd Earl, owner of Belton at the time. Alma was the first battle of the Crimean War; alma is the Crimean Tatar word for an "apple". Horace joined the Guards on the 7th April 1848. He served as Aide-de-Camp to Major-General Bentnick, Commanding the Brigade of Guards at the Battle of Alma. The Brigade comprised the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and 1st Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards
Figure 1: grave of Horace Cust in the banks of the River Alma
Horace was approaching or crossing the River Alma some time after 11.00 when a Russian cannon ball carried away his leg. Death occurred following amputation of his thigh later that evening (Springman 2009, The Guards Brigade in the Crimea). Horace was one of the 362 killed with another 1,611 wounded. His elder brother, Colonel John Francis Cust then a Captain in the Grenadier Guards in the Crimea placed his tomb (figure 1) on the north bank of the Alma with the inscription, translated from the Russian,
Honour this grave. The dead man's calm repose is his memory, he does not despise his burial.
Figure 2: Horace Cust's memorial in Belton, Lincolnshire
Horace has a memorial near the west church door in the graveyard at Belton (figure 2).
By his mother's early tomb, his sorrowing father erects this memorium to their youngest son, Horace William Cust in the Coldstream Guards and aide-de-camp to the general commanding the Guards in the Crimea. Brave and zealous in his duty, his course alas was short struck by a cannon shot at the battle of the Alma he bore the sufferings of a severe mortal wound with the resignation of a christian soldier and expired on the field of victory far from his loved and afflicted own. 20 September 1854 aged 25 years. His remains are interred on the banks of the Alma. The sacred emblem of faith in Christ, hallows alike his distant grave.
A memorial in the Royal Military Chapel, commonly known as the Guards' Chapel carried a further epitaph for Horace Cust. The memorial was destroyed when the chapel was hit by a flying bomb in 1944.
"In memory of Captain Horace William Cust, Coldstream Guards. He joined the Regiment on the 7th April 1848, and embarked with the 1st battalion for the Eastern Campaign, February, 1854. He served as Aide-de-Camp to Major-General Bentnick, Commanding the Brigade of Guards at the Battle of Alma, 20th September 1854, where he was mortally wounded by a cannon shot. His Grave is on the bank of the Alma. Placed by his brother, Lieut-Col. J. Francis Cust, late Grenadier Guards."
Yet another member of the family, William Cust was carried away by a cannon ball in 1747.
Richard Porter
Richard Porter served in the Cavalry Division commanded by Lord Lucan. Held in reserve during the battle, he provides a first-hand description of that battle (Figures 3 & 4, click images below to enlarge, reproduced with permission of David Porter, great-great-grand nephew, who holds the copyright).
Figure 3: Battle of Alma, pages 4 & 1
Figure 4: Battle of Alma pages 2 & 3
Figure 5: statuette of a gunner in the RAF Regiment
The Depot becomes Alma Park Emergency Housing
In September 1946, Lord Brownlow took the final passing-out parade for the Regiment's officer cadets. In return he received a solid silver statuette (figure 5) of a gunner of the RAF Regiment in the uniform worn when the Regiment mounted a guard of honour outside Buckingham Palace, April 1943. Visitors to Belton House can still view the statuette on the 'below stairs' tours. Inscribed on it,
Presented to Lord Brownlow, L.L. in gratitude for his many kindnesses to the Royal Air Force Regiment Depot, Belton Park 1942- 1946 (on front) A Gunner Royal Air Force Regiment April 1st 1943 (right side) Goldsmiths Silversmiths Company Ltd, 112 Regent Street W. (back) To commemorate the 25th birthday of the Royal Air Force, a guard of honour of the Royal Air Force Regiment was mounted at Buckingham Palace from April 1st to April 5th 1943 (left side)
By the end of the war, some 450,000 homes were either completely destroyed or uninhabitable. One in 17 of the Grantham population were on the housing list. Control of housing was spread among 3 separate departments. The Ministry of Health had overall responsibility for housing, because of the requirements of ensuring water supply and sanitation. The Ministry of Works owned ex-military sites. The 1944 Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act gave the Ministry of Reconstruction the task to build Emergency Factory Made housing such as the 4 Seco huts already extant at the Depot. They were supposed to last just 10 years.
By August 1946, the RAF had declared 45 sites redundant. Furnishings from these camps were put in store at one of 13 equipment disposal depots, the closest to the Belton Depot was Barkston RAF stores. The Army and Navy vacated a further 850 sites. From 12 August, squatters began to take over these camps. Reasonably, the Ministry held onto some of the camps to house 250,000 displaced persons.
Nevertheless, disregarding public opinion, military police ejected squatters and some ended up in court. Although called squatters, unlike today's version these were working men with families who desperately needed a roof over their heads. Mr & Mrs Ellis and their baby squatted in a Nissan hut at nearby Harlaxton Road, Grantham having moved from 1-roomed accommodation after a fruitless 14 months on the housing list. He had served 4-years in the Navy and worked for the London and North Eastern Railway. Squatters began to move into the former Depot in September 1946.
Figure 6: children playing outside Nissan huts used as temporary accommodation on the Isle of Dogs in 1946 (© Mirrorpix).
Margaret Thatcher's father, Alf Roberts recognised the need for new housing. He was mayor of Grantham for one year from November 1945 and continued as an alderman until 1952. As chair of the finance committee, he took out loans totaling £1 million for the area's housing (£41 million in 2018, CPI).
Figure 7: inside a post-war Nissan hut at Husband Bosworth, Polish resettlement camp, Leicestershire. (Polish Resettlement Camps in the UK 1946 - 1969)
The Borough of Grantham minutes record on the 3rd July 1946 that the Ministry of Health invited them to utilise Belton Park Camp as emergency housing when vacated. A month later the borough surveyor decided that the brick buildings would offer 114 family units for the 1,700 people on the housing list. By 2nd October 1946 financial negotiations with the Ministry of Health had stalled, but the Borough went ahead with converting the buildings for civilian use at a cost of £350 each (Borough of Grantham minutes, Lincolnshire Archives). The 59 foot long buildings were split into two, 2-bed-roomed bungalows. The 35 foot long buildings were converted to 3-bed-roomed bungalows. Alderman Roberts welcomed the first 4 families in to the Belton Park Camp Housing Estate in November 1946 (Grantham Journal 01 November 1946).
By December 1946, the Borough was offering the Nissan huts as temporary accommodation at 10s a week (£21 CPI).
Figure 8: Aktion Fliegermorde (Operation Death to Airmen. May 1944)
The occupants of Alma Park objected to a Polish labour camp in Nissan huts on the Depot site. This is surprising for the the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade had trained and taken off from RAF Spittlegate for Operation Market Garden. The Polish Resettlement Act 1947 gave UK residency rights to over 200,000 displaced Polish troops & their families accommodating them in former military camps. The Polish eventually were offered the WAAF enclosure on the north side of the camp.
Bitterness continued against Germans from the Prisoners of War Camps at Harrowby Lane & Allington, who were allowed free movement and remained in Grantham up to 1947. Farmers employed them in agricultural activities like harvesting sugar beet, but animosity still meant prosecution post-war for civilians who fraternised with POWs. The German and Italian POWs wore a grey uniform with a yellow circle on the back.
This hostility to Germans may relate to August 1944, when Stalag XVII B held RAF Regiment POWs, were ill-treated. German guards stole prisoner provisions and threatened to kill all the prisoners. A massacre was narrowly avoided. In May 1944, Hitler had approved a special directive, Aktion Fliegermorde (Operation Death to Airmen, figure 8), which made it legal for any German citizen to kill RAF & United United States Air Force crew caught in Germany. The document states "Not for publication" and so was presumably to be kept, Geheim, secret.This murderous contravention of the Geneva Convention happened for post-war 150 Germans were executed because of this crime.
Alma Park Estate: civilian use of the facilities (figures 9 to 13)
My thanks to SH for information about & permission to use photographs from 1948 relating to civilian use of the RAF Sergeants Quarters off Arnhem Drive. By that year, 160 dwellings were complete with 41 still under construction. The average cost per dwelling for conversion was £363 11s 2d (£13,541 CPI).
Figure 9 RAF Sergeants Quarters divided into semi-detached civilian accommodation (SH). This is one of the the 59-foot long buildings.
Figure 10 RAF Sergeants Quarters end on & potato patch (SH).
Figure 12 Nissan hut with brick-built barrack hut behind the washing line (SH)
Figure 11 RAF Sergeants Quarters looking east with the pylon at SK943367, left and identifiable field boundaries, right (SH)
Figure 13 RAF Sergeants Quarters. Note the height of the buildings, the substantial walls and steel-framed windows (SH)
How poor some of the occupants of Alma Park were is revealed by Brian Eveleigh who was repairing the Belton Park 1690 wall near the entrance to Alma Park. He recalls children running around dressed in rags or naked. Lord Brownlow's head gamekeeper, Ghent and head woodman, Barr prosecuted the residents for chopping down 9 trees in Alma Woods for firewood (Grantham Journal -26 January 1951).
Alma Park County Primary School opened on 10 January 1949 in the former NAAFI for Trainees (building 221 on map) and access was from the cinder track leading off Harrowby Lane (personal communication). When planned back in 1947, there were only 23 schoolchildren living in the Park, but the school catered for 100 pupils from the surrounding district, provided they could walk up to 2 miles to school. The school closed because of low numbers on the roll on 19 July 1966; it was soon vandalised. Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without Parish Council had responsibility for utilities like street lighting and refused to commit any moneys for this until 1960 (£47 5s 0d p.a. in 2016, ~£3,000). Facilities at the former Depot made money by hosting events like hunt balls in the Alma Park Ballroom. The Ballroom occupied the former Gymnasium, building 239 on the 1944 map. One of the former NAAFI buildings provided additional social facilities. Of the street names used at the time, only Alma Park & Woodland Roads persist.
Industrial estate
As early as 1947, the Bentley Engineering Co who manufactured stocking knitting machines agreed to take on a long lease on one of the former large mess buildings. A resident in the early 50s who lived in one of the three bed-roomed brick-built huts can remember a textile factory (SH). In 1960, Grantham Borough Council decided not to replace existing tenants as they moved out. Commercial tenants moved in with Barrett Packaging Limited (Barpak) among the first. They occupied the former Motor Transport shed (SH, personal communication), but the photo accompanying may be a more modern building. Aerial photographs from May 1966 demonstrate demolition of nearly all RAF hutment, although the road layout remained unchanged.
The Poachers Motor Club meet at the former RAF Regiment parade ground on Alma Park 1960 (figure 14, Grantham Journal 11 March 2017).
Figure 14: the Poachers Motor Club meet on the Depot. The photograph looks northwards toward the main entrance. The three buildings from left to right are, the H.Q. block, the east end of one Motor Transport shed (similar to the still extant Drill Sheds) and an instructional building training centre (236, 234 & 237 on the 1944 map).
Figure 15 prefabs get a facelift in January 1983. Built just after WWII as a stop-gap measure, they cost £14,000 each to modernise. A brick skin was built on the outside before the original walls were removed. The above picture shows before and after.
Prefabs provided accommodation elsewhere, here in Belton Avenue (figure 15). Figure 16, below shows their appearance in 2009 - still in use to this day! Even the concrete fence posts remain.