The old airfield is known locally both as “Long Marston Airfield” and “Marsworth Airfield”. It occupies an area between these two villages and, at it’s northernmost point, is close to Cheddington. In fact it’s official title from the war years (and the name that is used in official records) is Cheddington. This is because all new airfields at the time were named by the nearest railway station.
In Long Marston there used to be four public houses. These were: The Boot, The Queen’s Head, The White Hart and The Rose and Crown. The Rose and Crown had another function as well as entertainment – it had a butcher’s shop and a sweet shop in it too. Now Long Marston only has two of our pubs remaining: The Queen’s Head and The Boot, which on November 5th 2003 also became our village shop. Just goes to show how things go round.
Long Marston is situated north of the market town of Tring. It is famous for in 1751, being the scene of England’s last witch-lynching at the village pond when Ruth Osborn was captured and drowned. There is still some debate as to the actual location of this event as Long Marston does not have a central village pond. (more…)
Unusual weather normally takes the form of heavy snow or high rainfall. But how about a tornado? Just such a thing happened on Sunday May 21st 1950. Trees were uprooted and many buildings had their roofs taken off. The noise was terrifying. A pony in it’s horsebox was lifted up to around 20ft, a arrived back down to earth unhurt. Chickens at Puttenham were not so lucky. 500 out of 700 of them were killed or went missing after the tornado picked up their hen house and transported it over a mile and a half, where it landed on another farm. Also in Puttenham a Dutch barn and a cowshed were demolished. It ploughed a total of 12 miles through Buckinghamshire. Following the tornado came hail and rainstorms. Some hailstones were up to six and a half inches round and lightning blew out the power in Long Marston. (more…)
This site of approx 3 acres was acquired by the efforts of few individuals from the adjacent village of Long Marston, a grant from Dacorum Borough Council and Butterfly Conservation. It was finally secured by our organization and dedicated to Gordon Beningfield in1998 who sadly had died just before the opening. (more…)
Recent Comments