Geograph - photograph every grid square

RAF Down Ampney was a Royal Air Force station during World War II. In September 1944 Douglas Dakotas towing Horsa gliders took off from RAF Down Ampney as part of Operation Market Garden to take the Arnhem Bridges (“A Bridge Too Far”). Link On D-Day, planes taking off from RAF Down Ampney dropped the main elements of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in Normandy as well as towing gliders across the English Channel. Between operations aircrew flying from RAF Down Ampney provided an ongoing service of delivering personnel, petrol, ammunition, food, clothing, and tyres, earning themselves the nickname "the Removal Men". They also brought back over 100,000 casualties from Europe, and after VE Day brought thousands of servicemen back to Britain from the Far and Middle East. See also Link
Dispersed sites were sites selected to reduce concentration and vulnerability by their separation from other military targets or a recognized threat area. Most of the RAF Down Ampney dispersed sites were probably cleared during the 1960s by the Down Ampney Estate in order to return the land to agriculture. However, according to an eye witness, most of the building bases were still visible then and a number of blast shelters and hut bases stood in the field adjacent the church, though later the Dukes Field development resulted in the demolition of what was the last of the dispersed sites with any buildings on them in that area.
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The remains of these dispersed sites, however, have been preserved in woodland thanks to the tree cover.

A journey by car around churches either side of the Wiltshire/Gloucestershire border: torrential rain and ferocious thunderstorms on the Saturday; scorching heat on the Sunday