There’s a clump of trees that I have seen on many occasions when out walking on the Quantocks. They stand out from the many others as they are not native and they perch on the crest of a hill above Hodder’s Combe. Until last week they’d always been somewhere I kept saying I needed to walk to but had never got around to it.

(view from Holford towards the trees – centre on skyline)

(view from Black Hill towards the trees – centre on skyline)

Last Friday I dropped down from Lower Hare into the combe and out of impulse I turned right instead of my normal left and back up Slaughterhouse Combe.  From the top of Black Hill you can clearly see the clump of trees and the path leading out of Willoughby Cleeve – it was this path that I was trying to find.  As I neared the end of the wooded area I spotted a track on the other side of the river.

Climbing the hill on a warm afternoon I was beginning to realise how heavy the D700 and 17-35mm  lens really are!

The thing about hills is that there’s always a top – and once there the slog up is always worth it. The more I walk on the Quantocks the more I love them.

The trees, nothing special when you get there. Just some pines with of course some sheep grazing and sleeping in the shade.

Walking closer the sheep scatter and I notice the trees have lovely shapes and allow light to drop onto the darkened ground.

Then I notice a stone, probably a marker stone – but it looks more like a gravestone in shape. Walking around to face the stone I see the words inscribed and the trees take on a whole new meaning and significance for me.

Wanting to find out a little more about the men and women these trees were planted for, I set my researching terrier off on a small mission to find me some info. I’d looked but failed. Within a few minutes of placing my research request I had an email directing me to St Mary’s church in Holford where there’s a plaque with the names of the men from Holford who were killed in WW2.

A little more delving from the research team brings to light some information on the four men named on the plaque in St Mary’s.

Sergeant Christopher James Burt - died in July 1940 when his plane was shot down over the North Sea whilst returning from a raid on Sola Airfield in Norway. A last radio message from a fellow crew member reported that the damage was so extensive they wouldn’t be able to make it back to England and would try to ditch at sea. No trace of the plane or its crew has ever been found.

Chief Petty Officer Supply Sydney John Stone - crew member of the HMS Hecla which was sunk off Casablanca in Morocco by a German U-boat in November 1942. 279 of the crew went down with the ship whilst the other 568 men were rescued.

Sergeant Jack Douglas Brown - Cornwall Light Infantry, 5th Battalion. Died in August 1944 while attempting to liberate Perigny in Normandy.

Pilot Officer Oliver Powell Croom-Johnson - RAF Pilot Officer for 611th Squadron. They were believed to have been shot down in operations over Dunkirk towards the end of May 1940.

Something I find interesting about Oliver Powell Croom-Johnson is that his mother’s maiden name was Hobbs – a relative? Maybe, as my family have been Exmoor based for many years.

I remember when I saw my grandfather’s name on a memorial in France, not in person but via the war graves commission website, it was strangely powerful.  Jack, my grandfather, was definitely an outdoors man. He climbed, potholed , rode, walked…… I can’t help feel he would have loved to have had trees planted on a hillside in remembrance of him and his fallen comrades.  I always buy a poppy in November and it’s always for him. I keep them normally, not being able to simply put them in the bin. Although these trees are there to remember those men and women from Kilve and Holford who served in the war I now feel I have a fitting place to take my poppies and leave them for Jack.

In 2005 I posted a reply on the BBC’s People’s War website. John Russell served with Jack and had mentioned him in his account of the days after the D-Day landings. Here’s what John Russell wrote about Jack:

John Russell, OWL (Operator, Wireless and Line)

“Major Strachan was the CO of 104 Beach Sub Area Signal Section from the time it was formed in January 1944 until he was killed in Normandy on 11th June 1944. There were 2 other officers, Captain Close & Lt. Mitchell. Major Baron took over command after Maj. Strachan was killed.

Maj. Strachan was a fine officer with a good sense of humour. After one ‘wet landing’ in training in Scotland I was placed on a charge for having a rusty bayonet. Although I kept my equipment spotlessly clean, I could not clean the inside of the scabbard after wading in the sea – hence the rust on the bayonet during a kit inspection. Maj Strachan accepted the explanation, dismissed the charge with the words “anyway, you can still kill a Jerry with a rusty bayonet”.

We understood that he had survived Dunkirk & had been mentioned in despatches. At our briefing before embarkation he wished us all luck saying “keep your heads down”. On the day he died, there was shelling in the beachhead – he left Ver-sur-Mer with Sgt Doug Lane in a jeep and was never seen again. Had he lived he would have received the Croix de Guerre with silver palm – it went instead to his successor who also was awarded the MC after the Rhine crossing.”

Read John Russell’s account here  - LINK to BBC WW” People’s War Website

Research team : Mandy

Loan of a scanner : Bill and Rach