Interesting  Telegraph article Jan 2011 about Madresfield Court and how it was an escape refuge for the Royal Family in case of invasion in WWII. My Grandfather was in the Coates Mission and one of his jobs was visiting the four houses and checking that defences were in order.

“Well now, each of those houses had to be reconnoitered by mostly Gussy Tatham and myself and we used to go occasionally to see that all was well. It consisted of a series of slip trenches placed at strategic points around the perimeter of the house and the grounds so they could not be seen from outside. There were barbed wire entanglements of course, I don’t think they were actually in place or would not be put into place until we were actually called upon to defend that particular house in order that nothing untoward should appear to be going on at these places. The security was so vital.

So Tatham and I used to go round these places now and again to see that all was well, to see that the trenches hadn’t fallen in or something like that, to see that the roads were, to be sure of our road from Bushy, where we were stationed, to that particular house.”