as part of the celebration of this anniversary of St Michael’s Church, Gidding History Research Group is in need of your help – we are looking for photographs, memories, newspaper cuttings or documents about events in the Church, people connected with the Church, or maybe something like the annual Church fete. When you are visiting or talking to friends and family members associated with the village please ask if they have any material too. We will take a copy of your photo or document, or type out your words, and these will be displayed on the boards in Church. Please make contact via thegiddingshistorygroup@outlook.comWe will start planning the display early in 2026 and very much look forward to hearing from you.
Present: Councillors Hodson, Bolton, Moody, Hargrave, County Councillor Gardener and the Clerk.
159.23 Cllr Hodson, as Chairman, welcomed those present to the meeting
160.23 Apologies and reasons for absence:
District Councillor Tim Alban – at other meetings
Councillor Maciag – work commitment
Councillor D’Altilia – work commitment
161.23 There were no member’s declarations of Disclosable Interests for items on the Agenda
162.23 No members of the Press or Public were present
163.23 Minutes of the meeting held on 16th January 2024 were confirmed as a correct record, proposed by Councillor Bolton and seconded by Councillor Hargrave
164.23 To receive reports from Councillors and Clerk
District Councillor Alban – combined Parish Meeting on 20th March at Norman Cross
County Councillor Gardener :
The future of Kimbolton Fire Station will be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday 19th March at Kimbolton, to which Councillors are encouraged to attend.
Cambridgeshire County Show is back, taking place on 1 June 2024, with a new venue of Abbots Ripton Estate.
County Council element of Council Tax will rise 4.99%
Weeding of highways is to be re-instated as it was found that more damage was caused by not weeding, gullies blocked, safety of footpath users.
20MPH scheme applications should be submitted by Friday 15th March
The Combined Authorities Mayoral Tax is to increase – one of the measures is to improve local bus services, including the Ting bus
Crime and Police Commissioner will increase Council Tax by £12.96
Fire Authority will increase their element of the Council Tax by 3%
Huntingdonshire District Council meet on 21st February to confirm their Council Tax increase.
Councillor Gardener left the meeting.
Councillor Hodson advised that he will not continue as Chairman, with effect from the 2024 Annual Parish Council Meeting.
There were no further reports from Councillors, or the Clerk.
165.23 FINANCIAL MATTERS:
a) Barclays Bank statement had been forwarded to Councillors prior to the meeting.
Parish Council (everyday) Account – balance as at 2/2/2024 £2905.06 (includes £500 bequest)
Parish Council Deposit Account – balance as at 2/2/2024 £26,189.05 (1.85% interest applicable)
Defibrillator account – balance as at 2/2/2023 – £247.91
b) PAYMENTS – to approve online payments in respect of the following:
Who
What for
TOTAL
Invoice includes this VAT amount
Authorised
Authorised
J R Trolove
Wages for December (31.5 hours)
Xxx
NIL
JRB Enterprises
3 x packs of dog waste bags
110.52
18.42
Refund to Julie Trolove
Disposable gloves for dog waste bin+other supplies
16.27
NONE
SLCC
Annual Subscription Due 1/4/2024
Councillor Hodson had provided his monthly Cashflow forecast and Budget update. He had included Neighbourhood Plan budget (in place of Contingency), and updated Village Maintenance with the purchase of the second speed awareness camera.
Clerk’s working hours for January were approved as a total of 31.
166.23 PLANNING applications and other planning matters:
School playground area/School House – Mark Freer at CambsCC is overseeing this site and was asked for an update on the timeframe and process – his response is awaited.
b)Community Asset meeting – held on 6th February, all sites within the Parish were considered and discussed.
c)Anaerobic Digester – nothing further heard on 9/2/2024. There is currently a new building appearing at Rectory Farm, a “hotel” or accommodation block for seasonal workers – North Northants Highways raised concerns prior to planning approval, considerable traffic being generated along Hemington Lodge Road, rather than Gypsy Lane (as outlined in the application) – Application Number: NE/23/01036/PDU.
Clerk will enquire, via HuntsDC, if we can apply for CIL in respect of this development.
167.23 Roads, footpaths and bridleways:
a) LHI bid for 20MPH scheme for Church Lane, Little Gidding has been submitted by Councillor Bolton today. The Clerk will forward this to Parish Councillors and County Councillor Gardener.
b) speed camera installed – has been “noticed” by many
c) Flytip on the Bullock Road reported on 2/2/2024
168.23 Village Maintenance
Benches – refurbishment/repaint or install replacement(s) – clerk will seek quotes for refurbishment to enable comparison of prices with replacement benches. Councillor Moody enquired about the grass area opposite the shop (WInwick Road/Luddington Road) and whether a bench might be sited there in the future – this is County Council owned land, this area is included in their grass cutting programme, although they are only obliged to cut once a year, therefore the Parish Council include this area in their grass cutting contract to keep the area looking tidy.
Volunteer for emptying of dog waste bin (Chapel End) has changed – supplies purchased (see payments above). Clerk has emailed thanks to those involved.
Litter Pick and tidy up tasks around the Parish – due to the very wet ground conditions, and grass already growing well, this will not take place.
(There is a day of clearing and tidying planned for Saturday 24th February in Jubilee Wood starting at 9.30AM – also cancelled due to wet ground conditions).
169.23 Correspondence received since 19th January 2024:
a) NALC newsletters –NALC events list, Legal update, Consultation to update the Model Financial Regulations, Legal Update (including fire safety for non-domestic buildings)
b) Cambridgeshire County Council –
Cambridgeshire Matters monthly newsletter
Traffic Management Centre – reports for incidents in February
Highways report in respect of damaged sign on Hemington Lodge Road
Understanding children who self harm
Micro Asphalt road treatments – NONE locally
Advert for Youth Work role in St Neots
Hi-VIS event for Huntingdonshire Blind, 10am -12 noon on Friday 14th June at Huntingdon Library.
A proposed change to the Highways Operational Standards relating to weed control.
Public Health Campaign to Raise Awareness of cases of Measles
Invitation to ‘Relationships for mental wellbeing’ at a symposium event on 29th February.
Grant fund offering to enrich the lifelong learning and skills offer for adults who are aged 19+ and residents of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Cambridge Carbon Footprint who offer community events/activities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Flood Resilience Day, at the Wisbech Library, Ely Place, Wisbech, PE13 1EU on Saturday 24th February from 10am to 1pm
Road surface dressing program – nearest to us is Upton
c) Huntingdonshire District Council –
invitation to Waste Minimisation event – Weds 28th Feb at Pathfinder House – vermicomposting systems
Shop front grant scheme for St Neots and Ramsey
report on One Leisure Parish Sports Summer Programme
Community Tree Planting Day at Sapley Playing Field – 15th February
Festival of Huntingdonshire – online meeting 19th February 2-3PM (Clerk will attend)
CAPALC– several emails about the various training courses available, January bulletin forwarded to Councillors prior to meeting, some important changes in fire safety legislation recently following the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2023,
Section 137 funding for 2024/25 is £10.81 per elector
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority –
Combined Authority Local Transport and Connectivity Plan team
g) Neighbourhood Alert/ECOPS etc – bus stop posters warning of scams, Sarah’s Law-protecting children, monthly newsletter,
News from the Courts emails,
Thieves target vans
h) Cambridgeshire ACRE – Staying in touch newsletter, Centenary Community Buildings Conference: Celebrating 100 years of village halls invitation to Thursday 21 March 2024, at the Gardiner Memorial Hall, High Street, Burwell, Cambridge, CB25 0HD (must sign up in advance),.
i) Parish Online Newsletter
j) Gigaclear – keeping in touch, no further news.
k) from County Councillor Ian Gardener – invitation to meeting on Tuesday 19th March regarding closure of Kimbolton Fire Station
l) VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory – survey to be completed
m) 5/2 – Email of introduction from PCSO Sargeant Anna Martin, who covers this area – she will be asked to attend the Annual Parish Meeting.
n) Cambs YFC – County Show at Abbots Ripton Estate on Saturday 1st June – poster for printing
o) Portrait of the King available to Town and Parish Councils – FREE – it was decided that this was not required.
170.23 Items for next meeting:
Annual Parish Meeting
171.23 The next meeting of the Parish Council will take place on
Tuesday 19th March 2024 at Great Gidding Village Hall, starting at 7.30PM
If you were not able to visit the School before it closed, and wish to see the vast collection of records and photos, Huntingdon Archives (in Huntingdon Library) advise that this collection is now available to view.
You need to book an appointment with them, and quote the reference SR/75 (Great Gidding Church of England School 1873-2023
Over the Jubilee Bank Holiday we would like to display any photographs/newspaper cuttings/certificates, in fact anything that reminds us of events that have happened in the Giddings, over the last 70 years……it may be pantos, various clubs, sporting activities, groups, societies, fetes, community picnics and dances to name just a few.
Have you anything that we could use and put on display? Please help us if you can by making sure any personal memorabilia you have is clearly identifiable with the date and event name and also clearly marked with your name and contact no. The cut off date for getting those memories out of the attic and over to us is the end of April so there’s not much time.
All will be brought together for the Jubilee Bank Holiday and displayed at the Village Hall for everyone to come along and share the memories….
In July 2019 I was fortunate to be able to attend the funeral of Dorothy Atkinson who had reached the great age of 100. Mrs Atkinson was one of the most joy-filled people I’ve ever met. She was still visiting the elderly, so she told me, well into her 90s.
Whenever I went to visit her in her latter years, her face would light up as she told me how lucky she felt, and what a wonderful life she had. It was impossible to come away from seeing her without feeling lighter, and feeling lucky myself to have known her.
Transported back to the 1980s
After the service I was given a carrier bag by Mrs Atkinson’s daughter just as they were heading off for the burial. In it was a photo album with bright red tulips on, and, in writing I recognised, a label saying ‘Friday Club’. Immediately I was transported back to the 1980s and the Friday Club that Great Gidding Baptist Church ran for the local children. I think pretty much all my school friends went – I suspect my parents, at least, enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet with me out of the house every Friday.
Younger Friday Club, older Friday Club
The younger Friday Club was run by two extraordinary ladies, Doris Tapps and Annie Davidson who had moved to Great Gidding from London during the Blitz. Miss Tapps and Miss Davidson (I never did pluck up courage to call them by their first names) were gentle, dedicated and patient in all their interactions with children. The older group was run by Ernie and Dorothy Atkinson from their home on Milking Slade Lane. Mr and Mrs A never seemed to mind as we rampaged through their house. We got to run amok in their garden. They always seemed to so calm, unflappable and at ease with the invasion of children after school every Friday.
The photo album feels like a great gift – a way of reliving those carefree days and to be reminded how grateful I feel to have known the patient and loving care of of Miss Tapps, Miss Davidson, and Mr and Mrs A.
The University of Cambridge’s Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA) is supervising the excavation of a number of archaelogical test pits around the village this week. With the goodwill of local householders supported by Access Cambridge Archaelogy a number of young people will be finding out how to excavate and analyse their findings. For the householders and Gidding History Group this will be a peek into the past.
Gidding History Group have been chosen by the University of Cambridge to host this year’s Higher Education Field Academy. This annual event enables young people from local Academies to have a try at digging a test pit. Details are on the attached poster. We are seeking 12 willing garden owners, so please contact Julie Trolove on julie.trolove@gmail.com. There will be a History Group meeting in the Village Hall on Tuesday 23rd May to discuss and view the finds.
The January meeting of the History Group will be held on Tuesday 24th. Change of venue to Manor Site Farm. We will be looking at old (mainly black and white) photographs of Peterborough and surrounding village. 7.30PM start time
On 30th September 2015 two talks were given to an audience of more than 60 people in Great Gidding Village Hall.
History and extent of the Fitzwilliam Estate
Mr Robert Dalgliesh – Chief Agent to the Fitzwilliam Estate – began by describing the history and extent of the Fitzwilliam Estate and later concentrated on that part based upon Milton Hall and the Milton Estates near Peterborough.
He finally zoomed in upon the Fitzwilliam history and interests in Great Gidding, and some of the slides that he used to illustrate the latter part of his talk are shown below.
Mr Dalgliesh also brought some very interesting historical documents, maps and charts from the Milton Hall archive, including the Deed dated 1827 whereby Great Gidding was part of a sale of property by the Watsons of Rockingham Castle to the Fitzwilliam Estate. Also included were maps and associated lists from 1869 and 1889 showing the occupiers and owners of the village property which warrant further study.
More Great Gidding History
During the second part of the evening Patrick Ellis, who has been researching the history of Great Gidding for more than 15 years, described two results of this research :
Firstly the history of how the village was laid out and organised and the duties of the village officials was included in a book jointly compiled with David Shepherd entitled A Millennium History of Great Gidding. This was first published in 2001 and reprinted last year.
A Millennium History of Great Gidding (left) and More Great Gidding History (right)
Secondly a new book, concentrating on the people who lived in the village and answering the question “Who lived Where ?”. This new book is called More Great Gidding History and also includes a number of photos, and especially some aerial photos and maps which have come to light since the first book was compiled.
Both the reprint of the 2001 book and the New Book may be obtained from the Village Stores.
Bruce Jordan has kindly given to us a collection of cuttings and letters that he has gathered together whilst researching and collecting information in relation to the US bomber ‘Bam Bam’ that crashed just outside of Great Gidding in 1944.
UPDATE
These details have just been released after a 70 year ban on publication the previous story in the Memoriam is – well just a story. The happenings afterwards were, of course, provided by the survivors.
B-17 crashed a quarter of a mile southwest of Great Gidding
In June 1944 the weather in the UK was awful, so much so that D Day was put off for 24hrs. It was essential that the German airfield at Nantes was quickly put out of action due to its close proximity to the landings. The US 8th Air Force was tasked to do this operation. (June 10th 1944 Mission 177) At Molesworth ILt Sam Oliver joined the line of B17s heading for take-off unfortunately he ran off the taxi-way and became firmly stuck in the mud.
He was ordered to leave his plane (The Floose) and take Bam Bam the stand-by aircraft. When on board, note this plane had already done 42 missions, the crew reported to control that there was a very strong smell of fuel inside. They were told that as the aircraft had been standing for some while it could be expected and would probably ventilate as they got going. When they joined up with all the rest they again reported to control saying that the smell was worsening all the time… then nothing Bam Bam had exploded. It is thought that they were about to request a return to base.
The B17G crashed one quarter of a mile southwest of Great Gidding, Huntingdon, England. Four crewmen escaped the other six died in the crash.
PREVIOUS STORY
B-17 crashed a quarter of a mile southwest of Great Gidding
The B-17 went down on June 10th 1944 shortly after take-off, just after joining the formation on a mission to attack an airdrome at Nantes, France. There apparently was a control disfunction and when last seen, her left wing dipped down and the aircraft went into a dive. Pilot 1Lt Sam Oliver managed to pull it out and climbed to the level of the formation but there was a second plunge followed by an explosion, apparently caused by the bombs, and the tail was blown off. The B-17 crashed a quarter of a mile southwest of Great Gidding. Oliver and five others were killed. Four managed to bail out and survived.
Crewman who died now have a memorial in St Michael’s Church
Bruce has lived in Great Gidding, about half a mille from the crash site, since 2001 and when he became aware of the World War II mishap he was distressed to discover that it had gone unmarked over the last half-century. Due to Bruce’s efforts the 358th Squadron crewman who died in the incident now have a memorial in St Michael’s Church and the names of the 303rd Bomb Group crewmen who died will be read out in church services every November, along with the names of all those in the village of Great Gidding who lost their lives in the two World Wars.
The Crash Site As It Was And As It Is Now
The B-17 Bam Bam crash site in Great Gidding on the day (June 10th 1944).
The B-17 Bam Bam crash site in Great Gidding as it is now, (April 2007).
An ash tree stood on the left and the oak tree still stands marking the passage of time. The Alconbury Brook runs just behind the camera position. The debris area is between the markers and just in front of the hawthorn trees. Due to the explosion a large amount of debris was spread over a very wide area including Great Gidding and Luddington. Even now the odd round of 50cal. ammunition comes to the surface during ploughing.
Google map showing exact position of crash site in Great Gidding.
The crewmen who died
1Lt Sam Oliver, Pilot, Buried in Cambridge American Cemetery
Sgt Robert Scalco, Left Waist Gunner
S/Sgt John Kissling, Radio Operator
2Lt Stanley R Shankweiler, Co Pilot
Sgt Americo R. Imbrogno, Right Waist Gunner
T/Sgt Francis H. Russell, Ball Turret Gunner
And those who survived
1Lt Earl D. Metko, Navigator
1Lt Earl D. Metko was substitute navigator on the 10th June mission. He was blown out of Bam Bam, when it exploded, with only one riser of his parachute fastened. He had an injured shoulder and was hospitalised. He became Lead Crew Navigator and completed his 30 mission combat tour on 22nd March 1945.
T/Sgt Whitney Haskell, Engineer
T/Sgt Whitney Haskell was the third person safely to eject. He managed to exit from the nose escape hatch. He had only one riser attached to his parachute harness. He lost consciousness but regained his bearings as he was free falling outside Bam Bam. After a futile attempt to buckle the 2nd clip he pulled the chute ripcord which immediately and safely opened. He came down in a tree and was rescued by the farmer and his wife who then took him straight to hospital. He flew on fourteen additional missions, after the 10th June crash of Bam Bam, as a Lead Crew Engineer. He completed his 30 mission combat tour on 9 April 1945 and died in 1991.
2Lt Harry Chapple, Bombardier
2Lt Harry Chapple had both risers fastened to his parachute harness but was unconscious during his fall except for just before impact. The explosion propelled him through the plexiglas nose causing over 40 rents in his gabardine flying suit and fairly serious cuts in his scalp and eyelid. He was hospitalised for several weeks after returning to Molesworth. He flew on three additional combat missions after being released from hospital. He left the 303rd on 22nd August 1944, later becoming ill with Parkinson’s disease and he died on 11th June 2000.
S/Sgt Wayne Humphries, Tall Gunner
S/Sgt Wayne Humphries was the last of the four men to exit from Bam Bam. He managed to reach his parachute and clasp it to his chest after the explosion severed the tail compartment from the B-17. He fell out of the B-17 just off the tail wheel in a tumbling mode. He managed to buckle both sides of his harness to the chute clips and pull the rip cord. He was able to drift clear of the remnants of Bam Bam and made a successful landing. He flew on no other 303 BG(H) missions after his 10th June 1944 bailout. He was transferred from the 303rd on 18th July 1944 to the 9th Air Force in France and flew additional combat missions in an A-20 ‘Marauder’ low level twin engine attack bomber. Following WWII he returned home to Shelley, Idaho and lives in a house next to his daughter Stacia Herndon.
Letter of thanks
The archive contains grateful letters of thanks from relations of the crew.
Visit of S/Sgt Wayne Humphries’ granddaughter in February 2023
