Dunfield
House – Winter 2003/2004
I seem to be writing about windows rather a lot!
As many of you know, we have a new window in the
chapel. We call it “Inspiration.” We
asked members of the Church if they would buy each
of twelve panes for the window, to replace the old
one, made up of rather more panes, which was way
past its best, and within a week the money had been
raised, sufficient to pay for the design of the window,
its glass, and the new wooden frame. The chapel is
much brighter than it was, and almost all are enthusiastic
in their approval of the change – from children
to the oldest among us, and from church members to
others who come with school and similar groups.
Things are happening at Dunfield!
But some things that happen are strange! Fred, that’s
Frederick Crane our House Manager, had been saying
to me for months now – and probably to someone
else before that – that he is perplexed that
the back of the Dunfield safe (yes, we have a safe
at Dunfield, but don’t get too excited) has
been knocked out at some time and bricked up again.
He wondered if the house had suffered a burglary
at some time. Well, there was not much I could do
and I stored the concern away – but was puzzled
at the re-bricking, nonetheless.
We hear many stories about Dunfield. They have been
rife since we first bought the place nearly forty
years ago. We know that the American forces were
housed in Dunfield, as in so many places, during
the war years, and that some of them were very high-ranking
indeed. We read of a local seeing General Patten
walking across the ridge to the military hospital
the other side of Hergest, for example, and we have
been told that Churchill, yes, Sir Winston as he
was to become, also visited the house. We take many
such stories with the proverbial “pinch of
salt” but the other day we heard something
quite interesting.
A friend of Dunfield was staying in the area, in
Wooton, a nearby village, and happened to mention
that he was going up to Dunfield House. A lady from
the village who heard said, “Oh! I know Dunfield
House, that’s where Churchill visited during
the war. They had bought a canteen of cutlery as
a gift for him and put it in the safe. Then they
found they couldn’t open the safe, so they
had to break into it from the back to get the cutlery
out to present it to him!”
Now we feel we have an answer for the “new” brickwork,
and feel a whole lot more confidence that the big
man did in fact come! Oh, and by the way, if you
are thinking of a 2004 burglary the safe houses largely
files and paper at present – they may well
be the safest files in the country.
While we think of things happening, the room for
the toilet for disabled people has been created and
tiled. It is on the site of the old shop. The plumbing
and white goods will be fitted very soon. Other changes
have now received planning approval and we should
be able to start on those – more showers, for
example, including a re-vamp of the ladies’ powder
room - as soon as the toilet and new shop are completed.
News Archive:
Dunfield House - June 2006
Dunfield House - Spring/Summer 2006
Dunfield House - Winter 2005/2006
Dunfield House - Winter/Spring 2004/2005
Dunfield House - Winter 2003/2004
Windows and
Dunfield – a
conversation
Dunfield House - Winter 2002/2003
