This page is part of a site tour of the Coleshill estate during WW2. Click here to start the tour. 

Please Note: The Coleshill House site and grounds are owned by the National Trust. The woods and grounds of the house are all strictly private and access is limited to set days a year. See our events page for their official open days. Attempting to access the site outside of these times is not only trespassing but could damage the future of our work and relationship with the Trust and villagers. Please respect this.

Area around Coleshill House

This page was last updated at 9:29am on 7/2/12

Click on the numbers below for more info.

Coleshill House was chosen by Colonel Gubbins because its large parklands and woods made it very very suitable for guerrilla training. Gubbins sent Major the Honourable Michael T Henderson to scout around the country for a suitable HQ after the Luftwaffe blitzed the cramped offices in Whitehall Place, Westminster.

Henderson soon discovered that Coleshill, the country estate adjacent to that of his brother, was qualified in all respects (as potential HQ). Coleshill's owner was the Earl of Radnor, but only the Earl's two Pleydell-Bouverie sisters and their dogs lived there.

Read more about the house pre war here and during the war here.