West Hill, Golding 1 - Special Duties Radio OutStation.

This page was last updated at 12:53pm on 17/1/12

Thank you for selecting information on the Wet Hill Special Duties out station known as Golding 1 in Devon. The info and images below have been supplied by CART's Devon CIO, Nina Hannaford.

1940

Informational officer (IO) for the whole area was Captain Coxwell-Rogers M. C, (his name was Cecil Mein Probyn Dighton and he assumed the name Coxwell-Rogers during World War 1) based at 13, Mount Street Taunton. He was in the Gloucestershire Regiment and was given the honorary rank of Captain when he relinquished his commission in January 1944 due to ill health.

Civilians involved included Dr Francis Sidebotham who manned the radio every evening at 6pm. He owned, lived in and ran his practice in Bendarroch House.

His brother-in-law and practice partner Dr Ralph Traill would have carried intelligence information to the radio transmitter.

There were five others collecting intelligence that are unknown. One is thought to have been the gardener at Bendarroch.

Daughters Ann Sidebotham and Gerty Hall (nee Traill) helped with radio transmissions.

OUT STATION BUNKER

West Hill , Special Duties Section, Out Station code named “ GOLDING 1 “ War Office Reference T 497156

Dugout was concealed below a hen house (others report a hay stack and a Dutch Barn) in fields behind Bendarroch House, West Hill.

Diagram explaining lay out of dugout and aerial in 1954 drawn by Mr Moger.

Looking towards Windmill Lane, Wellingtonia tree in centre.

(Above) This field has now been built on and is now Windmill Lane. The aerial cable ran underground from the dugout to a large Wellingtonia tree that remains on the boundary of two gardens. No evidence remains of the cable.

Ann (Nee Sidebotham, daughter of Francis) remembers the location was camouflaged by its situation beneath a hen house in a field behind Bendarroch and occupied a small underground room. About 6 foot square, it was reached by a ladder from gound level. The room had a radio transmitter that was used to communicate with Coxwell-Rogers in Taunton. 

The aerial went up this Wellingtonia tree.

Dr Jimmy Sidebotham (son of Francis) remembers the army fixing an aerial to the tallest tree in the area and excavating a deep bunker under a hay stack. They installed what was quite a sophisticated wireless system for its time.

The Wellingtonia tree that housed the aerial from the dugout still stands.

In 1997, after a Radio 4 article on the British Resistance, Mr Moger from Exemouth wrote a letter about the dugout at Bendarroch.

His family bought the house in 1954 and as they started to level the ground near the “Dutch Barn” the digger hit “really tough steel sheeting”.They made enquires and found out what it was even though they were told by the gardener that they “were not meant to know about that as it is secret ”.

He drew a map of its location (see top of page)

Robert Neal from Ottery St Mary Heritage Society. The Golden Jubilee Book of Ottery St Mary, by Hazel Abley. 1939 Kelly's Directory. Letter from Mr Moger and list of Golding Stations originally supplied by Tom Sykes March 2011.

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