# SOE Manor - AKA Hotel B - July 2012



## nelly (Jul 5, 2012)

Grab yourself a coffee, this goes on a bit!!!

The History

Built circa 1719 by the mason Christopher Cass for a Mr Robert Chester who was a
director of The South Sea Company.








The Grade II listed building was passed down through the generations and across the family tree like any other country manor
and nothing interesting is documented there until the 20th century when the Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up a base there and in its final years was a hotel sitting in 80 acres with its own golf course






The rest of this report is extracts from an interview with one of the SOE workers (Stolen from the BBC)

In the early years of the war, I, a young R.E. officer, was given the job by SOE HQ in Baker Street, London, 
of starting up and running a forgery unit, with the object of providing forged documents for our agents operating with the various underground Resistance movements in occupied Europe.











"We occupied the cellars of this country house, while above ground and in the surrounding countryside, Polish officers and NCOs were being trained with German weapons and plastic explosive to become saboteurs ."











"My staff originally consisted of just three Polish civilians, only one of whom spoke any English, who had probably been doing similar work in Poland before the war.
But with the recruitment of Sapper technicians from the RE Survey companies, a handwriting expert from New Scotland Yard, 
an engraver from de la Rue the stamp and banknote printers and some additional machinery, we were able to get into production."
















"We fully realised that agents lives were at risk who used our documents, so every effort was made to ensure that the latter looked really authentic. 
To this end, no expense was spared, and even if only a couple of hundred identity cards for a job were required, we would think nothing of having tons of special board or paper made. 
We faithfully reproduced all the imperfections on the original document that we had obtained from our agents, and had, at times, to age certain documents artificially to make them look genuinely old."
















"Certainly we were able to forge practically anything our agents brought back; but the job had also to have a less serious side at times."
















"On one such occasion, the FANNYS at the adjoining Free French station had decided to throw a party, and we decided that for this, we would produce a couple of hundred copies of the then current five pound English banknote, 
substituting Brigadier Gubbin's portrait and signature for that of the Governor of the Bank of England - as the banknote was only printed in black, this was easy to forge, 
and during the course of the evening, we dropped the notes onto the dance floor from a balcony. The Brigadier was amused, but warned us to make sure none of them finished up in the hands of the Police!"
















"We had to smile too, when, on another occasion, some of the Polish would-be saboteurs were sent out on a demolition exercise, when they were supposed to blow up a spare bit of railway line that was lying near the main London-Cambridge line. 
With somewhat misplaced zeal however, they fixed the explosive to the rails on the main line itself, and blew it up, causing the line to be out of commission for half a day. 
Fortunately, no one was hurt, but our OC, a Ghurkha major, was none too pleased!"











"In 1942, SOE HQ decided to experiment with the dropping of office-type printing machinery by parachute, in the hope that if this was successful, 
these machines could be got to the Resistance to produce seditious literature on the spot and make things more difficult for the Germans."











"So, one bright, sunny, summer day found a circle of officers, including a number of 'brass hats' from London, gathered in a circle round the intended dropping zone in the grounds"











"I was one of those present, and standing next to me was a good looking young Scotsman dressed in a kilt; to our mutual surprise, we found that we had both been in the same class at Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow many years before the war, and before I and my family moved South. 
I did remember his surname, Torrance, but before I could ask him to remind me what his Christian name was, the drop had taken place, and it was too late"











​


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## UEP-Wales (Jul 5, 2012)

Amazingly great stuff there mate! Was looking forward to this all night and it was well worth the wait!


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## Priority 7 (Jul 5, 2012)

nice shot nelly


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## nelly (Jul 5, 2012)

Urbex-SW said:


> Was looking forward to this all night and it was well worth the wait!



You need to get out a bit more fella


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## UE-OMJ (Jul 5, 2012)

What a stunning building


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## Mars Lander (Jul 6, 2012)

Brilliant captures of a stunning place


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## Ninja Kitten (Jul 6, 2012)

lovely one nel..


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## flyboys90 (Jul 6, 2012)

Amazing building & report and what a history!,thanks for sharing.


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## Mike L (Jul 6, 2012)

Great site, that staircase is amazing.


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## John_D (Jul 6, 2012)

Superb photos as usual and love the style of the report Nelly, transported the place back to the 1940's 
A few years ago, when it was still a hotel, a well off friend of mine went there for a special family meal, loved the setting and building but said the service was abysmal and vowed never to go back again, perhaps the staff knew about the impending closure of the place?


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## TeeJF (Jul 6, 2012)

Lavverly stuff Nellers old bean!


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## steve2109 (Jul 6, 2012)

Great Pictures, Great Text, Great report


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## Silent Hill (Jul 6, 2012)

Superb detailed report mate. Enjoyed every single bit of it. And that beautiful antique radiator just makes me :swoon:


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## nelly (Jul 6, 2012)

Thanks peeps


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## sonyes (Jul 6, 2012)

Stunning place and some excellent shots!


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## _Nyx_ (Jul 6, 2012)

Amazing report & photos !


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## dansnook (Jul 7, 2012)

[/quote] Great find looks a stunning place good job!!


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## krela (Jul 7, 2012)

It's amazing how many of these country houses were requisitioned for the war for all sorts of purposes. Also amazing how such a lovely and good condition building can be disused. Top reporting nelly.


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## jongriff (Jul 7, 2012)

Great stuff, yep, stairs & write up are my fav bits


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## krisan (Jul 11, 2012)

what a beautiful place. loved reading the info


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## Sshhhh... (Jul 11, 2012)

What a find! The staircase is stunning, great pics, thanks


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## kehumff (Jul 11, 2012)

Truly stunning shots, captured the building wonderfully, fantastic job, would love to know what kit you are using.


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## nelly (Jul 19, 2012)

kehumff said:


> Truly stunning shots, captured the building wonderfully, fantastic job, would love to know what kit you are using.



Sorry matey, only just seen this, got a Canon EOS 1d MkII n, and the lens on at the time was the Canon 17-40 L


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## leftorium (Jul 19, 2012)

kehumff said:


> Truly stunning shots, captured the building wonderfully, fantastic job, would love to know what kit you are using.



For general info If there's a particular picture you like, you can discover a lot about the kit and quite a bit about the processing By examining the exif data by using this tool http://regex.info/exif.cgi/. just paste the URL and it will show you a lot of info. Unless the OP has removed the data that is 

There are also quite a few exif data plugin extensions for Firefox and chrome


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## ravenwing93 (Jul 19, 2012)

Awesome work as usual


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## scribble (Jul 19, 2012)

Lovely latticework under the stairs. What a great place!


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## prettyvacant71 (Jul 23, 2012)

Amazing photos!! luv all that dark carved wood on the ceilings and stairs and the little curved white room with the brass lamp....infact i luv all, great job mate


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