VE Day special; the contribution of Shotover to WW II

Situated just to the south of The Ridings, on the southern foothills of Shotover Hill, can be found the remains of the Second World War training camp, used by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

The HQ for the regiment was on Barracks Lane, Cowley. The training camp spread from the Barracks across to Shotover. The Barracks and most of the land is now housing, and the Eastern By-pass crosses through the centre of what was the camp.

Little remains of this training camp other than the metalled roads and the concrete foundations, on which the army huts were placed. Although there is an old machine-gun bunker which can be found just off the Ridings, this can be seen in the picture below.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry were involved in significant actions in Europe including taking part in the British Expeditionary Force which ended with the Dunkirk evacuation, and later in the D-Day landings, fighting from there, through the Low Countries and on into Germany.

So for many of the soldiers, the Slade Camp, as it was known, would have been the start of their war, prior to some very significant actions, from which - sadly - many did not return.

The only significant structure left at the Slade training camp in Shotover appears to be this machine gun bunker.