Brox Road

Bousley Rise

Ottershaw Village has an excellent web site offering information about all aspects of

village life. There is a page for 'News' items and a 'Forum' for discussion of topics

anyone cares to raise as well as details of all community services, doctors, schools

etc. Lots of information. Click on www.ottershaw-village.net to see for yourself.

We are very grateful to Robert Brown, who runs the Ottershaw Village site, for his

help and advice with the Ottershaw Society website.

Christ Church, Ottershaw . Times of services and all the activities of the church

areshown in great detail on their web site. Look at www.ottershawchurch.com

for information.

Links to other Ottershaw Groups and individuals

Ottershaw Players. www.ottershawplayers.co.uk

Ottershaw Cricket Club. www.ohmcc.wanadoo.co.uk

Jim Gallimore, painter and sculpter, supplied the pictures of the trees on our

home page. Find out more about Jim. www.jamesgallimore.co.uk

Village Shopping area

Village Shopping area

Ottershaw Village Hall

Brook Hall has provided a focal point for the village of Ottershaw for nearly 80 years.

The Hall and the land surrounding it were given, in 1930, to the Parochial Church

Council of the parish of Ottershaw in memory of the Reverend Arthur Brook by his

widow and daughter. The original building was destroyed by fire in the early 1940s

and the present building was erected soon after the Second World War. It has been

extended and altered over the years and has always been well used by the local

community. It is now beginning to show its age and needs fundamental improvements

to ensure its continued use and to meet the changing legal requirements.

A new charity called 'Ottershaw Village Hall' has been set up recently to manage the

Hall. Its trustees are required to promote and coordinate the day-to-day running of the

Hall and to organise and oversee the refurbishment of the Hall. Planned improvements

include new toilets, heat and sound insulation, rewiring, modernising and extending the

kitchen, new windows and external doors as well as improvements to the stage and

backstage area. It is planned to upgrade the Hall through a series of projects, disrupting

the normal use of the Hall as little as possible.

The refurbishment plans, and the fundraising required to enable them, will require the

support of the village and will ensure that Brook Hall can continue to be a valuable

asset to the local community. The new management committee welcomes any input

to their plans and will be very happy to discuss the renovation proposals.

The Chairman, Peter Williams, can be contacted on 01932 872692 or 07881 628 139.

Progress on the improvements to Brook Hall will be reported on this page.

Ottershaw Society has made generous donations to the development fund.

'Notable Ottershavians'
Here we commemorate the work of persons who have contributed in various ways to the community of Ottershaw.

Harold James Macklin Stratton, better known to his friends as 'Mac', came to live in Ottershaw in 1959 at 'Langtons' on the Guildford Road. He was an ear, nose and throat surgeon, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh, and worked as a consultant at Hounslow West, Ashford and Woking Nuffield hospitals. Apart from his work as a well respected surgeon, his interests in local history and the environment involved him in many societies such as the Georgian, the Garden History, the Royal Horticultural, National Trust and the Brooklands Society (which he helped to revive). He drove a Bugatti and went on the continent to rallies.

DAVID DAVID By Sheena David. We came to Ottershaw in 1961 when David had just retired from the Army, and he lived here for forty years. He was involved with several aspects of local life, as Churchwarden, Treasurer of the Royal British Legion and a trustee of the Social Club, besides taking a great interest in the history of the area and helping to preserve the character of the village. He was born and grew up in South Wales, and his chosen career was the regular Army. The training for this started at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and then the Army sent him to King’s College Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and engineering, as well as drawing pleasure and inspiration from hearing the famous choir at close range.

Eighteen months before the outbreak of World War II, at the age of 22, he joined an Engineer Corps of the Indian Army and was closely involved with Muslim, Hindu and Sikh soldiers. As well as military and engineer training there were opportunities for sport – he enjoyed playing hockey on the very fast pitches of baked mud – and for trekking in the Himalayas. In 1939 he did a two-month walk through the remote province of Ladakh, and after the War he had a trip to the Hindu Kush, glimpsing the River Oxus and the high Pamirs.

His work was combat engineering, such as clearing obstacles, supplying water, and building roads through mountainous jungle. War service took him to the Western Desert, to East Africa including the Battle of Keren where he was wounded, and later to the Arakan in Burma. Here he was awarded the Military Cross for organizing the transport of an infantry brigade across a river over two successive nights, driving one ferry himself under artillery and machine-gun fire. He saw many casualties on both sides, and learned at first hand the suffering caused by war and the need to do all we can to abolish it. On the partition of India in 1947 he opted to serve in Pakistan, was involved with the foundation of the School of Military Engineering at Sialkot, and acted as Chief Instructor there. Among later appointments he was a Field Engineer with the Indian Army force in Iraq, finding in Basra buildings constructed by the Royal Engineers in the First World War thirty years before. He also commanded the Fortress Engineer Regiment in Gibraltar, was Chief Engineer of the British Army in Malaya, and commanded all Royal Engineer units in Singapore. During that posting, we saw Somerset Maugham at the Raffles Hotel, and our son Tom was born in the Military Hospital. We came home on one of the last troop-ships. There were also desk jobs, including being secretary of a War Office committee looking into modern management techniques and their military application.

After he retired from the Army, he had a second career for twenty years employed by engineering consultants on industrial planning studies, mainly in developing countries. In the course of that he filled in some bits of his personal world map that had been left blank by the Army, travelling in Ethiopia, Algeria, West Africa and Argentina.

During the time between trips abroad and after his second retirement he was churchwarden, with Jack Brotherwood, for eight years, with some years before and afterwards on the Parochial Church Council. He saw many changes in the parish and had a hand in several projects which have come to fruition. He was the first archivist of Christ Church, and compiled a detailed account of its history. This was published on the Church’s 125th birthday in 1989, and was revised and updated by Pam Brush in 2004, and given a fine epilogue. In 1989 and 1996 there were plans to build on parts of the Recreation Ground (which was given as a war memorial). With others and after considerable research, he helped to resist these.

He always enjoyed a good party, and some people may remember evidence of his sense of fun at one Harvest Festival Supper: David and Jack, in furs and woad, gave a stirring performance of the Ancient British scout song ‘What’s the use of wearing braces,’ to the tune of Men of Harlech.

As one of his colleagues in the Bengal Sappers and Miners wrote, ‘We shall greatly miss the modesty, kindness and courtesy of this remarkable man whom so many both admired and respected.’

Picture shows David starting our younger son Rhys on his career in mechanical engineering.