The Old Reservoir - serendipity
The Old Reservoir, as we will call it, just outside Old Dalby began life in 1943 as a water storage tank.
I am pretty sure that, in the wartime, it would only have been built for military purposes. The military presence near Old Dalby was the Central Ordnance Depot, Old Dalby, built in 1940 under the oversight of my father, Major-General 'Bill' Williams, then Director of Warlike Stores in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
The Old Dalby depot was conceived as a motor transport depot as an offshoot of the Army Centre for Mechanisation at Chilwell, just north of nearby Nottingham. Before it could fulfil this function it was altered into a depot for heavy guns, machine tools and large equipment such as Bailey Bridges. It was commanded by Brigadier Bob Hiam, who joined the RAOC from Dunlops for the duration of the war. Hiam would cross the channel just after D Day to set up an Advance Ordnance Depot just outside Caen, which then moved, following the advance, to Antwerp.
The Old Reservoir has, as one of its neighbours, Old Dalby Hall. This Hall has been home to a number of people over the centuries, but one was Oliver Cromwell. It was Bill Williams's family myth that we were related to Cromwell, whose great-grandfather had been born Williams before adopting the name of his illustrious maternal uncle, Thomas Cromwell.
I am pretty sure that, in the wartime, it would only have been built for military purposes. The military presence near Old Dalby was the Central Ordnance Depot, Old Dalby, built in 1940 under the oversight of my father, Major-General 'Bill' Williams, then Director of Warlike Stores in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
The Old Dalby depot was conceived as a motor transport depot as an offshoot of the Army Centre for Mechanisation at Chilwell, just north of nearby Nottingham. Before it could fulfil this function it was altered into a depot for heavy guns, machine tools and large equipment such as Bailey Bridges. It was commanded by Brigadier Bob Hiam, who joined the RAOC from Dunlops for the duration of the war. Hiam would cross the channel just after D Day to set up an Advance Ordnance Depot just outside Caen, which then moved, following the advance, to Antwerp.
The Old Reservoir has, as one of its neighbours, Old Dalby Hall. This Hall has been home to a number of people over the centuries, but one was Oliver Cromwell. It was Bill Williams's family myth that we were related to Cromwell, whose great-grandfather had been born Williams before adopting the name of his illustrious maternal uncle, Thomas Cromwell.
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