We are making a second journey to our exclusive venue Holmewood Hall in Peterborough on 12th November 2010.Date: 12th November 2010
Venue: Holmewood Hall
Location: Peterborough
Start Time: 20:30
Approx Finish Time: 02:00
Cost: £45.00 each
History of Holmewood Hall
The Wells had made their fortune in shipbuilding as far back as the 16th century, and even get a mention in Samuel Pepys's Diary.
Although records are few and far between, it is believed there were two or three previous houses on the site before fire destroyed the 18th Century building, and William Wells (1818 - 1889) commissioned the present hall.
The first William Wells inherited Holme from his wife Elizabeth Neave’s maternal Uncle Thomas Truman in 1752, Truman having bought it from the Cotton family.
Fielden, the 'silent Squire' as villagers called him, was a strict and somewhat eccentric man with a passion for country sports. Respected rather than popular, he was also generous to a fault. In the First World War he donated £500,000 to the country and allowed his steam yacht to be used as a hospital ship. During WW2 he gave thousands more to buy four Spitfires, ambulances, munitions and hospital equipment to help the war effort.
That wasn't the end of the story, however. We have known for some time that the Hall played a role during World War II but exact details of what went on during this time were sketchy. After fifty years under Official Secrets wraps, an interesting twist came to light. In fact, the Hall had played a cruicial role during the war. Between 1944 and 1945 the house and grounds at Holmewood Hall were used by the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for packing airborne containers to be parachuted into occupied Europe. However, we knew little else.
This all changed in 2009 when we were visited by Phil Gioia from San Francisco. Phil’s father, Joseph Gioia was an officer with the OSS and was based at Holmewood Hall, known as ‘Area H’ during World War II. During Phil’s visit we discovered the full extent of the OSS operation at Area H.
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