WAR STORIES

DISCOVER THE NATIONAL TRUST'S WARTIME CONNECTIONS

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MANY places in the National Trust’s care played important roles during the Second World War. None more so than Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire.

In 1939, the War Department requisitioned the park, and it was used for ammunition storage and military training. Nissen huts sprung up across the park for army personnel, the cricket pavilion became a medical hut, and the Duke's garage was used for meetings. Winston Churchill's prototype trench-digging tank, ‘Nellie,’ was also tested at Clumber Park. Churchill travelled there in 1941 to see it in action.

Upton House in Warwickshire was one of four houses owned by Walter Samuel, the 2nd Lord Bearsted, who was one of the richest men in Britain before the Second World War. But there is more to the house and former owner than meets the eye. A quiet philanthropist, Lord Bearstead, along with Sir Herbert Samuel and Simon Marks, used his wealth and influence to bring about a rescue mission which brought nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-controlled territories to foster homes in the UK, known today as the Kindertransport.