Interviewer
Mr. Stephen, can you tell us a little bit about where we are right now?
Stephen Prowse
We’re on a National Trust property called Heigham Holmes, it’s a 500 acre island of grazing marsh, surrounded by water, in the Norfolk Broads.
Interviewer
So when was Heigham Holmes bought by the National Trust?
Stephen Prowse
It was bought by the Trust in 1987, primarily for its wildlife importance, and is managed now as a working farm and a nature reserve.
Interviewer
So what was Heigham Homes used for, supposedly, in WWII?
Stephen Prowse
Well, local stories suggest that it was a forward landing strip for the SOE, which was the Special Operations Executive,
and black painted Lysander aircraft flew here on missions across the North Sea.
Interviewer
So is there any evidence to support this?
Stephen Prowse
Well there was a book pulished a few years ago by a chap called Huby Fairhead, who documental some anecdotal remiscences of some people locally.
I’ve also met some people myself who as boys remember aircraft flying in to land, or flying away from here. So there is a strong suggestion that something interesting was going on here.
Interviewer
So if there is this evidence how come we don’t hear more about this?
Stephen Prowse
Well, the type of operations that were carried out were top secret. The documentary evidence itself, in many cases, has been embargoed for 100 years. Some of the record in Holland for example won’t be released until 2045. Likewise, a lot of the British records were destroyed at the end of the war, primarily because of the secret nature of the operations that were carried out.
Interviewer
So why Martham? Why was Martham chosen to be the landing strip?
Stephen Prowse
Well, apparently the original landing strip used by 161 squadron was in Suffolk, and was moved here because the site was deemed to be more remote, and there was a farmhouse here, so there would have been somewhere for RAF staff to be billeted. Its proximity to the coast means that aircraft travelling a long distance into mainland Europe would need to be refuelled, and so here would be a perfect location for aircraft to land, refuel and then carry on to Thamsesford, near Newmarket.
Interviewer
So whereabouts out there would the landing strip have actually been?
Stephen Prowse
Well the 1943 aerial photograph shows a very unusual pattern on the east of the barn, but the schedule monument register shows the strip to the west of the barn, so we’re not too sure where the landing strip was.
Interviewer
So did anyone actually live on the island?
Stephen Prowse
Well yes, as a matter of fact, at one stage there were three houses here, there were two marsh cottages that would have been on the low-lying parts, very damp.
The children that lived in those cottages forded Candle Dyke, and would walk to school across the marshes to Potter Heigham: quite a tough trip, I should imagine.
There was a house up here too, that was a marshman’s house,
and he would tend the cattle,
clean out the dykes and he would be in charge of the windpump for the drainage over here.
And his wife apparently never left the island. So if she needed shopping she would go own to the ferry and would buy her goods or
what have you from the trading wherries that passed the ferries maybe once a week.
