BORDON, HAMPSHIRE
Reproduced below are three postcards showing Royal Artillery married quarters in Bordon, Hampshire. A British Army base since the start of the twentieth century, more images and information relating to Bordon can be found on the Hantsphere website.
Below: This postcard shows the Royal Artillery married quarters in Station Road, Bordon. (© Hampshire Library & Information Service – Hampshire County Council. TACA is grateful to Hampshire County Council for permission to reproduce this image.)
Below: A postcard captioned 'Royal Artillery Married Quarters, Bordon'.
Below: A black-and-white postcard captioned 'R.F.A. [Royal Field Artillery] married quarters, Bordon', which was posted in 1915. (The Royal Field Artillery existed from 1899 to 1924.)
BULFORD, WILTSHIRE
Although Bulford Camp was established at the end of the nineteenth century, it was not until the late 1930s that new brick houses began to replace the wooden huts that had served as married quarters until then.
Below: Army children and their dog pictured opposite the 'C' lines married quarters at Bulford Camp.
Below: The red-brick rows of terraced married quarters shown in the postcard below seem an improvement on the hutments in 'C' lines.
Below: Captioned 'Salisbury Plain. Bulford Camp. Married Quarters', this old black-and-white postcard (which dates from the first half of the twentieth century) offers a rather bleak view from Salisbury Plain of terraced married quarters at Bulford Camp.
CATTERICK, NORTH YORKSHIRE
The Royal Corps of Signals was based at Catterick, in North Yorkshire, between 1925 and 1994, so plenty of children whose fathers served in the corps will have lived in the six married quarters pictured below, which were allocated to the families of its warrant officers.
DEEPCUT, SURREY
Flanked by rows of married quarters, children feature prominently in a postcard dating from 1906, reproduced below. Labelled ‘Deepcut Camp, Married Quarters’, these houses in Deepcut, Surrey, would then have been only recently built for army families.
DEVIZES, WILTSHIRE
A tinted postcard dating from the World War I period of the married quarters at Devizes Barracks is shown below. Construction of Devizes Barracks, or the Le Marchant Barracks, in Devizes, Wiltshire, was completed in 1878, and the barracks served as the Wiltshire Regiment's regimental headquarters until 1959. Look closely, and a woman wearing a long, white apron or gown can just be discerned standing at the top of the stairs leading to the first floor on the left.
HOUNSLOW, MIDDLESEX
Pictured in the early twentieth century, the married quarters shown below in Hounslow, Middlesex, were located within the barrack boundaries.
The sepia-toned postcard below, which dates from the first half of the twentieth century, gives another view of the married quarters at Hounslow Barracks.
LARKHILL, WILTSHIRE
The black-and-white postcard below, whose postmark indicates that it was posted in 1956, presents a view of married quarters at Larkhill, Wiltshire. Larkhill Camp was established in 1899, and the Royal School of Artillery has been based there since 1919.
LYDD, KENT
There was once a garrison at Lydd, in Kent, which is notable for having given its name to lyddite, a shell-firing explosive that was first tested there during the 1880s, when Lydd was an artillery practice camp.
The pair of black-and-white postcards pictured above and below, which show remarkably similar views, are both labelled ‘Married quarters, 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, Lydd’. There are a few additional details to be discerned in the postcard below, however: an identifying sign spelling out ‘C Block’ attached to the wall of the quarter on the far right, and a group of army children captured playing on the common ground in front of the quarters (see the detail at the bottom).
PLYMOUTH, DEVON
Posted in 1915, the sepia-toned postcard below shows the married quarters within Crownhill (or Crown Hill) Barracks, in Plymouth, Devon. They were constructed in 1898.
SHORNCLIFFE, KENT
'Shorncliffe, Married Men's Quarters' is the caption printed on the postcard reproduced below, whose postmark reveals that it was sent in May 1907. There has been a military presence at Shorncliffe, near Folkestone, in Kent, since the late eighteenth century, when it was feared that Napoleon's army would invade England.
TIDWORTH, WILTSHIRE
Above and below: A postcard (above) showing married quarters at Tidworth, Wiltshire, around a century ago. This postcard (below) shows the opposite end of the street.
Below: This postcard is captioned 'Tidworth: married quarters'. These terraced homes in Tidworth were nicknamed 'Merthyr Tydfils' on account of their similarity to the housing provided for miners and their families in Merthyr Tydfil, then a significant colliery town in south-east Wales.
Above and below: Two postcards labelled 'Warrant officers quarters, Tidworth'.
Below: This postcard shows a row of terraced married quarters at Assaye Barracks, Tidworth.
WARLEY, ESSEX
‘Merry Christmas to you’ is the message printed over the caption identifying the location shown on an old black-and-white postcard as ‘The Married Quarters, Warley Barracks, near Brentwood’, in Essex. The card was posted in 1910, which corresponds to the style of dress worn by the army children seen in the foreground. (Behind the children on the right can be seen communal washing lines filled with drying laundry.) At this time, Warley Barracks was the depot of the Essex Regiment.
WOOLWICH, LONDON
The postcard pictured below shows married quarters in Woolwich, south-east London, 'looking South', and dates from around the time of World War I. Building work began on the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich in 1782.
