Martin Limon drops in on the village of Leconfield, three miles north of Beverley and finds a military tradition dating back to the 14th century. Once the site of Leconfield Castle, the home of one of England’s most powerful families in the Middle Ages, these days the village is the base for the Defence School of Transport, a facility of national importance in the training of Britain’s armed services . . .

A bird’s-eye view of the Defence School of Transport, Normandy Barracks, Leconfield (image courtesy of DST)

Anyone who regularly travels the roads of East Yorkshire will have seen large numbers of lorries and other vehicles of the Defence School of Transport, based at Normandy Barracks, Leconfield.

The DST is probably the largest driver training school in the world with more than 14,000 personnel from the Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Marines being trained each year.

In fact, Leconfield’s long association with Britain’s modern Armed Forces began in 1936 when an RAF airfield opened there, occupying more than 1,000 acres and helping to swell the population of this formerly tiny village in the years that followed.

The origins of Leconfield seem to go back to Anglo-Saxon times and the name is thought by some to be derived from “land belonging to those dwelling by the stream”.

The oldest part of the village was probably around the church of St Catherine, on Arram Road and worship at the site dates back to at least the ninth century. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the village was called Lachinfield and by the 14th century, the patronage of Lord of the Manor Henry de Percy had secured a weekly market and an annual fair for its residents.

In fact, the importance of Leconfield in the Middle Ages owed much to the presence of the wealthy and important Percy family (the Earls of Northumberland) who created a fortified manor house (or castle) and deer park to the south-west of the village and this became one of their principal residences.

The late Middle Ages was a turbulent time in England and the Percy family, like other members of the peerage, were involved in the Wars of the Roses between the Lancastrian and Yorkist claimants to the throne. The third Earl of Northumberland (who was born at Leconfield) was one of the estimated 28,000 people killed in 1461 at the Battle of Towton (two miles from Tadcaster), the greatest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil.

Despite these upheavals, life at Leconfield “Castle” continued to dominate the village until the late 16th century and the household was said to consist of 126 persons together with around 55 guests each day. One of these was the Tudor king Henry VIII who stayed there with his fifth wife, Catherine Howard and their attendants in 1541.

Surrounded by a moat, it was described by one 16th century commentator as a large house built largely of timber but partly of brick and stone. Unfortunately the political misfortunes of the Percy family helped to bring a decline of their power and their “castle”, after falling into decay, was demolished in the early 17th century. However the dry moat, surrounding the four-acre site, can still be seen to remind us of the former importance of the place.

In the centuries that followed, Leconfield, in common with all East Riding villages, would have been dominated by the needs of farming and in a directory of 1823, 10 farmers were named. One of them, Thomas Moss, was also the licensee of the Roebuck on the High Road through the village while another public house was the Bay Horse, where Mary Sellers was described as the “victualer”.

This was still there in 1857 when Thomas Fields was recorded as the licensee and he also worked as the village blacksmith. Yet by the 1870s, Leconfield had no public house at all and it is unusual in the East Riding in that, despite its size, it remains a “dry” village to this day (although a social club opened in 1986).

By the mid-19th century, the population of Leconfield was 362 people and like many other East Riding villages, provision was soon made for the education of its children. In 1858 a church school with a master’s house was built on Arram Road for 50 children and supported by voluntary contributions from residents and from Lord Leconfield and Lord Hotham. Living there at the time of the 1881 census was the schoolmaster Robert Topham (born in Woodmansey), his wife and their six children.

When the East Riding Inspector visited Leconfield School in the early 1920s, some of his reports were critical of the teaching he found there. Between February 1921 and October 1924, there were four different head teachers and of the first of these (Miss Horn) he was to write: “The Headmistress is too easy going. Very little thought seems to have been given to the schemes of work and to the preparation of lessons.

“Daily work seems to be more in the nature of filling in time rather than in serious teaching.”

According to the inspector, her replacement (Mrs Williamson) was self confident and vigorous but was eccentric and had “foolish delusions of grandeur”. She was soon at loggerheads with the vicar and seems to have resented his intrusive behaviour.

The inspector wrote in 1922: “They are not good friends at present. Probably there are faults on both sides. Reading between the lines I should say that he has probably made efforts to take an interest in Mrs Williamson’s domestic affairs and guide her in the way she should go. Mrs Williamson has most likely been rude to him.”

The village of Leconfield

Within months, the vicar was claiming that at least two of the other managers of the school were of the opinion that she was “not suitable for the position she holds”. Yet it is interesting to note that the inspector did not seem to share this opinion for he stated that Leconfield School had improved, that the headmistress was working conscientiously and the children were beginning to show more effort.

Yet given her poor relationship with the vicar, it is not surprising that by November 1923, she was gone and had been replaced by another, short-lived, appointment. The inspector said of her: “Miss Carter is a superior kind of woman. She gives the impression of being somewhat neurotic but appears to have high ideals.”

The difficulties and tensions of running Leconfield’s small church school, with four headmistresses in only three years, may have had more to do with the personality of the vicar than anything else. The inspector reported that the fourth appointment, Miss Wright (who arrived in April 1924) was the best of the four he had seen and that under her “the children have improved steadily”. Yet within a short time she was at odds with the elderly school cleaner since he “resented taking orders from a young girl”. The inspector reported that the cleaner was also the vicar’s handyman and enjoyed the vicar’s support!

By October 1937, Leconfield School had just 35 children, but the major changes happening to the village at that time were reflected by an inspection report that said: “An influx of 15 children is expected from the aerodrome next week.”

RAF Leconfield had opened on 3rd December, 1936 and began life as part of Bomber Command. At the outbreak of the Second World War, planes from the base dropped propaganda leaflets over Germany (3rd/4th September, 1939). By October, 1939 Leconfield had been taken over by Fighter Command, whose pilots used its grass airstrip to rest and regroup after periods of action during the Battle of Britain (1940).

The presence of the airfield made Leconfield an important target for the Luftwaffe, too, and records in the East Riding Archive in Beverley give details of two raids in 1940-1941. On the 27th October, 1940, five high-explosive bombs were dropped on the base. Although it was reported that damage was “negligible”, there was one casualty – a Polish airman serving with 302 Squadron.

The Germans made a more determined effort in May, 1941 when 23 high-explosive and 250 incendiary bombs missed their intended target and fell on Leconfield Grange Farm instead.

In October, 1941 RAF Leconfield was reconstructed as a heavy bomber base with concrete runways being laid and the years 1942-1945 saw numerous raids by Wellington and Halifax bombers over Nazi-occupied Europe. Even after the war, the station continued in use as a jet fighter base (finally closing in 1976) and to this day the RAF maintains a presence here with its search and rescue helicopters providing cover over the North Sea, from the Wash to Hartlepool.

In 1977, Leconfield’s new role as an Army School of Mechanical Transport began, with its fleet of Bedford trucks soon becoming a familiar sight on the roads of East Yorkshire; almost 20 years later, RAF and Royal Marine driver training also moved here.

The Defence School of Transport offers all kinds of vehicle training and terrains over which to test them

The Defence School of Transport is now regarded as the “Centre for Excellence” for driver training in the UK, providing 95 different courses and using a fleet of 1,200 vehicles. The range of vehicles that the DST has at its disposal is remarkable: From saloon cars and motorcycles to specialist military light goods vehicles. The base also has 16 kilometres of road training circuits, including a purpose-built hill, roundabouts and junctions to help trainees to develop basic road sense and driving skills before they venture out on to public roads.

To simulate the kind of harsh driving conditions to be found in some parts of the world, there are also 18 kilometres of cross country circuits with obstacles like water crossings to test both vehicles and drivers.

The commandant of the Leconfield facility is Col Paul Brook and, asked about the role of the DST in the United Kingdom’s defence, said: “Every driver, operator and vehicle manager in the three Armed Services is either trained here, trained by an instructor from here or trained by a contract set and managed from here. The role is a key one, and we take it very seriously indeed.”

In fact, the significance of the school goes far beyond its importance in training personnel for the Armed Forces, for it also plays a vital role in the local economy and provides more than 1,000 civilian jobs.

“I am delighted to say also that it is a growth industry; we have recruited just under 200 new staff this year and have invested tens of millions of pounds on infrastructure improvements, much of which goes to local companies and contractors,” Col Brook said.

Having the Defence School of Transport so close by has also been an asset to the wider community too as recent events have shown. Local resident, Bill Byrne, told me: “The village was badly affected by the heavy rainfall we experienced on 25th June, 2007 and houses in Old Road and St Catherine’s Drive were flooded. Personnel from the DST came to the aid of those affected by providing sandbags and by diverting traffic away from flooded areas.”

Bill moved to Leconfield from Oldham in 1991 and is now the chairman of the social club in Miles Lane. He told me of the appeal of living in the village.

“Leconfield is a village that welcomes newcomers and its location and a good bus service means that Beverley is easily accessible,” he said. “We have a thriving community with amenities like a village hall, a sports field, a bowling green, and a children’s play area. Activities like badminton and line dancing are popular.”

Local postmistress Margaret Archer, who has been running Leconfield Post Office for 10 years, echoed these views on the village.

She said: “The people are very friendly, very helpful and very supportive of the Post Office here. The only amenity that we lack is a public house or restaurant. I believe that a majority of people, if asked, would like a pub but when, over the years, some tried to get one up and running, there wasn’t the property or land available.”

Like many East Riding communities, Leconfield has seen a rapid development in recent times with plenty of new house building on both sides of the busy A164 road that passes through it. Yet although the village, like many others, has become a popular commuter settlement for Hull and Beverley, its growth began much earlier than elsewhere.

The significance of a military presence in the Leconfield story is apparent from the population statistics for in 1931 there were only 283 people living in the parish. In 1951 (15 years after the establishment of RAF Leconfield) the census recorded a population of 1,538 and by 2001, this had risen still further to 1,990.