The owners of Lackham in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries ...

The Manor of Lackham IV : 19 th & 20 th century owners
The first floor rooms on the southern side, overlooking the Terraces and the
fields, were the location of Gen. Patton’s rooms and removal of plaster in a
small side room here 394 room revealed even earlier wallpaper still in place (see
above).
It is understood that when D-Day was being planned Gen. Eisenhower visited
Lackham, but no evidence for this has been located so far.
It has been suggested that
a pond on the estate created during World War II, as history has
it, using explosives at General Patton’s behest to make a swimming
pool for GIs while he was based at Lackham in the run-up to D-
Day. 395
This is not true, all of the ponds and tanks that are visible today appear on the
OS maps and estate sale maps back to at least 1850. There was a swimming
pool on the estate but it was built after the war; “1949-50 Swimming pool
excavated with direct labour [ie County Council staff] served the College well
for twenty years” 396
Over fifty years later local residents still recalled soldiers being at Lackham,
Nancie Howie remembered that
Soldiers stationed at Lackham House who came to the village for a
glass or two (or more) of beer, often missed the brook path and
blundered through the brook and up the old Nethercote Hill and on
to Lackham. Grandfather found many a soldiers’ hat floating in the
394 In 2000
395 Masson, S In the field of Higher Learning Shooting Times Weds 3 rd February 2010
http://www.shootingtimes.co.uk/features/440370/In_the_field_of_higher_learning.h
tml
396 Thomas, JO (1984) [edited 2011 by the current author] Agricultural Education in
Wiltshire p51 http://www.lackham.co.uk/history/Lackham%201946-1970.pdf
117