A village which transformed itself

2:46pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

BERINSFIELD, which this month celebrates its 50th birthday, has been transformed from a place no one wanted to know into a thriving village with massive community spirit.

That is the view of Ken Hall, who has lived in the village for 43 years and been chairman of the parish council for 40 years.

He said: "I have always been proud of Berinsfield and always will be. And it is right we are celebrating 50 years of our village."

His views were supported by Izzy Hiles, one of the organisers of the village celebration day on Saturday, July 19.

She said: "Berinsfield has changed a lot over the years, but it still retains a strong community spirit and there are many who never want to live anywhere else - after all, we have so much here when other villages are losing their facilities."

The special guest at the celebration will be Sir Hugo Brunner, whose visit will be his last function as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire before he retires.

During the Second World War, Berinsfield was Mount Farm, a satellite station of RAF Benson used to train bomber pilots for night landings.

Later in the war, the Americans used the site for their 7th Photo Reconnaissance Group, which took pictures of enemy installations to guide bombers.

American entertainers used the Mount Farm base to visit the troops, including Glenn Miller, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

After the war, there was a major housing shortage and people from around the country were housed in the old nissen huts at Mount Farm.

Then Bullingdon Rural District Council had the idea of creating a new village, the first in England for 200 years. It was named after St Berin and the 'field' was added because that is how the Americans always referred to their base.

Fifty years ago Berinsfield was born and the first people moved in.

Mr Hall said: "Oxford sent us many of their undesirables and that was how Berinsfield became the place nobody wanted to know. Over the years, things have changed - but reputations are slow to go away.

"We have here a wonderful community, one to be proud of and one which has gained many of its facilities by itself. The swimming pool connected to the school was funded by local people.

"Many of our young people have an enviable reputation for the work they are continuing to do to help Aids victims in Kenya - every year a batch of them goes over to help build community centres and classrooms under Operation Noah's Ark.

"We are very proud of them."

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