Welcome to the first of a series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025.

Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit into the exhibition alone! Last year, Tom Davis shared his many finds from Youlbury Estate, Boars Hill, Oxford, along with his History and Archaeology dissertation about the site. In this article, Tom covers the Second World War history of the site, right up to its use in 1945 and in the aftermath of the war.

Photography of the archeological finds, now in the museum collection, by Colin J Morris Photography.

Youlbury Battle School

by Tom Davis 

Youlbury Battle School was established in 1942 on the estate of the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who was made famous for his excavation of Knossos on Crete, and is located at Boars Hill about 4 km south-west of Oxford.

Between 1942-1945 over 10,000 soldiers trained on the site, with its battle course, mines and booby trap courses, and armoured car training aimed to physically and psychologically prepare the troops for the realities of combat.

Between 2020-23 Tom Davis enacted a large-scale metal detecting survey of Youlbury and its peripheral landscape with a total of 3,000 artefacts collected, the majority being rounds of ammunition fired by a variety of weapons, from Bren Guns to the US Springfield Rifles.

The hazardous nature of the training is perhaps best exemplified by a British MkV helmet found on the grounds of the former battle course, its presence there likely indicating that it was discarded after suffering damage.

A number of artefacts were also found which attest the personal experiences of soldiers training at the School such as modified ‘trench art’ ammunition, cosmetic items, and dart barrels.

Following the departure of the military from the camp its vacant huts were used to billet German POWs – evidence for which being seen among a Cologne-produced cream tube, a Wehrmacht belt buckle and button, as well as a dog tag traced to corporal Otto Metzler.

Metzler’s service record details his wounding by shrapnel near Stalingrad in 1942, his capture at Monte Cassino in 1944, and his subsequent deportment to the US via North Africa later that year.