ECHO looks back at the history of racehorse training before the site came into being and, in particular, "The Bungalow" stables which housed 36 horses. These were located along the line of Frome Road bordering the proposed Chilton Field housing development. Built around 1905 it was the first bungalow to be erected in Chilton -- hence its name.
An aerial photograph, probably taken by the RAF just prior to them acquiring the land as a WWII bomber station in 1936, clearly shows a colonial style wooden bungalow about half a mile south of the Main Gate on the former A34. Also apparent are the tennis court, adjacent stables and oval exercise track alongside what was then known as Thorningdown Road. This green road linked the A34 with the Golden Mile road at the place now occupied by MRC's buildings. The main RAF Harwell runway, used to launch the glider-borne paratroops for D-Day, effectively erased all signs of the bungalow and its stables.
Horse training at Chilton was started by William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, at Kate's Gore (Gore Hill) in the 1750s and remained a feature of village life until the 1990s. Sheep were used to keep grass in check on the nearby Ridgeway gallops and Steventon and Upton stations were used to transport horses by rail to race meetings.
A number of different trainers lived at the bungalow during its 35-year history. Jim Bell's horse Turbine won the Ascot Stakes in 1908 but the golden years of the stables came under Leonard Cundell who moved there in 1923. He trained Oak Ridge and Noble Star both winning considerable prize money on 1930 and 1931.
In 1931 Noble Star won the Ascot Stakes, the Goodwood Stakes and Cesarewitch at Newmarket taking £5,655 in prize money, more than matched in winning bets by most Chilton residents! Noting that the weekly wages for a farm labourer in the 1930s was around £1.50 this amount of prize money was a considerable fortune. The villagers were still talking of their winnings from the Cesarewitch bookies, several years after AERE Harwell came into being!
In 1935 two RAF officers made an appointment to visit the stables. One of them opened the meeting with the words "Mr Cundell there's going to be a war" and six months later the RAF took over his land for a bomber station.
(ECHO is indebted to Frank Dumbleton, Chilton for allowing us to use material from his research into the history of racing at Chilton.)
