Thoresby Park was just one of the areas that the Second World War and D-Day affected in Nottinghamshire. After France fell to Germany in 1940, Churchill and the British government were under threat and prepared across Britain for a European invasion. Thoresby Park was made into a training camp to ensure success in their defence of European Allies. ‘On the ground’, Thoresby Park was used efficiently to maximise the preparation for a European invasion. On the labelled map below, the space varies from the training grounds for tanks, areas where crops would grow, camps for soldiers to reside, and ammunition stores. To maximise training time, no travel was endured, soldiers' sleeping arrangements were next to the training grounds.
Francis Cooper grew up on the Thoresby Estate and reminisced on how, leading up to D-day, the grounds were used for wartime activities. Cooper stated that…
“The Guards Regiments were all round Nottinghamshire then and the Scots Guards were at Perlethorpe, Grenadier Guards at Welbeck and the Coldstream Guards at Rufford but just before D-Day they brought all the tanks and armoured vehicles onto Thoresby Park. They reckoned there was 1,000 and the King and Mr Churchill came to view them. The tanks really ploughed Thoresby Park up from North Farm right from Shepherds Lodge right across that top.”
Francis Cooper, ‘Growing Up on Thoresby Estate’, Remembering Wartime Thoresby, Community Heritage, http://community-heritage.nottingham.ac.uk/general/2013/07/remembering-wartime-thoresby/
Thoresby Park was not just an attractive building and site, ‘on the ground’, Thoresby Park contributed to the efforts of a successful invasion on D-Day.
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