Aston House was a prominent 17th century residence with large parkland situated opposite the parish church in

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston wa ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, UK.The house was demolished in 1961 by the Stevenage New Town Development Corporation after occupying it as its initial HQ. The site was developed and named Yeomans Drive in memory of Arthur Yeomans the last owner in 1939 when it was requisitioned by the War Office. The adjoining parkland became Stevenage Golf-and Conference-Centre in April 1980.

1940s: SOE – Station XII E.S.6.(WD)

Aston House became the Research and Development Centre of sabotage explosives and weapons for the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE). Aston House was the first to experiment with

plastic explosive Plastic explosive is a soft and hand-moldable solid form of explosive material. Within the field of explosives engineering, plastic explosives are also known as putty explosives or blastics. Plastic explosives are especially suited for explos ...

for sabotage. The Commanding Officer at the House was Col. Leslie J. Cardew Wood a strong contender for the title of the original'Q' - 'Q' character in the James Bond films. for he developed bespoke weapons, tools and gadgets which were used in raids including

Lofoten Islands Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvær ...

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newha ...

, Norsk Heavy Water Plant, St-Nazaire and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Aston House supplied special weapons to the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

(SAS),

Special Boat Service The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...

(SBS), Long Range Patrol Unit (LRP), the Resistance Groups and the

Commandos Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...

. The station was important in aiding the design and production of the

Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife The Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife is a double-edged fighting knife resembling a dagger or poignard with a foil grip. It was developed by William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes in Shanghai based on ideas that the two men had while serv ...

. Production also included over 12 million No. 10 Time Delay

pencil detonator A pencil detonator or time pencil is a time fuze designed to be connected to a detonator or short length of safety fuse. They are about the same size and shape as a pencil, hence the name. They were introduced during World War II and developed at ...

and 38,500 Type 6

Limpet Mines A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver ...

, both made to original Aston House designs. Quality Control, Packaging and Dispatch was continuous and included supplying all the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

Auxiliary Units and the Resistance Groups in Europe, reaching a peak around

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Aston House took on responsibility for the total design, development and testing programme for the 'Sleeping Beauty'

Motorised Submersible Canoe The Motorised Submersible Canoe (MSC), nicknamed Sleeping Beauty, was built by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II as an underwater vehicle for a single frogman to perform clandestine reconnaissance or attacks ag ...

(MSC). One of the more exotic devices was the "explosive rat". The skinned rats were, filled with plastic explosive, and sewn up. The idea being to place the rats in coal near a boiler, so that they would be thrown in with the coal and cause an explosion. Aston House weapons were also used in the assassination of

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

. Among the many scientific personnel at the station were the inventor of the Number Ten Delay Switch ("timing pencil"), Lieutenant-Commander A.J.G. Langley S.I.S Secret Intelligence Service, ›

Francis Arthur Freeth Francis Arthur Freeth (2 January 1884 – 15 July 1970) was a British industrial chemist. He spent much of his career at Brunner Mond and its successor Imperial Chemical Industries, as chief chemist, research manager and in a recruiting capaci ...

, Colin Meek and

Cecil Vandepeer Clarke Major Cecil Vandepeer Clarke MC (1897–1961) was an engineer, inventor and soldier who served in both the First and Second World Wars. Early life Clarke was born on 15 February 1897. He grew up in London and was known to his friends as No ...

Decline

The only remaining building is the coach house with clock tower on Yeoman's Drive, Aston.

References

{{coord missing, Hertfordshire Buildings and structures in Hertfordshire 1950s disestablishments in England Special Operations Executive Ministry of Economic Warfare World War II sites in the United Kingdom World War II sites of the United Kingdom World War II sites in England Locations in the history of espionage Buildings and structures demolished in 1961 Demolished buildings and structures in England