Higher Wincombe is a farm and small hamlet in the parish of

Donhead St Mary Donhead St Mary is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Dorset. The village lies about east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury and stands on high ground above the River Nadder, which rises in the ...

, Wiltshire, England. It lies at the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

of the Nadder Valley, just beyond the north-east edge of the town of Shaftesbury, Dorset and within the

Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in England. The area was designated as an AONB in 1981 and confirmed i ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History

There was a hamlet called Wincombe by the later 18th century, which was recorded as Higher Wincombe when it was surveyed by the

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

in 1886. Wincombe farm was built in the second half of the 18th century (although the barn may have been built in the earlier part of that century) and was enlarged in the 19th century. The hamlet, together with the lands of Higher Wincombe Farm shouldering the border with Dorset, was requisitioned in 1943 by the Ministry of Works for the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...

and became the Wincombe Y Station which was at first operated by the General Post Office (GPO). From the 1950s to 1983 the site was operated by the

National Security Agency (NSA) The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

of the United States in conjunction with GCHQ. The site was also known as RAF Wincombe, and for a time came under RAF Upper Heyford as part of the United States Air Force in the United Kingdom. The USAF designated Higher Wincombe as a Radio Beacon Site, and it was also known as Operating Location-J (OL-J) of the European Communications Area (ECA) and housed Detachment 4. After the closure of operations in 1977, the decommissioning of the site took a number of years with the site's last elements being handed over in 1983. The hamlet's properties had been returned to private residences in 1980. Over the years, the lanes to the east which joined Higher Wincombe to

and other hamlets in the parish have been downgraded to

bridleways A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider r ...

. The hamlet is now only accessible via Wincombe Lane – a private road and bridleway – from Shaftesbury. The lane had an

avenue Avenue or Avenues may refer to: Roads * Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees) * Avenue Road, Bangalore * Avenue Road, ...

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

trees, established for over 200 years, until they were felled in the 1970s.

References

Hamlets in Wiltshire Military history of Wiltshire Y service {{Wiltshire-geo-stub