Wimpole Park, Arrington

Wimpole Park
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Wimpole Park
1944 - 1960

There is a large flat area of arable pasture situated just inside the Arrington Gates to
Wimpole Hall, a large country-house in Cambridgeshire now owned by the National Trust.

A winter panorama across the Wimpole Park site panning around from due
north to due south-east. Wimpole Hall is just visible on the centre horizon.

Between 1944 and 1960 the pasture, or Wimpole Park as it became named, was host in turn to
an American Hospital treating army casualties of war, a squatters camp, an experimental teacher training college, a community school, emergency local authority housing, and lastly a US Air Force Hospital best remembered for being the 'place-of-birth' for hundreds of Americans.

Wimpole Park Buildings c1950

During 1959/1960, the USAF Hospital was decommissioned and all the buildings and roads
were completely removed. Wimpole Park was returned to arable pasture.

This is just some of the story....

Site Contents

163rd US Army Hospital
1944-1946
Wimpole Park Training College
1947-1950
Wimpole Park School
An Old Wimpole Childhood
1947-1955
7510 USAF Hospital
1952-1959
Return to Pasture
1960-1961

Photographs of Wimpole Park 1944-1960

Photographs of Wimpole Park Today

Wimpole Hall Index
(Wimpole Site)

Wimpole Park Reunion 2004

The next Wimpole Park Reunion is being held in San Antonio, Texas in September 2004.
For details, please e-mail
Joan (Knight) Kjaergaard
(Secretary, Wimpole Park Reunion Association)
at

Visiting Wimpole Park

The site of the Wimpole Park complex lies close to the village of Arrington, on the A1198 road (Ermine Way), and is about eight miles (13 km) south-west of the University city of Cambridge, and six miles (9 km) north of Royston.

Wimpole Park is part of the Wimpole Hall Estate, now owned and maintained by the National Trust. The Estate is open to the public from dawn to dusk throughout the year (closed on Christmas Day).

Visitors to Wimpole Park travelling by car are advised to use the public 'Wimpole Hall and Home Farm' access (the road in yellow near Wimpole village on the above map) which is well signed locally. Wimpole Hall has extensive free car parking, and the Stable Block reception area has good toilet and refreshment facilities. There is no admission charge for walking on the Estate but a voluntary donation is suggested.

The site of Wimpole Park is about a ten/fifteen minute walk from the Stable Block reception area. As you leave through the Stable Block entrance, first turn left then take a right turn through the road gate. You are now on the trackway that leads direct to the Arrington Gates and the site of Wimpole Park. You get an excellent view of Wimpole Hall away to your right as you pass. The trackway has several cattle grids with pedestrian gates to the side. Please close all gates behind you to help protect grazing livestock.

Wimpole Park covered the large flat grassed pasture to your right as you near the Arrington Gates at the end of the trackway. There is no sign or marker identifying the location.

Contributions Welcome

I am seeking information, discussion, dates, website links, people, history, and your personal memories and reminiscences relating to Wimpole Park. Please e-mail contributions
direct to .

I receive many requests for Wimpole Park photographs, especially for the time the site was being used by the 7510 USAF Hospital. If you have any photographs of Wimpole Park between 1944 and 1959 that you feel would be of interest to others, then please e-mail a scanned image direct to with all available details.

This page last updated on: Sunday 7 March, 2004
E-mail and enquiries regarding this page to:
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