History talk hears about pilot's wartime Cotswold landmark (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

History talk hears about pilot's wartime Cotswold landmark

1:00pm Sunday 6th May 2012 in News By Ian Craig

THE Cotswolds would be the last place you would expect to find a signpost to Moscow – but there used to be just that not far from Cirencester.

Attendees to a talk given by local historian Mary Bliss at the Highwayman pub at Elkstone, near Cirencester, last month were told how a telecommunications mast which used to stand in a field by the pub was used by pilots to get their bearings.

Though the mast was destroyed by a British pilot in World War Two, the audience heard that the British Secret Service, the RAF and the German Luftwaffe all knew that, if they flew directly due east from the mast, they would end up in Moscow.

Landlord Mark Turner said he had been holding history talks at the pub for a number of months, and they had been a great success.

“We hosted the first talk by well-known local historian Mary Bliss a couple of months ago and had a pub full of people,” he said.

“We did a second one last month which was equally successful so we’ve decided to make it a regular event – if there are local historians out there who want to share their stories with a growing number of interested people, give us a call.”