Foreword
This book is one that many have considered writing but were daunted by the task, so it is a great triumph for Tony Hadland that he has drawn together the recusant history of the Thames Valley.
It is a story about people and the sacrifices that they were prepared to make. Today it is interesting to reflect on just how many of us would be willing to make a similar stand. This is the age of protest and demonstration, when rights are regarded as all important, but the story of those difficult times illustrates that loyalty and acceptance of hardships are courageous qualities, worthy of our admiration.
In future, local history will be incomplete without some reference to, or understanding of, the basic facts that Tony Hadland has brought together for the first time in this book. It is interesting too to realise that, due to the need for secrecy, it was impossible to record much of the early history in writing. Indeed, what was recorded was usually the high drama of discovery, which leads us to imagine how much similar activity was never detected.
I was very pleased to be asked to write this foreword and I have been fascinated by the wealth of information that has been collected and so well presented in this book. Although I was familiar with much of the detail, I have learnt the answer to other queries that have puzzled me in the past. I feel sure that the book will intrigue many in the Thames Valley, including of course those who live in the houses and villages that are featured.
Those to whom this is a new and strange tale will surely be struck by the tolerance that was shown throughout by good neighbours - no matter on which side fate decreed that the participants found themselves.
John Eyston
Mapledurham House
May 1991