United by oil history

The curator of a unique museum has returned from a trip to the US where he spoke about the work of American oilworkers who drilled for oil in woods near Eakring during the second world war.

Mr Kevin Topham of Mansfield Road, Eakring, is curator of Duke’s Wood Oil Museum, the country’s only UK oilfield museum.

It is also a nature reserve owned by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

More than 40 experienced drillers from Oklahoma were recruited to work at Eakring during the war.

A 7ft bronze statue called the Oil Patch Warrior stands in Duke’s Wood as a tribute to the oilmen’s work and there is a similar one in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Mr Topham was asked to the unveiling in America in 1991 but the invitation arrived a week after the ceremony.

He said he had been asked to visit many times since and finally decided he should make the journey.

He was accompanied by his son-in-law, Mr Ian Mason of London Road, Balderton.

Mr Topham was guest at a lunch given by Ardmore Chamber of Commerce in the Great Southwest Historical Museum given in his honour and that of the oilmen.

Mr Topham showed a BBC film about the Americans’ involvement at Eakring and told how the oilmen’s efforts helped double oil production in the UK.

He said the location of Duke’s Wood was one of Winston Churchill’s biggest secrets and that Britain would probably have lost the war without the crude oil.

Mr Topham was presented with a book about the history of the American oil company, Noble Drilling, which employed the men who were sent to Eakring.

It includes a chapter about their involvement in Duke’s Wood and an account of the death of one of them, Mr Herman Douthit, who was killed when he fell 55ft from a mast.

He was buried at Kelham but his body was later moved to the American Military Cemetery near Cambridge.

Mr Topham also gave a talk in Houston, Texas, about the importance of the American drillers and found himself the centre of media attention with interviews on US television.

Mr Topham said there were still many people who did not know about the importance of Duke’s Wood.