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Post card from a soldier to his moth "Dear Mum just a like to let you know that I am still alive and kicking Love Fred" sent to Mrs. R. Vinall 20 Mount st Gosport Hants.

The proximity of Sutton Veny to Warminster and Salisbury Plain ensured that Sutton Veny and the surrounding villages in the upper Wylye Valley area, was an ideal location to barrack troops in order for them to train prior to deploying to northern France. Supplies arrived via the Salisbury to Warminster railway line, and in November 1914 a railway spur from Heytesbury was laid the few miles to Sutton Veny to convey camp building materials and water for the troops. (The famous poet, Siegfried Sasson lived at Heytesbury House, Heytesbury and wrote his appropriately titled poem On Scratchbury Camp.) Approximately 10 Camps were built around Sutton Veny and the first of 10,000 troops belonging to 26th and 34th Division started to arrive in April 1915 to commence their training. (Follow this link for a list of British units billeted in Sutton Veny). Soldiers arrived direct from their homes on call up and a villager commented:

"You'd see them marching through Tytherington from Heytesbury Station. They didn't have their uniforms yet, and you could tell what they had been - the fishermen in their jerseys, and the clerks in their stiff collars".

Both sides of the Norton Road from Leys Lane were trenches, and troops would live in them for a week at a time with food being brought out as would occur in war. The impact of all these troops on village life was enormous, and both sides realised they had to get onto together. Village women took in soldiers' laundry, and several snack shops and tea huts were built for the mutual benefit of both parties.