1940's RE-ENACTORS REQUIRED FOR AYSCOUGHFEE HALL MUSEUM AND GARDENS!

Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens are looking for costumed #WWIIre-enactors, historical vehicles, displays and also #vintagestalls for their 1940's and Vintage Weekend on the 15 and 16th August 2015.

They are located at Spalding, Lincolnshire PE11 2RA. Also, you are welcome to contact them if you would like to be involved with this event in any way. You can email Julia :Museum@sholland.gov.uk or telephone 01775 764555 or you can visit their website www.ayscoughfee.org for more details.

1940s WEEKEND AT THE BLACK COUNTRY LIVING MUSEUM 2015

Visitors told me that they enjoyed Saturday night so much they returned for another day of wartime activities on Sunday! Not surprising really as this was a happy and friendly event with the #WWII re-enactors ready to talk to and entertain the crowds, and there were just lots of exhibitions, displays and re-enactments to enjoy.

Kidderminster Home Guard inspected our ID cards and kept order on the streets of this lovely Victorian village. At The Workers Institute there was an opportunity to learn and join in with the #1940s dancing, the D Day Darlings entertained us with WWII songs and a wartime wedding and variety show included a community singalong.

You could buy ration books and enjoy a spam fritter, sweets from the sweet shop and a drink at the Glass and Bottle Public House, and more. There was a #Blitz fire re-enactment with the home guard and fire wardens rescuing the occupants from a house  and also street performers, #vintage shopping stalls and military and civilian vehicle displays.
The Black Country Living Museum and it's industrial heritage of the Midlands provided an authentic scene for this 1940s venue and brought WWII Britain back to life! This was simply a superb event and convincing too, with so many re-enactors and members of the public in 1940s costume.

One of the best, if not the best wartime event I've been to!

(More photos from this event at 2015 Pictures page)

THE TOP SECRET WWII AIRFIELD and RAF DEFFORD WEEKEND 2015

Hidden in the Worcestershire countryside, Croome Court and Parkland  was requisitioned by Churchill's government during WWII. In 1941, the construction of an airfield, RAF Defford#, was completed. It was at these two locations that top secret work on the research and development of radar began, which was to play a key role in the defence of Great Britain! This included the use of radar for the detection of enemy aircraft and German U-boats.

Croome's RAF Defford Weekend, 11th and 12th July 2015, brought displays and exhibitions, music and entertainment in the 1940's canteen, vintage vehicles, market stalls and wartime costumed re-enactors.

RAF Defford Veterans were also present to tell their stories to the visitors.

Preserved by the National Trust and supported by volunteers, Croome Park# was once, during WWII, home to over 2,500 civilian and military staff and also scientists. Such an interesting piece of history and an enjoyable weekend!

Source
www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/3339/m-air-station
www.worcester.co.uk/news/regional

SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY 2015 - THE SECOND WEEKEND - JULY 4th and 5th.

It's no wonder that the picturesque surroundings of the #Severn Valley Railway are a favourite location for film companies, and so popular with tourists. Built in the 1800's the railway provides an authentic backdrop for historical events.

With 1940's displays, exhibitions and costumed wartime re-enactors we were all transported back to #WWII Britain.  The second weekend of "Stepping Back to the #1940's continued it's busy schedule with a wartime wedding at Arley Station which

 drew the crowds, and also featured at this station was a Red Cross Train Carriage with nurses.

Actor's Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Montgomery were also to be seen at Kidderminster Station with an ARP warden.

Stepping back to the 1940s is just one of the events this year to mark the 50th Anniversary and Golden Jubilee of this popular Midlands attraction.  In 1965 a group of railway enthusiasts met and planned the rescue and re-opening of the Severn Valley Railway. This event was a tribute to their achievement, and was also a very successful and enjoyable weekend!

STEPPING BACK TO THE 1940S AT SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY - THE FIRST WEEKEND - 27th and 28th JUNE 2015

This year's "Stepping Back to the #1940's" event at #Severn Valley Steam Railway offered an action packed wartime experience for visitors! And the displays and costumed re-enactors, pictured here at Kidderminster Station, turned the clocks back to the 1940's.

 

 

There was a battle at Highley Station, which drew the crowds, as American, British troops and the French Resistance fought to regain control of a steam train.

 



 

With exhibitions and activities at all of the six stations that make up the Severn Valley Steam Railway, this was a great weekend !







STEPPING BACK TO THE 1940s at SEVERN VALLEY STEAM RAILWAY 2015!

Severn Valley Steam Railway is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year.  Paul, the Event Organiser tells me that preparations are being made to make this years annual WWII# event a special occasion! On Saturday morning we are travelling back in time, with the help from pupils from a nearby school,  to see the scene of wartime evacuees leaving Kidderminster Station.

There's a battle re-enactment at Highley Station with impressive sound and visual effects, a 1940s taxi office at the front car park at Kidderminster Station,  plenty of 1940s costumed re-enactors, a wartime wedding, vintage shopping stalls, rides on the steam trains and much more!  Stepping Back to the 1940s at Severn Valley Railway#, ( June 27th and 28th and July 4th and 5th 2015) is always a very popular event and well worth a visit! For more details visit www.svr.co.uk

TODDINGTON STATION, COLOSSUS AND THE BLETCHLEY PARK ENGINEER#

During a journey, on a steam train from Winchcombe to Toddington Station, I met David who told me, "I was at Bletchley Park#." Working with Bill Tutt and Tommy Flowers, he helped build Colossus# which was used for intercepting messages to German High Command and Hitler's instructions to his generals! David said his work involved wiring and installing plates. "My job was to keep Colossus going," David said, "we worked on it while it was live - 350 volts - you could get a shock!" "We worked with one hand in our pockets, because if you worked on two different parts of the machine, the current could go straight through you." After WWII, David continued his top secret work with GCHQ.

Considered to be the first version of a program controlled computer, Colossus was developed at a Post Office Research Station (GPO) and was moved to Bletchley Park in December 1943.  By January/February 1944 it was operational and working around the clock to decode German transmissions, and provide Britain with crucial information. It also confirmed that false information about Britain's invasion plans and tactics, a deliberate decoy, had been believed by Germany. Eventually there were ten machines at Bletchley Park!

The interception of the German Lorenze# SZ-40 cipher machine transmissions (tunny) led to the success of the D Day invasion, and the shortening of the war saving countless lives. This is a remarkable story and the work of David and the Bletchley Park Engineers has never fully received the acknowledgement it deserves.


Source
The Secret Life of Bletchley Park   Sinclair McKay
Station X   Michael Smith
The Colossus its Purpose.. Tony Sale  www.codesandcyphers.org.uk.lorenz/colossus
The Colossus Gallery  www.tnmoc.org/explore/colossus-gallery
Colossus   http://cryptomuseum.com/crypto/colossus/index.htm