V.E.Day Celebration at Parham Airfield

We had a rare trip out this afternoon to Parham Airfield WWII  Museum. It's only a few miles from us but I hadn't been before although Col went with our son when he was researching his Uni dissertation.

 It's just a small museum, run by volunteers and based around the original control tower, which we went to the top of - bit windy up there!

 There were a few extra things to see as they were having a VE Day celebration including some US WWII Vehicles

They have a reconstruction of a Barrack room,loads of photos, various bits of planes, A small museum about the resistance movement, A reconstruction of an SOE hideout and of course a tea room. As admittance was free we made a donation by buying a cuppa and a cake. The tea room was full of Friends Of The Museum dressed in WWII uniforms and ladies also in clothing of the period - Quite surreal!
The most poignant thing there, which brings tears to the eyes is the huge long list of names of airmen and ground personel who lost their lives while serving at Parham during the 3 years it was used as an airfield

Our son is now community archaeologist  with The 8th In The East, a Heritage Lottery Funded project to record and share information about  the USAAF bases in East Anglia during WWII. I have "borrowed" the information below from their website about a walk around what's left of the airfield at Parham. I'm sure they won't mind.


It was outstanding and a real privilege to welcome ninety people to our second heritage walk  at Parham Airfield on  Sunday 11th January 2015 .
The turn out for our first event of the New Year was simply remarkable and we’d like today a big thank you the team of volunteers at Parham Airfield Museum for welcoming us – and to all of you who came  along and joined us on a sunny, if windy, Sunday morning.
Put simply, the construction of these airfields were the single most significant landscape change to take place in their locations. At Parham alone, twenty-three miles of hedgerow made way for the construction of the site.
The walk mixed airfield history with landscape change and explored the ancient buildings found in the area, such as the early 16th century Moat Hall, once home to a soldier of Henry VIII following his marriage to a lady-in – waiting of Catherine of Aragon.
The 3-mile walk was led by our Community Archeologist Martin Cuthbert, with great support and able assistance from Peter Kindred and John from the the 8th USAAF airfield museum at Parham, home to the 390th Bomb Group during World War Two.
The attendees, young and old,  shared a really great mix of interests and motivations for getting involved. Some were interested in landscape history, others had travelled from far and wide to explore the military and  airfield archaeology, whilst others  still fancied the chance to have a walk in the unique landscape of their local World War Two airfield.
It was also really good to welcome along several members of the Friends of the Eighth, who contributed to our  understanding of the military history of the airfield.

The group prepare to set out from the Control Tower at Parham Airfield.

Martin, our Community Archeologist, shares details about the buildings.

At the administration buildings on Site 1.

An ablutions block on site number 5 at Parham

Sugar beet now stored on the perimeter track at Parham.

Modern day farming sits alongside the airfield heritage.

Nothing now remains of the 37 buildings that once made up site seven at the airfield.

Looking towards the remains of site 5 from site number seven.

At a hard standing on the perimeter track.

The walk was a great way for all to learn about the local landscape and to promote visitors to the museum, who remained  open all day for walkers to discover more about the servicemen whom lived and flew from the airfield.

Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday. There was an awful lot of collapsing in that post. I'm happy to say that I have been upright all day today!

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Sue