Events 2016

We are getting rather well-known for our air-raid scenarios, as we try to portray air raids as realistically as possible (without actually setting fire to any buildings or dropping any real bombs!). Last year we worked on involving as many other re-enactors and re-enacting groups as possible, including ARP, First Aid, Police, Civil Defence, WVS, Home Guard, as well as civilians. We are also trying to practice and train, to improve the realism of the display. If you would like to take part, please read this, and get in touch. If you can make a training session, even better.

1940s events have had a ‘battle scenario’ for years, even at ‘Home Front’ events! We are convinced that the ideal scenario for Home Front events is a realistic air raid. And that really needs an urban landscape, rather than an open field.

So railway/tramway settings work well, villages/towns/cities, and places with buildings such as Rufford and Papplewick, and Woodhall Spa. Wimpole might work, but it is a long way away. Bearing in mind that our vehicles average about 9mpg, or a litre per mile away from home per vehicle, it means that three vehicles going to an event 50 miles away will cost about 150 times the litre price of petrol, or rather more than £150!

 

So what of events?

The season starts with a major commemorative air raid at Newark Air Museum on Sunday 6th March, remembering the raid on the Ransome and Marles factory, 7th March 1941.

Always a nice early season event is the Historical Bazaar at Rufford over the 23rd/24th April.

The Great Central Railway have their 1940s weekend on 3rd-5th June, and we have been invited to do a significant air raid here.

Kelham Island have just confirmed the date for their 40s event, 23rd/24th July, but we have to miss it this year, for personal reasons.

Hot on the heels of this show is our big one of the year, at Woodhall Spa on 15th-17th July. Things will change round a bit this year, but we are planning something new.

The last main 1940s event of the season at Papplewick Pumping Station usually on 22nd/23rd October.

  • 1940s Festival at Woodhall Spa
    Back home from another successful, safe and enjoyable scenario at Woodhall Spa. We took part in the display ‘The Eagle has Landed’ in which German airmen dressed as Polish paratroopers attempted to capture Churchill. A number of our regular ‘Bloody Casualties’ were made up and carried out on stretchers. The whole town was packed, and this made ...
  • Ransome and Marles 75th anniversary – leaflet available
    Click here to download the R & M Information leaflet which has all the timings for the weekend. More detailed information will come out for re-enactors in the next week or so.
  • Plans for a significant air raid at Quorn GCR, 3rd-5th June 2016
    The display will be at 1:10pm on Saturday and Sunday in Quorn Yard in the space between the Goods Shed and Marquee. Quorn and Woodhouse Station, Woodhouse Road, LE12 8AG. The storyline is this: A number of wagons have been delivered to Quorn Yard the previous day, and are standing on the siding between the signalbox and the ...
  • 75th Anniversary Memorial Events 2016 – Newark
    7th March 1941 saw a daring raid by two German bombers on Ransome and Marles, the vital bearing factory in Newark. We are working with the events team at Newark Air Museum on a one day event on Sunday 6thMarch 2016, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Luftwaffe attack on the Ransome & Marles bearing factory. This commemoration ...