Sleaford 1940s Day to coincide with Armed Forces Day a success

A 1940s weekend to coincide with Armed Forces Day was a great success.

The sun shone for most of the annual Sleaford 1940s Day, which took place on Saturday at William Alvey CE School, which organised everything in cooperation with Sleaford Town Council.

Among the highlights were an air raid shelter tour, a large number of period vintage vehicles, and a number of living history displays.

Music was provided by Alan Jackson, The 40s Homefront, Miller Magic Big Band, and regular favourites ‘The Blighty Belles’, a professional vintage vocal group specialising in music from the 1940s.

The event was also used to officially hand over the car that had been bought with funds raised for the Lincolnshire Emergency Blood Bikes Service, by Diane Gibson in memory of her late husband, Peter, saying: “What a wonderful feeling to officially hand the car over we bought from the funds raised in memory of Pete, just incredible! This great team work endlessly to keep these bikes and cars on the road, doing the marvellous jobs that they do as volunteers – thank you.”

Formed in 2012, the service run by volunteers provide rapid response and often life-saving journeys transporting medical essentials between hospitals and healthcare facilities.

The event comes just weeks after the town celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day with one of the few remaining D-Day Veterans, Les Budding, 97, who lives near Sleaford, and who served on Landing Craft Flak 34 at Sword Beach.

Sleaford 1940s Day lasted from 11am to 4pm, and included food and drink, face painting, vintage games, balloon modelling and various period-related demonstrations, including ploughing and how to milk a cow.