Trial re-opening of the Heritage Centre on Sunday, 30th of August: This year, as usual, we had hoped to open during all bank holiday weekends and other selected Sundays throughout the year, beginning on Easter Sunday. However, in the light of the Government advice regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, we took the decision to delay the opening and keep the RAF Heritage Centre closed until the situation changed. However, after the Government allowed museums to re-open, we obtained permission from our hosts at the National Construction College to conduct a trial re-opening of the RAF Heritage Centre on Sunday, 30th of August. We opened in compliance with current Covid19 guidance. Hand sanitisation was required on entry; also face masks had to be worn when visitors were inside the Centre. We also implemented a one-way system with social distance markers, similar to that found in shops and supermarkets, and limited the number of family groups inside the centre at any one time to a maximum of three. In addition, there was a welcome desk outside where visitors cold meet the staff in the open air to discuss any specific items of interest or to ask questions. Each individual or family group had to book in and supply a name and contact telephone number to facilitate future tracing of visitors, in the unlikely event that this would be required. Forty-two adults and two children visited us over the day in about 20 separate family groups. It was a great success which passed off without any problems, thanks to the willingness of everyone to comply with our revised Covid19 procedures.
We're open again soon:
As a result of the successful trial re-opening on the
30th of August, we are going to open on three further occasions this year: on
the last Sunday in September,
the last Sunday in October and on
Remembrance Sunday (the 8th of November).
All are welcome, so please
come along if you are able. As usual, entrance and parking will be FREE, and
disabled access and toilets will be available. However, to avoid queuing, please
don’t all turn up at exactly 10am; to keep us all safe, the number of family
groups allowed inside the Centre at any one time will be limited, and other
infection control procedures will be in place. Staggered arrival times will be
more convenient for us all.
We
regret that we will not be able to offer refreshments on these occasions and we
will not be selling books or other items.
We will
have an information desk manned outside the Centre where you can sit down and
have a chat with the staff. Here you can discuss details of your family
connections with Bircham Newton or its satellite airfields, show
documentation/photographs or ask questions.
Find and Follow us on Facebook: We invite you to find and follow us on Facebook, where we maintain a public group called RAF Bircham Newton Heritage Centre, which you are most welcome to join. Over the last year we have discussed many topics on Facebook, including Bircham Newton's former RAF buildings, personnel who served there and the aircraft they flew. Your participation in these discussions would be very welcome.
A recent topic on our Facebook page has been about aircrew personnel from Bircham Newton who were captured as prisoners of war (POWs) during WW2. One former pilot, who spent time in several German POW camps, was lieutenant, Peter Butterworth RN, who was serving with a Fleet Air Arm squadron, No. 826 Squadron, which was seconded to Coastal Command and based at Bircham Newton in 1940. In June of that year, he was flying a Fairey Albacore biplane on a mission to the Dutch coastline, when he was shot down over Texel and captured as a POW. A year later, he escaped from Dulag Luft with Squadron Leader Roger Bushell (Of Great Escape fame) and others, but was recaptured and sent to Stalag Luft 1 (Barth) and then on to Stalag Luft 3 (Sagan). Whilst at Stalag Luft 3, he met Talbot Rothwell, who later went on to write many of the ‘Carry On’ films in which Peter was to star. Having never performed in public before his imprisonment, Peter formed a duo with Rothwell and sang in the camp shows. The performance was followed by some comic repartee which, according to Peter's account, provoked enough boos and hisses to have the desired effect of drowning out the sounds of an escape tunnel being dug by other prisoners. Peter was also one of the vaulters covering for escapees, later portrayed in the book and film ‘The Wooden Horse’. After the war, Peter became a familiar character actor performing in the 'Carry On' films and on children’s television. He specialised in playing very eccentric characters.
Another interesting story that has been discussed is that of a Canadian pilot Carl E. Heggtveit, who served with No. 521 Squadron at Bircham Newton. He was on a practice meteorological sortie from Bircham Newton to Ireland in a Spitfire (AB131) on the 1st of September 1942 but got lost and landed by mistake at a Luftwaffe night-fighter airfield at Sint-Truiden in Belgium. He and his Spitfire were captured and he also spent time in Stalag Luft 3. The Spitfire was subsequently flown by the Luftwaffe. If you wish to find out more about these interesting stories and others, or wish to share some stories of your own, please come and join us on Facebook.
This photograph, courtesy of Paul Hewitt, shows BBC Radio Norfolk's Julie Reinger (second from the right) at the RAF Bircham Newton memorial with some of the Heritage Centre team members and friends during a Treasure Quest visit on Remembrance Sunday in 2019.
Virtual Tour - Treasures of the Heritage Centre. Since you cannot visit the RAF Heritage Centre as much as usual, this small video will give you an insight into some of its treasures. Photographs of some of them are also displayed below. It is hoped that they will encourage you to visit us when you are able.
The photograph above shows the RAF Bircham Newton Display Board, created using stunning calligraphy by a former CITB illustrator, Mr. Austin Godfrey, and donated to the Centre by CITB. It includes a brief history of RAF Bircham Newton and the names of all of the former commanding officers. It also includes all squadron commanders from its flying era and chief instructors from the time when it was the RAF School of Administration.
This second photograph (above) shows a unique painting donated by the aviation artist Wing Commander John Stephens MBE. The painting depicts Hawker Hinds of No. 34 Squadron flying over the aerodrome in 1936. During that year, four light bomber units (Nos 18, 21, 34 and 49 squadrons) shared the aerodrome for a short period flying Hawker Hind biplanes. This was at the end of the biplane era, just prior to the station being transferred to the new Coastal Command. Several drawings of WW2 aircraft by John Stephens are also on show in the Heritage Centre.
This third photograph (above) is typical of photographic displays which are on show in each of
the heritage rooms.This particular display contains photographs from RAF Bircham
Newton’s history in chronological order, beginning with the aerodrome’s
birth during the Great War, continuing through the inter-war years and World War
Two and ending in the Cold War. To the right of the display panels, three photographs
from the display are shown in close up:
one photograph is of an official visit by King George V and Queen Mary in
1934; and two photographs are of an official visit by King George VI, Queen
Elizabeth and the two Princesses in 1941.
This fourth photograph (above) is of an important document, the WW2 Roll of Honour, which lists all known
personnel who lost their lives during WW2 whilst they were on active duty at RAF
Bircham Newton or one of its satellite airfields. Two copies of the Roll of Honour are on display in the Heritage Centre.
It was compiled from squadron operational records, aircraft accident
reports, Commonwealth War Graves Commission data and other sources.
It is considered to be a work in progress. Almost 540 casualties are
currently listed, but more will almost certainly come to light in the future and
will be added to this document.
This fifth photograph (above) shows RAF administrative apprentice entry shields donated by the RAF Administrative Apprentice Association and individual former apprentices. From January 1959 until December 1962 Bircham Newton was the home of the RAF Administrative Apprentices’ Training School. This school, which transferred from RAF Hereford to Bircham Newton, trained young RAF administrative apprentices, who underwent 20 months of intense training to learn their RAF trades of Clerk Secretarial, Pay Accountants or Suppliers. This display includes the entry shields from the 32nd to 46th entries plus a graduation shield from the 46th entry. The 32nd to 35th entries began their training at Hereford but transferred to Bircham Newton when the school moved to Norfolk. The 36th to 46th entries of apprentices commenced their training at Bircham Newton but the 43rd Entry was the last entry to complete its training in Norfolk. Following the closure of Bircham Newton, in December 1962, the school was re-located back to RAF Hereford with the 44th to 46th entries, who completed their training in Herefordshire. There are many more items of apprentice memorabilia, including entry photographs, on display in the Centre.
This sixth photograph (above) represents all of the captured personal memories we have
accrued from former RAF personnel and civilians who served at Bircham Newton or
one of its satellites. We have files of these memories from WWI, the inter-war
period, WW2, and the post-war period. Most were obtained from diaries, press
reports and family records donated by the children or grandchildren of those who
served. A precious few were obtained in the Heritage Centre by talking to the
veterans themselves. The illustration shows some memories obtained via the family of
former Flight Lieutenant Peter Frank Hall, who had two tours of duty at Bircham
Newton during WW2. In May
1943, Peter was shot down over Holland and was captured as a prisoner of war
(POW). He served two years in Stalag Luft III, Sagan, where the ‘Great Escape’
was hatched. Peter’s duty in the preparation for the escape was as a
cartographer, making escape maps. Lots were drawn for potential escapees and
Peter was drawn as number 120. However, the tunnel was closed down before he had
a chance to escape.
This seventh photograph (above) is a collage of four images which are typical of many photographs we have on display of squadrons, aircraft and personnel who flew from Bircham Newton. This particular collage shows four photographs of aircraft and personnel from No. 206 Squadron, a squadron that flew from Bircham Newton from 1936 until 1941. This famous maritime squadron was flying Lockheed Hudson aircraft at the time when these photographs were taken, but it went on to fly the Boeing Fortress, Consolidated Liberator, Hawker Siddeley Shackleton and Nimrod in its long and distinguished RAF service.
The visual above (photograph eigth) is used to represent the RAF's School of Administration, which
was based at Bircham Newton from the late 1940s when the station was transferred
to Technical Training Command. Administrative
training started here when the Officers Advanced Training School (OATS) moved in
from Hornchurch in late October 1948 and was quickly joined by the Secretarial
and Equipment Officers schools from Digby in the spring of 1949. With effect
from June 1951, the whole training establishment became known as the RAF School
of Administration, responsible for training thousands of RAF officers and
students from foreign and Commonwealth countries. The
We hope you have enjoyed this very brief tour of some of the Heritage Centre's treasures and that you will visit us as soon as you are able.
© D. Jacklin 2019. This website is owned by the RAF Bircham Newton Memorial Project.