SMGWA Returns to WW2 on Saturday 27 June – with An Evacuee Experience and Vintage Teas

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Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome is taking a rare step from World War One to World War 2, with Back to WW2 Day on Saturday 27 June, an event that celebrates how rural Essex coped with the war.

As part of the event, families with primary school age children have the chance to pre-book for an Evacuee Experience that will support and extend the work covered by many schools in Key Stage 2 history about life on the home front. Youngsters will encounter, in a fun and enjoyable way, something of what it was like to be sent far away from their homes and families into the countryside to escape the threat of war. Activities will include discovering what evacuees were allowed to pack, climbing aboard our vintage trucks wearing a name label, making their own gas mask box and practising air raid drills.The Evacuee Experience costs an additional £5, covering one adult accompanying one or two children aged six to 11. Tickets are limited and must be prebooked by 24 June. The Evacuee Experience starts at 11am and 1pm and lasts for around 90 minutes.

Visitors can also enjoy a special treat during Back to WW2 Day inThe Airmen's Mess café, the Accredited Museum's fully restored World War One airmen's mess. While rationing may have made life difficult in the 1940s, visitors can forget the privations of war for a while with an elegant cream tea served on vintage china at beautifully laid out tables.The Vintage Cream Tea featuresa delicious home-made scone with Tiptree jam and clotted cream, served with unlimited tea or coffee and sparkling elderflower drink. Priced at £12 a head, it must be pre-booked online.

Ian Flint, Chief Executive Officer of Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, comments: "By World War Two, Stow Maries had reverted to its farming roots – and this event returns us to the days when farm workers had taken over from pilots."

Back to WW2 Day will also include living and social historians Tastes Through Time who will be taking the Museum's Pilots Ready Rooms back to the 1940s, when they were used as a family home for farm workers. Essex Historic Military Vehicle Association will be bringing along some of their classic vehicles from the period to set the scene. In addition, visitors can enjoy a talk by celebrated local historian Stephen Nunn about the work of nearby RAF Bradwell Bay, a strong part of the area's airborne campaign in WW2. Visitors who wish to attend in 1940s attire can enjoy discounted entry – email a photo of your outfit to info@stowmaries.org.uk in advance.

2/… Back to WW2 Day is part of a series of "added value" events at Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, which have additional activities included at the usual admission price - £12 for adults, £9 for concessions / young people aged 11-15 and children 0-10 free of charge. The Airmen's Mess café is open to ticket holders only during this event.

There will be more exciting living history just a week later, at the Multi-Period Living History Weekend, on Saturday and Sunday 4/5 July which will not only encompass the two World Wars, but will stretch right through a thousand years of history. The varied living historians on site will include Medieval reenactment society Chanz Des Reis, who will be taking visitors back to 1181, when King Henry II ordered freemen to carry out 40 days of military service each year - the very beginning of National Service in England. We will also be welcoming Deeds not Words, highlighting the battle for women's suffrage and marching for their right to vote! This is also an "added value" event, with the additional bonus that if you buy a ticket for the Saturday you can return on the Sunday free of charge.

Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to 4pm. For more information, to book tickets for any event or to sign up to the monthly newsletter, visit www.stowmaries.org.uk.