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This story was entered by Joy Reeve on behalf on Dennis Wymer (The Action Desk at Radio Norfolk)

During the war I lived in a village called HAVERINGLAND, Norfolk on a beautiful estate in what was regarded as one of the prettiest villages in the county. We had a hall with acres and acres of lovely parkland. They decided to build an airfield in the village which completely destroyed it! Although in the village of Haveringland the airfield was known as Swannington, partly to deceive the enemy. The airfield itself was only fully operational the last 18 months of the war. Our garden had about a third taken from it — we lost all our greengage orchard and strawberries to build the perimeter track around the airfield. The planes there were Lancasters and Mosquitoes. I remember as a child sitting on my wide bedroom windowsill seeing planes coming back on fire. We had one Lancaster overshoot the runway and crash right outside the house in the garden. From the windows on the other side of the house I could see the red sky over the burning City of Norwich. My Grandma used to do the washing for all the offers on the airfield.

My Mother was in the land army and worked in the kitchen gardens at the big hall and on the farm. We didn’t want for food — we grew our own and traded with others. For the last 18 months we were moved (evacuated) across to the other side of the airfield. It was too dangerous to stay at home as they built the bomb dump close by our garden — we ended up with crops in two gardens! My Dad was abroad in Burma in the Army. We heard he was missing but he came home in 1946!

The RAF cinema and concerts were next door so we saw all the shows. I remember best the Dagenham Girl Pipers, I had never seen anything like it.

There were a lot of German Prisoners of War in nissen huts nearby, two of them came regularly for Sunday tea, Roman and Emil, lovely chaps who told us about their families at home. We corresponded with Roman for a long time after the war. They were very clever and used to make things, Roman made me a ship in a light bulb which I still have at home, and it was made from wood off the park land. I also have a letter opener, the handle is made of pieces from different coloured tooth brushes. Also a cigarette box made from wood from trees in the parkland — you pull a lever and a pheasant comes over to pick up a cigarette. It has a tail feather on it picked up from the parkland all those years ago

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