On the same day that we went to Stanwick, we also went to Raunds, to see the Church, and hopefully the cemetery to see my other set of great-grandparents (however there was absolutely no parking there, so we just went to The Church) ....

My grandfather was born here in 1896, and christened in St Peter's Church .. so worth a visit!





The new memorial bench near the War Memorial





The Medieval Wall paintings



The West Wall is trying to fall off - so renovation work is in progress

Close up of part of the alter decoration

Our intrepid explorer out and about again


I grew up knowing about RAF Chelveston, as an American base during the war. Mum actually saw Glenn Miller there and it gave her a love of band music, that she passed on.

During the Second World War the airfield was occupied by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. It was given the USAAF designation Station 105.

In early 1942, Chelveston was turned over to the American Eighth Air Force. The first USAAF unit to occupy Chelveston was the 60th Troop Carrier Group. The 60th consisted of the 10th, 11th, 12th and 26th squadrons, equipped with 53 C-47 aircraft. On 9 August 1942, the 301st Bombardment Group (Heavy) took up residence on the station. The 301st was assigned to the 1st Combat Wing at Brampton Grange. Its operational squadrons were the 32d, 352d, 353d, 354th and 415th Bomb Squadrons, each equipped with Boeing B-17F Flying Fortresses. USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Chelveston were:
442d Sub-Depot[2]
18th Weather Squadron
2d Station Complement Squadron
1059th Military Police Company
1632nd Ordnance Supply & Maintenance Company
876th Chemical Company (Air Operations)
2030th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon
5th Mobile Training Unit
309th Medical Dispensary

During the war this, and 2 other airfields would circle over Stanwick, while getting into formation ... sadly 2 planes miss-timed on one occasion while Mum was outside, and almost killed by having her lungs collapsed by the force of the explosion. Someone saw her fall down, and came and thumped her on the back, which meant she took a deap breath in.

In 2007 a memorial was made to celebrate the American heritage



The explorers were hare as well