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RAF Barkway Open Day
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Barkway Parish Council and Igloos ltd, teamed
together to have an open day at RAF Barkway Mast on Saturday 12
September. The event was well attended by the village, who were able to wander around the grounds and buildings and see for themselves what lay behind the barbed wire and gates. Gerald Morris displayed his wartime vehicles in the
car park, and local historian, Tom Doig gave a brief talk on the history of the
site. David Featherstone, technical director of Igloos and Bob Davidson,
Barkway Parish Council, ascended the 106 metres of the mast, taking just
under 30 minutes to make it to the top, where they took photographs of
the view and dropped Barkway Biggles bear by parachute for charity.
Jeanne Frazier gave us a wonderful fly past in her vintage aircraft, and
later in the day, we had flypasts by a English Electric Gnat, a Tiger
Moth and a Spitfire. A competition “guess the time to climb and drop”
was held, where the public could guess how long it would take Luke and
Bob to climb the mast and also the time for Barkway Biggles bear to
parachute to terrra firma. The climb time was 29 minutes and 37 seconds
and Barkway Biggles took 1 minute 3 secs to reach the ground safely,
with his parachute provide by Gwen and John Warr of Byson Leathers The
competition was won by Arthur King with his guess of a combined time of
30minutes and 5 seconds, the prize being dinner for two at the Tally Ho,
kindly donated by Paul and Roz Danter. Barkway Biggles was also the prize in a separate
raffle which was won by John Harwood-Bee of Cottered. The total raised by the gate, the competition and the
raffle was the tidy sum of £350 after gift aid which has been sent to
the Help for Heroes charity. Photographs from the top of the mast can be purchased from Dr Bob Davidson, the proceeds of which will also be donated to Help for Heroes. Examples of these can be found by clicking here Contact Dr Robert Davidson at
robert.davidson@barkway-village.co.uk for more details.
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