WEST Somerset went into a 70-year time warp last Saturday and Sunday when thousands of nostalgia enthusiasts flocked to the area’s first-ever Forties Weekend, which organisers hailed as “an absolute triumph”.

The event, which took over a year to plan, centred around Watchet, Minehead and the West Somerset Railway.

A highlight of the weekend was the appearance of an authentic military train carrying wartime vehicles and armament and hauled by a 75-year-old American freight locomotive of the type used in West Somerset during the war.

The feast of nostalgia included a static Spitfire at Bishops Lydeard and visits by lookalikes of King George VI, Winston Churchill, General Montgomery and General Charles de Gaulle.

Over 300 enactment groups, aided by hundreds of people in period clothes, brought alive the ‘Dad’s Army’ decade of the 1940s with dramatic re-creations of air raids, field hospitals, an RAF airfield, military garrisons and the operational military train.

Former West Somerset College history teacher Robin Wichard, who dreamed up the event, said: “There were hundreds of residents in military or period costume at all the stations, which was amazing to see.

“People took the event to their hearts and it succeeded far beyond our expectations. We are getting wonderful comments and people are saying it was the best event they have attended."

Full feature and more photos in tomorrow’s Free Press (September 21).