PLANS to turn the clock back 70 years and re-create the Dad’s Army decade of the 1940s were revealed this week as part of what could become a major annual West Somerset tourist attraction

The ’40s Weekend, centred around Minehead and Watchet on September 15 to 16, is hoped to attract thousands of visitors to a feast of nostalgia which will include an iconic Spitfire, an operational military train – and a visit by King George VI and Winston Churchill.

Local people are invited to join with re-enactment groups to relive West Somerset’s wartime and austerity years in a joint venture involving local re-enactment enthusiasts and West Somerset Railway.

The venture took a major step forward this week with the first ‘dress-rehearsal’ when period military vehicles were loaded onto authentic wartime trucks at Minehead station, supervised by volunteers in World War Two armed forces uniform.

“We have never organised a full-scale military train before,” said Andy Norman, who is co-ordinating the WSR’s side of the project.

“The rehearsal went really well – it looked so realistic that people on the station must have thought they’d been caught up in some sort of wartime time-warp!”

The whole idea was dreamed up by former West Somerset College history teacher Robin Wichard whose team has been co-ordinating the event since last April.

“This will be the first major event of its type in West Somerset and we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the response we are getting,” said Robin.

More photos and details in the Free Press.