The origins of Nostalgia Day
Dave Mead has written an article about the origins of Nostalgia Day which he has been involved in since the beginning
NOSTALGIA DAY: HOW IT ALL BEGAN (DAVE MEAD, SEPTEMBER 2021)
It all began in 1954 when I was 12, so you can now work out how old I am. My Father had a country garage and car sales in the Rodings, a big Essex farming area. He part exchanged a 1923 Morris Cowley for an American Jeep. The jeep was more like a field vehicle than the Morris Cowley and the farmer was very happy with this jeep. My Dad advertised the Morris in Autocar for £27.10s and had letters from all over the world; two of them were South Africa and Sudan. What would it be worth now? It was finally sold to a main agent for Morris cars on the south coast of the UK and they took it away on a trailer. So, I liked to sit in the jeep and was very impressed with the foot starter near to the accelerator pedal and had a little drive up and down the yard.
Now, fast forward 45 years and whilst driving in France around D-Day I saw two people in a jeep in uniform and said that’s what I want to do but I need to get a jeep. I joined the local section of Kent Invicta military vehicle preservation society, made some enquiries and was told a Hotchkiss M201 was good for the money so purchased one, which was from a dealer in Shropshire. This was direct from the French Army and all in A1 condition, refurbished in 1978, then put in storage for some years. In going to the IMPS meetings I met some guys who were talking about building a Memorial at the Sawbridgeworth airfield site; they were a bit reluctant to let me in but did and asked if I could help, which I did, particularly with getting finance. To raise some money we put on a talk in the Memorial Hall by Professor Foot (now deceased), the official historian of SOE, who told of the role played by this clandestine organisation and its agents, who had many links with Hertfordshire and RAF Sawbridgeworth. This was one of the main uses of Sawbridgeworth Airfield in WW2 pre D-Day; he was also a Mustang pilot with many interesting stories of his time there and in a POW camp when he was shot down over the Caen canal. Sawbridgeworth Airfield Memorial was built in 2006 by our Hertfordshire Airfield Memorial Group, consisting of six local people. At the unveiling, a Mustang flypast was paid for by us out of our own pockets, as we did not have any money left by then.
This was a big event: we had the vicars from Sawbridgeworth and High Wych, the land owner David Morris, ex pilots from the RAF, the ATC Band, military vehicles, Commanding Officer No2 Squadron RAF Marham, the Harlow Band and a fly past by the Mustang. There were approximately 200 visitors and a great day was had by all. Then in 2007 we needed to lay a wreath so us six met in Bell Street car park at 10.30 am to go to the Memorial at Shingle Hall to lay our wreaths and have a chat. It was now 11.30 am and we were looking for somewhere to go and have a drink, but pubs were not open; there were no cafes nearby so we had to go home, which was not a good end to this day. We did this for five years. Thinking it through, we needed somewhere to go, so we thought how about the Memorial Hall when it is back open, as it was closed for renovation, as it is connected to the airfield? Can we get the bar open, if we have enough people? Let’s get some young people involved and put on a show and they will bring their parents. We saw International singing star Fiona Harrison singing old time songs at a military show in Suffolk; she was good, can we get her? The answer was yes we can, so we booked her and Nostalgia Day was born in 2012. Each year we try to have a new theme and Diverse Performing Arts, with singer Aimi Percival, are great with their singing and dancing routines and outfits. We have had D-Day, Suffragettes, Dorringtons’ 100 years, Land Army, WW1, RAF Centenary. This is very good for their age group and helps them to remember. RAF Marham No2 Squadron was the first to use Sawbridgeworth airfield and they come back every year to lay a wreath at the Memorial Hall.