The Chairman's Report - By Mick Tipple

As stated in the last edition of The Framlingham Times, a lot of refurbishment has been done in the last couple of months. The Control Tower has had a new roof and all the outside safety railings have been renewed. All of the outside walls have been re-rendered and the paint scheme is as near as possible to the wartime colour. This renovation has been very expensive, but the museum was lucky to obtain grants from Suffolk Coastal District Council, Suffolk County Council, Parham Village Council and Parham Wind Farm. We hope that the tower will now be completely watertight.

On 1st July 2007 the air around Parham Airfield once again reverberated to the sound of Wright Cyclone and Merlin engines when a B-17 and two P-51 Mustangs gave an impeccable display. For the people of the surrounding area, this must have brought back memories of World War ll.

This year has seen losses in the 390th Veterans Association of Gus Mencow who was a navigator with the 570th Bomb Squadron. His plane was Pistol Packing Mama / Betty Boop. Also we lost John Quinn, whom I always thought of as the father of the 390th Bomb Group Veterans Association. I can remember our times at the Marlesford Bell when he used to come over for reunions. We send our sympathy to their familes.

The members of the museum were all saddened by the news that one of our patrons Dorothy Donnelly Moller had passed away on the 12th June 2007 after a brief illness. Dorothy Moller and her late husband, Colonel Joseph A. Moller had established the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation in Tucson, Arizona in the early 1980's and at the time of her death Mrs Moller was a member of the board of directors.

She worked tirelessly to preserve, amongst other things, the heritage of the 390th Bombardment Group, which participated in more than 300 missions in World War ll. She will be sadly missed by all who knew her.

Visitor numbers to the museum are up on last year with a large number of groups and organizations visiting. Just prior to the Open Day, a group of school children from St. Peter & Paul school imn Eye came to the museum for a visit. The children and some of their teachers got into the spirit by dressing up as 1940's evacuees.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the members who sent in their annual subscriptions prompty and also for the very generous donations.

Thanks must also go to Peter and Kathy Kindred for all the work that was put in behind the scenes to make sure that the upgrade of the Tower went smoothly. Lastly a big thank you to all of the members who gave up their Saturdays to chip off all of the old outside rendering of the Tower.

Finally, what would we do without the roster members who turn up pon Wednesdays, Bank Holidays, Sundays and also out of normal visiting hours to show visiters around the museum. The ladies of the museum must also get a special mention for dispensing hundreds of cups of tea and coffee, and serving in the museum shop. Thank you all.

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The Secretary's Report - By Tom Perkins

Weare all talking about our Open day, So all I will add is that we have recieved many compliments. I have been busy answering lots of e-mails concerning the museum, as my personal e-mail address appears on our website in addition the the official one.

It appears that many families are now researching their family history and information on "what Dad did in WWll" is very sketchy. However, thanks to our historian, Mervyn Wilson, who is also in touch with Dick Drain in the US, we are now able to fill in many gaps for people.

I am pleased to report that we have lots of visits from descendants. We are able to show them where the accommodation sites were located in addition to the airfield itself. Not many relise that these sites were spread over an extensive area of some two miles long by one mile wide. Much of the "living" area was interpersed with the exisiting cottages etc. of the village of Parham.

As soon as the restoration of the Control Tower is completed, we hope to completely replace the electrical wiring during the "shutdown" period at the end of October.

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Group visits to the museum.

Visits to the museum can be arranged for groups or school groups, please telephone the museum on 01728 621373 or E-mail 390bg-bro@suffolkonline.net or parhamair@tesco.net to find out more.

At Parham Airfield Museum we are very happy to welcome larger groups of visitors to the museum, we were pleased to welcome a group from Horham Baptist Church.

There were about 50 adults and 25 children in the group, Simon Ladd was kind enough to E-mail us a photo of the visit as well as some very kind comments.

"We really enjoyed our visit. The museum is fascinating and the staff were very knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you again" Simon Ladd, Horham Baptist Church.

Click on the image for a larger view

 

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