Armed Forces day set for return to village
BAXENDEN’S Armed Forces Day will return this year for the second time.
The village event, organised by ex-armed forces member Graham Hunter, and wife Joanne, is centred at their pub The Bay Horse, and will include the local primary school, St John’s Church of England, and the church, St John’s.
Graham enlisted in the army at 15 in 1987, and left in 2002.
Starting at 12noon, the day, on June 14, is a “community celebration of our Armed Forces” and will add to a special summer when the 75th anniversary of VE Day will also be marked.
There will be a hog roast, pop-up outside bar, shire horses form our brewery, a plethora of military vehicles with a full reenactment group, childrens rides, face painting, tea room, marquee, Lady Vintage (a 1940s-style singer), church exhibition, local cadets on-site, business raffle prizes, wartime mobile museum and airsoft rifle range, tombola stalls and more.
Graham said: “It’s important to us. This day is a celebratory day, not Remembrance Day.
“I think it’s important because we’re only a small village - we have youngsters growing up here and unless they’re educated on it they will not know what the armed forces do and what they have done, being one of the main infrastructures in the country. I think it’s a great day that educates people and brings them together, past and present.
“It’s education and brings the community together. It relates to the one thing that everybody has an experience of, whether their fathers, grandfathers or greatgrandfathers have served.
“It’s not just the British army, it’s all the Commonwealth.
“We will have ex-German army vehicles, medals, and different uniforms. People will be able to look at and hold decommissioned weapons. Older people will remember what it was like and how the village looked then.”
Speaking about last year’s event, Graham said: “It was a major success. The whole village came out in support. We have never had so many people on our premises, in the pub and the beer garden.
“We’ve only been here 12 months.”