On Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 June, Milestones Museum in Basingstoke will be commemorating the Armed Forces Day weekend with a whole host of activities for all ages, including the return of Commemorative Convoys, who last visited the museum in 2019 to mark D-Day 75.
On Saturday 29 June, the living history museum will host the assembly and departure of a 48-strong military vehicle convoy on the field outside the museum from 9am-10am. The display will feature classic military and supporting vehicles, along with a selection of motorcycle outriders from the Royal British Legion Riders Branch and Royal Air Forces Association. The D-Day 80 anniversary convoy departs at 10am and will travel via Kingsclere, Greenham Business Park and Newbury Town Centre, arriving at 12:30pm at Triangle Field in Hungerford.
During the morning, there will be speeches of welcome and commemoration from the Mayor of Basingstoke and the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. At 10am, a bugler will play and Basingstoke veterans and the Royal British Legion will wave off the vehicles alongside the public as they leave in convoy.
Once the convoy has departed from the museum, the military-themed activities will continue inside Milestones. On Saturday, vintage vocal trio The Blue Stockings will perform 1940s and 1950s favourites, combining the tight harmonies of a bygone era with sassy choreography and a swinging style. On Saturday and Sunday, there will be pub sing alongs from the incredible Frankie Heartless with old-fashioned glamour and songs in the style of Ava Gardner from Kate Aherne on Sunday.
As well as this, visitors can meet re-enactors who will be plotting World War II battles. Dressed in character, the group have the equipment to showcase how Winston Churchill and his generals would have watched how battles were progressing from Churchill’s War Rooms. They will be performing demonstrations throughout the weekend.
If that’s not enough, visitors can enjoy everything that Milestones has to offer including walking the museum’s replica, cobbled streets through time from the Victorian period to the 1940s, visiting the shops, seeing over 260 teddy bears in Mr Simpson’s Teddy Bear Museum and taking a trip to the sweet shop where they can swap a ration card for a bag of 1940s’ themed sweets.
No trip to Milestones Museum is complete without a visit to the ‘World Famous Milestones Pier’! Visitors can stroll along the boardwalk, learn all about the history of piers and view the traditional seaside scenes. There are vintage arcade games from claw grabbers and shove pennies to enjoy, plus Pac-Man and table football.
For more information about Armed Forces Weekend at Milestones, please visit https://www.milestonesmuseum.org.uk/event/armed-forces-weekend.