What a day…………..

After all the glorious weather we had been having we woke on Easter Sunday to grey skies and rain! Lots and lots of rain…….

Undeterred the marquee went up and the urn went on.

Tim Loughton, MP and Councillor Debbie Kennard, who was Chairman of Adur at the time of us winning the £25,000 through the Adur Pot of Gold and the Big Harbour Community Pot, braved the weather to help us celebrate our achievements and officially open the hut.

‘Shoreham Fort blue’ ribbon was tied around the open doors of the Nissen Hut and Debbie and Tim cut the ribbon with the bayonet from Gary’s Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle. With the Nissen Hut now officially opened it meant that all those getting wet outside were able to go in and view the projects we had been working so hard on over the past two years. It also proved how invaluable the Nissen Hut is going to be to us as an indoor education centre.

Peter Briggs’ perfectly scaled model of the fort was revealed to the public for the first time and is pictured. Peter’s Artillery Train also joined the fort model in pride of place at the centre of the hut. These models really do need to be viewed in person. The detail on them in second to none! ‘Mr Chips’ really is an incredibly talented and seriously patient man. The fort alone took an estimated 800 man hours to make.

Our picnic benches were very well received and it was lovely to have somewhere for our visitors to sit and enjoy the site, whilst having a cuppa.

Two other major new assets to the charity are a 32″ touch screen PC which Andy, a trustee, has been working on and you really do need to come down to the site and have a play with this amazing bit of kit.

In addition to the launching of our projects, our very own Royal Sussex Living History Group were there representing the Boar War, WWI and WW2. Their extensive gun rack proved really popular as did the ‘Mad Minute’ firing displays.

Throughout the day our wonderful volunteers manned Food for Fort, the cake stall, the raffle and the children’s activities such as the egg hunt, colouring and egg and spoon races – made doubly hard by the older children having to have an egg and spoon in each hand.

The sun came out for us in the afternoon so Gary took some of our young soldiers out on the parade ground to teach them rifle drill.

A great day was had by all.