No. 4 Baghdad Road   A trip down memory lane No. 4 Baghdad Road Royal Air Force Cranwell   Life on the Home Front       THE RAF MARRIED QUARTER AT NO. 4 BADHDAD ROAD, CRANWELL, IS NOT WHAT IT WAS, AS ANYBODY WHO HAS PASSED IT AND NOTICED THE CROSSES OF BROWN STICKY PAPER ON THE WINDOWS WILL CONFIRM … OR RATHER, NO 4 IS VERY MUCH WHAT IT WAS - 50 YEARS AGO!                 This semi-detached house stands close by the primary school at Cranwell and for almost 4 years now, has been the local community's museum dedicated to preserving the relics and memories of our most recent turbulent period in history, the second world war. In 1995  the whole county marked the 50th anniversary of VE Day, with various celebrations and the creation of the 'Home Front' house at Cranwell was our school's contribution. The project, to re-create a whole house frozen in time at summer 1945, was primarily to help all the children in the school understand what older generations were remembering and celebrating last year. Facts can be found in books, but appreciating their significance is extremely difficult for a young child born of a very different generation. As a school we aim to provide a stimulating environment, and while this project was not typical of topics developed by the teacher's for our children, it was very much part of our aim to motivate the children's learning through their environment in 'living history' workshops.     I suppose I must take responsibility for the idea of 'borrowing' an empty 1930's house and completely re-decorating it and furnishing it as it would have looked half a century ago, but the whole project was able to go ahead thanks to the kind permission of the then  Station Commander, Gp Capt Jarron, and other personnel at Royal Air Force Cranwell, such as the Station Families Officer, who gave us their help and support. I was very much aided (and abetted) in this task by our school's  Finance Officer, Maurice Rushbrook, who helped work out the ideas and then 'fixed it' either by telephone or through personal contact with the tremendous number of people who were to become involved in the project. The school was actually handed the keys to No. 4 Badhdad Road in April 1995 and we immediately contacted the local newspapers and radio stations to ask if they would carry our appeal for furnishings and furniture that we could borrow to fill the house. Soon, we had offers of tables, chairs, lamps beds and ornaments - but we had a whole three bedroomed house to fill! Our greatest good fortune was to contact a local firm who supply 20th century props and furnishings for film and television productions, (they dressed all the sets for the recent film 'LANDGIRLS'). They opened their warehouse doors to us, and all the items we could  just not find, long since thrown away by people, such as lino, lampshades, magazines, food tins and packets, were offered on loan to furnish the house. Since then visitors visitors to the house have contacted us an with offers of further furniture, clothes and items for the         To Next Page