Rcaf North Luffenham

A Memory of North Luffenham.

My father was in the RCAF, stationed at the former RAF base. We lived in the village from 1952 to 1954. The picture on this site was where we lived at the time. The village shop was next door and was operated by Mr and Mrs Gale and they had a son named Blyth. Our family consisted of my mother and father, myself and my 2 younger sisters.We kids all went to the village school and I sang in the Church choir. The Headmistress was Mrs Barnett and I think the lady who looked after the lunches was called Mrs Rose, who a was a very nice lady especially to all the children. Mrs Barnett was an old dragon!
We left in November 1954 when the base closed and we moved to France. I have many fond memories of growing up in the village during this time as it was quite carefree. I have been back a few times, the last time in 1976, and our house had become the village shop and post office. During our time there the police constable in Ketton assisted a few of the servicemen at the RCAF base in forming a pipeband as he had been in the Scots Guards I believe. This became the very 1st RCAF pipe band and they played at the Higland games in Braemar and also at the Edinburgh Tattoo during their time together in North Luffenham. Many of the band members played in Canada with the Pipe Band in Ottawa on a guest basis. I remember going to the big house in the village on May Day and dancing around the maypole. It was a real suprise pulling up the web site for the village and seeing our house. Anyway, here I am just around the corner to being 66 years old and having a nostalgia moment.