With 350 acres of rolling landscape, period buildings, olive drab vehicles and the freedom to drive them around the site; the Beamish Museum "Dig for Victory" event is a unique 1940s show in the UK.

I packed the vehicles across Tuesday 30th while Lynne was at work. As soon as she came home, we grabbed a bite to eat and set off for Beamish.

We towed the Jeep so that we've have a normal car to run out for supplies. It was dusk by the time our camp was set up so the first pictures were on Wednesday morning.

Neil, Chris and Andy were also there for Wednesday and set up in our camp. Paul was there too, but staying in his motorhome in the staff car park. So six of our seven vehicles we on site before the start of the event. It took Chris some time to assemble the latest version of his field shower; the most refined version complete with petrol powered water heater and electric pump to send the water to the shower head. It's come a long way since the bucket with holes in.

According to the forecast in the days leading up to the event, the weather threatened to be wet for the full show. Thankfully, over the five days, there were only a few showers, mostly outside public open hours and we got the tents away dry. Wednesday morning however was raining and it lasted almost until noon. We sat under our shelter, looking at different forecasts in the hope that one would give us good news! Eventually, it dried up, allowing us to explore.

 The event didn't start until Thursday so there we no vehicle movements on Wednesday. This gave us a chance to have a look around the site on foot and to check out recently opened areas such as parts of the 1950s town and also the Quilter’s cottage. It also gave us a chance to look for possible display locations that we hadn't used in previous years.