8:30am Friday 20th April 2012
WITH the appearance of the spring blossom across the Vale and Cotswolds, artist and historian MICHAEL BARNARD told GERRY BARNETT about how it reminded him of spring time in the 1940s.
BLOSSOM time in Vale of Evesham orchards, he said, was described by Worcestershire Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin as “the land of the heavenly spring”, an observation that brought back memories of 1945.
“This happy memory is of our pilot of Anson 540 and a flight over the blossom orchards of the Vale,” Mr Barnard said.
“Coming in to land at RAF Pershore, the Anson made a very bumpy landing.
“Walking back to the control our pilot apologised for the fright he had given the ATC lads, explaining that he had just been repatriated from a Stalag prisoner of war camp.”
Mr Barnard continued: “Nothing in the world is quite like the Vale of Evesham at blossom time, her orchards amass with the promise of plums and apples and looking forward to the asparagus season.
“There is no better place to live.”
Mr Barnard’s picture shows an Anson flying over the blossom in Evesham.
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