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Parham Airfield Museum Charity No. 284146

Parham Airfield, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK. IP13 9AF. Annual Report for AGM 24[th] March 2024

1. Preface

Trustees:

Brisland, Carol Kindred, Kathleen (Treasurer) Kindred, Peter Kirk, Lydia Moore, Judith Nials, Anthony (Vice Chair) Pratt, Christopher Scripps, Martin Senior, Peter (Chair) Smith, Jennifer

Brown, George also served as a trustee.

Structure, Governance and Management:

The museum has been a charity for many years. We became incorporated on 16[th] January 2023. At the AGM on 26[th] March 2023 the members voted unanimously to empower the trustees to manage and control the assets of both charities and wind-up charity no. 284146 once the transfer process was complete and the final accounts approved.

The new, incorporated charity is governed in accordance with the constitution dated 4[th] December 2022 which is published on the Charity Commission website. Up to twelve trustees may be appointed. Of these, eleven are elected by the voting members, and one is appointed by blood relatives of the late Percy Kindred. Members agree who will hold the various responsibilities, except that the Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer are appointed at the first trustees meeting following the AGM.

There are no paid employees. The Chair acts as Chief Executive Officer for day-to-day management. Role descriptions exist for key post holders.

Financial Review:

The Museum maintains a financial reserve of £10,000.

This separate reserve fund is to ensure that unexpected, uninsured costs or routine essential expenditure can be met when they exceed the budget plan for each year, or when a reduction in anticipated income occurs, this to be for the period in which any necessary adjustments to the budget are made. This fund has not been used.

The annual accounts demonstrate that none of our budget headings are in deficit: indeed, the overall financial position is very healthy, and we continue to rely mainly on donations from our supporters, for which we are extremely grateful. The trustees’ wish is that access to the museum is available to all and thus they intend to continue the policy that admission is free.

Our financial regulations do not permit funds to be invested where the capital may be at risk.

The trustees do not hold funds on behalf of others.

Public Benefit Statement:

The trustees have complied with their duty to have regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers.

Objectives of Paham Airfield Museum:

To advance the education of the public by the display and preservation of aircraft, aeronautical equipment and other items, particularly relating to the period 1939 to 1945 and connected with the 390th Bombardment Group and other units of the United States Army Air Forces, and the Auxiliary Units and other branches of the British Resistance Organisation for the long-term public benefit.

2. Activities, Achievements and Performance

Introduction

This has been another very successful and rewarding year for the museum, with good support from the public, a strong increase in visitor numbers and lots of appreciative feedback.

Your Committee and Trustees of Charity 284146 met three times. The Trustees of 284146 and Charity 1201587 have met six times. Some consultations about possible decisions have also been carried out via email.

On Memorial Day we held a short ceremony at the museum. We also sent a delegation to Madingley American Cemetery to represent the 390th Bombardment Group (H) at the formal ceremony. On Remembrance Day we again welcomed a contingent from Framlingham College Air Training Corps, supported by the College Chaplain who led us in our formal ceremony.

Visitors and Events

It was a record season for visitors, a total of 6,128 compared to 5101 last year. We are especially pleased that this included 971 children, some with their families but many in groups from local schools and youth organisations. Five primary schools came on 7 occasions, utilising us as a resource for their planned curriculum about World War Two. Our local high school also sent us their entire Year 8, 180 pupils over three days. We welcomed the Air Training Corps from Framlingham College, a group of Scouts from Otley and the Beavers, very young children, from the pack in Framlingham. Most of the school parties take at least a morning and stay for lunch, during which they are often entertained by a traditional Punch and Judy Show. It happens that Mr Punch is one of our volunteers! Our volunteers were invited to a presentation of projects by 11-year-old pupils of Kyson Primary in Woodbridge. They returned very impressed.

A variety of organised adult groups have also been to see us. Car and motorcycle clubs often come on a Sunday, but others such as Rotary Clubs, Probus Groups and local organisations for vulnerable adults usually involve opening on a day when we are closed to the public, as when schools visit. It is a tribute to our volunteers that we always find sufficient staff to assist.

We have continued our established links with The Museum of the Mighty Eighth and the National Museum of World War Two in the USA and they have been to Parham with organised parties on 6 occasions this year. The party from the National Museum included John Luckadoo, the only surviving pilot from the 100[th] Bombardment Group. We also had a group of relatives and friends from the 384 Bomb Group Association, including Henry Kolinek, a veteran gunner from the 384[th] Bombardment Group..

As ever we maintain strong, active links with the relatives of veterans and enjoy showing them around. Usually, we know in advance of their visit and our Archivist is invariably able to find interesting information about the airman. These family visits can be quite emotional, especially when it involves the children of those who served.

The season began with a convoy of vehicles from the Second World War, many of whom returned in July for our special day focussing on military vehicles and classic cars. This was a huge event and a demanding day for our volunteers. We provided a book stall, ice cream and hot meal vendors, and entertainment from the Station 366 Singers and Martlesham Ukulele Group. Amazingly, about 1,000 visitors were counted into the museum and many more came back on other days because they had not been able to spend time looking at our exhibitions.

We even hosted a birthday gathering from a long-time resident of Parham. Another unusual event was a performance by a touring group of Morris Men. We have certainly been making sure that Parham Airfield is on the map!

People have left us some beautiful, appreciative comments in our visitors’ book. We continue to be highly rated on international visitor websites such as Tripadvisor and Google.

The museum achieved Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Award for the second consecutive year.

Creation of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Following the registration of the CIO in January, the trustees have been working through the various implications. Rules and procedures to supplement the constitution have been agreed. Our lease is being re-negotiated with the land trust so that it starts again with another 35-year term and is signed on behalf of the CIO. We no longer accept long term loans of artefacts but with those we have inherited work is in progress to transfer them to the new charity. Much time has been spent on establishing the required new accounts with our existing bank. This began in late April 2023, made little progress until August, and took until October before we had a suite of accounts with online access! The Charity Commission has recognised that charities frequently find this to be an onerous task and has written to the major banks accordingly.

The Charlie Cairnes Legacy

The museum will inherit the entire residue of the estate of Charlie Cairnes, a long-term supporter of the museum.

Those items judged to be outside our collections policy, such as the naval exhibits, have been sold by the executor at a specialist auction to raise more funds for the estate. Once the residue of the estate after expenses has been calculated, this generous donation legacy will pass to the museum. The financial boost to our funding for capital projects will be significant. The outcome will include a memorial to the late Charlie Cairnes, with reference to his naval service and previous support for the air side of the museum.

Building Projects

The Kindred Building Project has been completed with the provision of a work bench and storage shelves in the new garage/store. The latter is built to match modern building regulations and is proving invaluable as a secure place to store artefacts in controlled conditions whilst they await classification, recording and placement.

We have investigated ways in which an additional building and/or exhibition room might be provided for our ever-increasing quantity of artefacts on the air war side, particularly the Charlie Cairnes collection. Further work to identify our needs will be undertaken before decisions can be made.

Maintenance

During the winter, work has continued to maintain and improve the buildings with painting and other practical tasks.

An unexpected problem was that the intense rain of Storm Babet caused water to flow into the ground floor of the Tower to a depth of two inches. This has never happened before. Prompt action by the farming family, assisted by pumps from our nearby Fire Brigade friends, removed it rapidly. Volunteers cleaned up and the museum was open again the next

Sunday. No permanent damage to exhibits or the building has occurred. We have introduced some protection to minimise the future risk of water ingress and further measures are planned. Some new dehumidifiers have been acquired.

Our main project has been to modernise the supports to the Tower balcony. Their function is to hold the balcony up should it detach from the building. A survey by our structural engineer could find no evidence of weakness but given that it is 81 years old we decided to replace the 1970s poles with a more comprehensive steel design. The result is pleasing and inconspicuous.

Other projects include LED lighting in the Kindred Building floor cabinets and the installation of push button taps in the cloakrooms to conserve water. Some signs and information boards have also been modernised.

We are grateful for the work of our volunteer team. Their wide range of skills enables us to undertake many of these tasks without external contractors.

Collections Management

Since the last AGM the trustees have agreed to appoint an additional curator. This role focuses largely on updating our systems and processes for acquisition, accessioning, care, and display of our exhibits. This will bring us in line with the SPECTRUM guidelines for good museum practice. It is a necessary step should, in the future, we apply for museum accreditation.

A major project for 2023 was to expand the database of accessioned items to include their location, condition and maintenance needs. The database will include all BRO items too, thus providing a secure and searchable record for the whole museum site. It is anticipated that this project will take a further 2 years to complete.

The existing floor plans and location of cabinets have been updated to address the many modifications of rooms over the past few years. All rooms have been appropriately named for identification and all cabinets have been numbered. This will facilitate locating our exhibits. When finished, the floorplans detailing cabinet location and numbers will be in the library.

Using our database, we will continue to confirm the location and condition of our exhibits, including those which are recorded as being ‘on loan’. Maintenance records will be created for relevant artefacts. We continue to improve and update the labelling of our exhibits and displays.

Our accessions policy and processes are being updated. We have updated our policy with respect to the donation of firearms in the light of recent Home Office guidance.

The British Resistance

It has been a very successful year for this aspect of the museum, helped by the number of school visits and increased exposure on social media. We also had more enquiries and research requests than ever before with visits from descendants of Operational Patrol

members most weeks. We have given 7 illustrated talks to History groups, Residents Associations and Probus Groups. This helped to spread the story of the Auxiliary Units and encouraged groups to arrange visits to Parham. Sickness has reduced the number of more experienced staff available but thanks to our volunteers, several of them new to the museum, a normal service has been provided.

Last year we were donated a WW2 Military Telephone Exchange by the Staffordshire Regiment Museum and thanks to a visitor with BT experience, we have a working system so that youngsters will be able to communicate with the main hall from the replica Operational Base.

Recent artefacts donated include papers relating to a member of the auxiliary HQ unit based in Ipswich. One of these is an article from the Daily Express published in late 1945, about the existence of secret resistance units in the UK. Perhaps all this was not as secret as the government always insisted! The daughter of Lt. Allan MacDonald, an officer in army intelligence and fluent German speaker, gave us her father’s uniform jacket, used when he received his GM at the Palace. He led the men that pulled the Pathfinder crew out of the B17 which was shot down whilst on final approach on the night of 12 April 1944. We think he may have had a role with the secret radio teams who were part of the Special Duties Section. The uniform will be displayed in the Kindred Building with photos relating it to the plane crash.

Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team have continued to be supportive and been a great help in answering some of the questions raised by visitors and via emails. A joint CART/BROM trip to Verrières in July next year is being planned. It will commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the attack on the SAS Operation Bulbasket.

The 390[th] and Air War Collections

A further 40 items were donated to the museum during the year. These include two engine cowling panels from the crash of B17 Gloria Ann on Parham Village and a piece of very thin aluminium which we intend to display to demonstrate how vulnerable the crews were to flak and fighters. Recently we have been gifted the “Stars and Stripes” forces newspaper for June 7, 1944. This will be a centrepiece of our exhibit planned to commemorate 80 years since D Day. It was in the Officers’ Mess at Framlingham and kept by an officer whose son gave it to us.

We have completed a new wall display which features the contribution of black Americans to victory. This is a subject which has often been overlooked in the past. It is dedicated to the late Roger Wilson, an enthusiastic volunteer who recently passed away. Roger was a keen supporter of the project and his family contributed some of the local evidence for it.

The annual waxing of leather jackets on display was completed.

In 2023, we temporarily loaned one of our exhibits, a section of a P38 Lightening recovered from a crash site, to Nuthampstead Museum where the aeroplane was based. This has enhanced Nuthampstead’s telling the story of the pilot and the crash. The exhibit will be

returned to us in November 2024 and we have enhanced our own tribute to the pilot, who lost his life.

The collection of USAAF uniforms and artefacts bequeathed by Charlie Cairnes has been temporarily stored in the Exhibition Hall garage/store. A major objective for 2024 will be to accession and identify each item ready for future display. We will undertake and attempt to finish this before we re-open in April. It is unlikely that we will display much of the collection until suitable space is created. Several volunteers have offered to help with this process. We will provide updates with progress throughout the year.

Volunteers are currently working on a complete re-working of our Flying Control displays in the Watch Office, which we hope to complete by April 2024. It will include some items recently acquired that have not been seen before.

Two presentations about the airfield and its role in the air campaign have been given to external groups.

Archives and Library

Our Archivist reports that the Airmen project is still an ongoing and she is part way through her second sweep of all our KIA names, bringing up more material as the archives of other institutions are shared online.

The Assistant Archivist, within her role as Co-Curator, is continuing to develop the index of our physical photograph collection, and is continually expanding the database within her role as assistant curator.

Requests for details of an airman’s missions, aircraft, military paperwork have still been forthcoming via email and Facebook, mainly from relatives in the US. Having set up individual computer folders for each of our KIA airmen means providing the information is a relatively quick exercise.

Dave Nelson (he who made and donated our diorama) has been on a road trip to several of the places in the US where military records are kept. As part of his research, he has kindly shared with us all the available months of Station Histories, which are scans of the original material rather than the images we currently hold. It may therefore be possible to use OCR to interrogate the reports rather than continuing with the retyping project.

The daily postings of life on the base on Facebook and X, which always seem to go down well, are continuing and draw many interesting comments from their readers even though they have already seen them before!

We continue to catalogue gifted books for the Library if they match our Collection Policy.

Volunteers

We currently have just sufficient active volunteers to operate the museum properly. However, our age profile is top heavy! More people are needed to assist with a range of tasks, assume responsibilities and spread the burden of duties. There is a particular need for more people to assume responsibility as Duty Officer of the Day. Recent recruiting initiatives

in the local area have brought some new volunteers, who have been inducted by experienced members. However, the best approach is often for people known to members to be encouraged to get involved. On a positive note, we have not compromised on the qualities we seek in new helpers.

Health and Safety

There have been no serious accidents or injuries involving volunteers or the public. We maintain a comprehensive risk assessment which is updated regularly and reviewed annually by the Chair, Maintenance and Safety Leads before being reported to Trustees. Related, focused risk assessments are prepared for special events. These and relevant guidance are shared with organised groups as appropriate to assist with their own planning.

Data Protection

There have been no requests, enquiries, or incidents regarding data protection.

Insurance

Our insurance has been maintained to cover the buildings and displays together with third party liability. This year we have taken out additional cover to assist a trustee in the event they are accused of negligence or misconduct in office.

Shop and Café

These continue to be a major asset. Our priority with the café is to keep prices low, conscious of the pressure on household budgets and the need to be accessible to as many people as possible. There is a brisk trade in inexpensive memorabilia and visitors often like to acquire some of our new range of clothing. Income from the sale of second-hand books is useful, since they have been gifted to us for that purpose.

The quality remains high and is well received. It is particularly important for those who are not able to visit frequently. Thanks are due to the increasing number of people who prepare contributions and to our editor for her sustained hard work.

Broadband

We continue to benefit from a free, reliable broadband service provided by Fram Broadband. Their generous support is much appreciated.

Grants and Donations

The accounts show that we have benefited from generous donations and some grants too. We are well able to manage ongoing costs. And invest capital for future projects.

We continue to be extremely grateful for the regular funding provided by the Moller Foundation. This means we can meet our oncosts and have funding for repairs and improvements on the 390[th] side of the museum. This year we also received a grant from the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains, which it has been agreed will be used to cover the project to refurbish the flying control display in the Watch Office. There have been

several other significant, unsolicited donations from benefactors who do not wish to be identified.

B17 Solar Farm

Work on this project has been postponed. We do not feel it will interfere with the work of the museum regarding access or amenity; the fields immediately adjacent to our buildings will not be affected. Indeed, we have benefited from being given some original artefacts deposited by the hard standings, which were unearthed during the preliminary archaeological surveys.

The Coming Year

We look forward to continuing our work, anticipating even more public interest following the release of the TV miniseries Masters of the Air. There are already several museum group bookings, including one from a visiting cruise ship that will take an entire weekend. We work in partnership with other museums in the area, especially our sister air museums, and are preparing for the season in cooperation with them, local councils, and Visit East of England.

We expect several schools to visit again too and several relatives plan to come to Parham.

We have decided not to run a huge event like that In July 2023, but instead will focus on a series of organised visitor groups at which other items of interest will be offered.

Hopefully the Trustees will also be able to firm up plans for a further expansion of our displays areas. The work to get the classification and digital recording of our collections should also see major progress in 2024. We are confident that our higher profile will encourage more new volunteers to want to join us.

Thus, as ever, we carry out our mission with optimism.

And Finally…..

The Trustees extend their sincere thanks to all those who have helped the museum during the year, either with donations of money, gifting artefacts or by giving of their time. Thank you all for your strong support.

Agreed by trustees on 24[th] February 2024

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