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Saturday 25 October 2014

Recording American Airfields in the East of England: A Request


The Secretary of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History received the following request for help in recording American airfield buildings.

"The Eighth in the East is a three-year Heritage Lottery Funded project which aims to record the built and social legacy of the American Eighth Air Force in the East of England during their time here in the 1940s. We are using community archaeology, oral history, film and photography, and existing collections to do this work.

"My main role in the project is to use my archaeological training to record the surviving buildings at the 60+ airfields in East Anglia with the help of members of the local community. The data collected will then be fed into the relevant Historic Environment Record.

"In the last 10 years many of the buildings have been demolished and a vast majority were never recorded, other than a few photos taken during the war period. The main aim of the survey is to record surviving buildings before they disappear. The survey consists a written part documenting the current state of repair of the structure, which is accompanied by a photographic record of the external walls and internal rooms.

"I am writing to ask for help in the building recording element of the project. If any of your members would be interested in helping in anyway then they can give me a ring or drop me an email (contact details below).

"Kind regards,

"Martin Cuthbert BA (Hons) AIfA

"Community Archaeologist
"Eighth in the East

Office: 01986 873516

Eighth in the East
The Cut
New Cut
Halesworth
Suffolk
IP19 8BY

Twitter: @8theast
Website: www.8theast.org
New Heritage Solutions - Community Interest Company. Company No: 7352488"

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