Climbing frame honours WW2 legacy in village

A climbing frame created in the shape of a World War Two military aircraft has been installed at a village playground to honour its local wartime legacy.

The Lancaster Bomber play equipment was designed specially for Weston Colville in Cambridgeshire, close to a former airfield that played an important role in 1943-45 bombing campaigns.

The new playground was designed and built with grant funding from several organisations, including more than £20,000 from central government.

Peter McDonald, lead cabinet member for economic development for South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC), said the project was "one of the best examples" of projects in the area, helped by the Rural England Prosperity Fund.

The playground is close to RAF Wratting Common, on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border.

Lancaster Bombers which flew out of the base engaged in bombing campaigns in Germany in the latter stages of World War Two.

They also air-dropped food to people in countries that had been invaded, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, and helped repatriate prisoners of war.

The idea to build the bomber-themed frame, which also features a slide, came from Bedfordshire-based company Setter Play Limited.

Mr McDonald said the climbing frame would give local children "a sense of their own history and the village's history", adding: "This kind of project helps to bring all that to life."

"We wanted a big statement piece that would fit with the area," Jess Ashbridge, clerk of Weston Colville Parish Council, said.

"We were thinking of a tractor or something similar because we're a very rural area, but Setter Play came back and said you need a Lancaster Bomber.

"We're absolutely thrilled with it because it is so unique."

The playground's design also had input from a local working group, which included 18-year-old Daniel Jackson, who put together designs as part of his Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).

The student, from Long Road Sixth Form College, in Cambridge, said he particularly "liked researching into different ways to make the playground inclusive".

It features a "combi-swing", which allows a parent to sit next to a small child and a roundabout which is accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs.

His mother, Jo Jackson, from the Weston Colville Reading Room, said the playground was "so important for our identity", because the village had lost its pub and post office.

The playground is one of two in the village and can be found on the edge of its cricket club green.

Money to build it came from the National Lottery, Thalia Waste Management, Wadlow Wind Farm, the parish council, Reading Room and local businesses.

The largest portion, which paid for the bomber, came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), via the district council.

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