GLOUCESTERSHIRE Warwickshire Steam Railway and Winchcombe town will be turning the clock back 75 years to the 1940s for the ‘Wartime in the Cotswolds’ event.

Being held this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, the event will recall the triumphs and tragedies of the Second World War.

The event will include visits from King George VI, Winston Churchill and Field Marshall Montgomery, and a replica Spitfire aircraft and tank to see.

At Winchcombe the RAF plotting room will be in action demonstrating how RAF squadrons were despatched to counter an incoming enemy air raid.

It is also hoped, weather permitting, that there will be a fly-past of aircraft from the RAF Memorial Flight.

Mark Evans, chairman of the event organising committee, says: “There will be plenty of activity all over the railway and it would be hard to experience everything on one day.

"We have some familiar and some new performers, singers and attractions this year and what is particularly pleasing is that nearly two thirds of our visitors go to the trouble of dressing up on 1940s garb. Of particular appeal will be the 1940s Dance at Toddington on Saturday night.

“Maybe it’s because their grandparents were in the forces during the war that the event means so much to so many people.”

Full information and ticket prices are available at gwsr.com.

There will be an early-morning departure at 09.40 from both Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway to Toddington as well as a vintage bus service between later trains from Cheltenham. Also for the first time, there will be public camping at the event so you really can dig out your ‘old kit bag’!”

There is free parking at Cheltenham Racecourse.

READ MORE: Cotswold castle launches search to find knights