A SPECIAL event as been held to mark the 80th anniversary of the historic Normandy landings.

Handforth D-Day commemoration was run by NAAFI Break Handforth and featured stalls, music, dancing and refreshments at the community centre.

NAAFI Break is a local support peer group for veterans and their families, offering free meet-ups in Handforth every Thursday.

Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) was delighted to take part in the D-Day event and staged an historic display as the town was heavily involved in the Second World War.

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Apart from many serving men and women, the RAF established a maintenance unit.

This was based in former fields at the edge of the village and the Army built a tank repair depot alongside the River Dean.

Both of those enterprises relied on the railways.

Extensive extra tracks, junctions, sidings and more infrastructure was built to cope with them.

These works were dismantled by the mid 1980s but traces of their presence still exist if you know where to look.

The display shown by FoHS illustrated Handforth Station’s involvement in World War Two, as well as publicising the work of the Friends’ group at the station.

A drawing competition invited local children to illustrate ‘What I Like to See out of the Train Window’.

Knutsford Guardian: Children were invited to enter a drawing competitionChildren were invited to enter a drawing competition (Image: FoHS)

Two prizes of a family day rail pass were generously provided by Northern Trains.

Mike Bishop, president of FoHS, said: “We love being involved with the local community in this manner.

“We were delighted to be able to share some of the history of our station and local railways.”

He thanked the NAAFI Break organisation for giving them the opportunity to be involved.