War battery opens up.

VISITORS to a Northumberland beach will be transported back to the 1940s this weekend.

Blyth Battery, which is considered one of the most complete examples of a coastal defence battery in eastern Britain, has been revitalised as a visitor and education complex following a pounds 525,000 investment.

Cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and Blyth Valley Council was used to revamp the crumbling structures, which include a searchlight tower, gun emplacements, a magazine block, observation posts, a rangefinder tower and an engine house.

On Saturday and Sunday the opening to visitors will be marked by a 1940s-themed event organised by the Blyth Battery Volunteers, the local group given the task of running the facility. There will be military vehicles from the past, including Army jeeps and trucks and even a Spitfire. Visitors will be able to sit in the cockpit of a Canberra aircraft, see a 25lb gun from Tynemouth and take a look inside a field hospital.

Lindsay Durward, secretary of the volunteers, said: "Blyth Battery played a vital role in defending the Northumberland coast during the Second World War, so it is great to be putting a bit of that 1940s spirit back into the place."

The event, at South Beach, Blyth, runs from 11am-4pm on both days. Blyth Battery is open to the public every Saturday and Sunday until the end of September from 11.30am to 4pm.

Entrance is free and guided tours of the site are available.

CAPTION(S):

WARTIME SPIRIT: Colin and Lindsay Durward

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