A VILLAGE will be transported back to wartime with a special event to remember the home guard in Tendring.

Discovering Dad's Army today will include a host of World War Two home guard memories, re-enactors and talks.

Mainly held at All Saints Primary School in Beaumont Road, Great Oakley, there will be an exhibition from 10am to 4pm.

Themed entertainment to capture the wartime era will include music by a brass band as well as some sorties music.

At 2pm proceedings will briefly move to the Great Oakley pillbox at Apple Tree Cottage on High Street where John Jowers, chairman of the Essex Heritage Trust, will unveil a new information board.

The pillbox is the only remaining part of an anti-invasion defence road barrier in the village during World War Two.

It was a steel cable stretched across to road and joined to an anti-tank block opposite, aimed at delaying the enemy.

The pillbox was one of a number of military defence systems manned by the home guard.

There were oil drums filled with petrol buried in the roadside , a Nissan Hut, Spigot Mortar position, and a 25 pounder gun at an empty house.

In the centre of the village was another pillbox disguised as a cafe - the loopholes were covered by wooden shutters - and it was painted green and cream.