About Us

Our Story

Well, what can I say about us?  We are in our early 60s and took early retirement to sell up our cottage in the Cotswolds and buy a Dutch Barge called Edith to live on with our cat ‘Bosun’.  We are continuous cruisers, which means that we move almost every day and no day is ever the same.  It is a great life and we embrace the countryside, wildlife and people we meet along the way.  

The story of our move from landlubbers to water gypsies has been told in our book ‘Isn’t it Cold in the Winter’, which can be bought from Amazon or Ebay.

Bret was an antique dealer and fostered a love of war-time memorabilia from a very early age. Karen’s career was in IT as a trainer. 

So, what drew us to 1940s re-enactment? We took a trip to Stoke Bruerne, Village at War in 2017 and were overwhelmed by the displays and re-enactors. When we came home we were so enthusiastic we wanted to do something like that, but we have always been a little bit on the different side (in a good way) so the idea formed to make a display of memorabilia.

We joined Oxfordshire Home Guard, a great bunch of people, but found that their enthusiasm for drill and guns did not match our keen interest in Home Front so we parted ways and now go it alone.  

These days we spend our time adding to our collection, giving talks and thinking of new displays.