TAVISTOCK Museum is set to re-open on Saturday, March 26, with two new exhibitions and an outdoor display of military vehicles.

The first new exhibition is to commemorate 75 years of the WW2 airfield, Harrowbeer RAF Station, Yelverton, which opened in August 1941.

Located near Yelverton, the airfield was called Harrowbeer to distinguish it from the similarly sounding RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset.

It was operational as a fighter station for the rest of the war under the control of Ten Group Fighter Command which was responsible for the South West of England.

It was also headquarters to the first air sea rescue squadron and reported to be a staging point for secret operations in Europe. The airfield had three tarmac runways. The foundations for them and some of the buildings came from rubble in Plymouth, created by the blitz of March and April 1941.

RAF Harrowbeer played a vital role during the war, providing air cover for merchant shopping in the English Channel, watching for enemy E-boats and U-boats, operations sorties in the Cherbourg area and later escort duties to bombers flying on their mission to and from targets in Europe.

It was closed as an operational airfield at the end of July 1945.

The second new exhibition is Weddings in the Past, which covers a history of marriage. Before 1753 there was no legal requirement to take part in a formal ceremony for a marriage and many couples lived together without doing so.

After 1753 marriage become a legal contract and the ceremony had to take place in the Church of England, only Jews and Quakers were exempt. In 1873 the law was changed and all marriages had to be registered wherever the couple married.

In the exhibition there will be examples of marriage certificated including one from America for William Henry Bolt, a local man who emigrated but later returned to Tavistock after his wife died.

A spokesperson for the museum said: ‘The museum is grateful to Mike Hayes who has put together an impressive exhibition of model aircraft, photographs and memorabilia for our first new exhibition.

‘The museum is also grateful to the many local people who have contributed to the exhibition by loaning wedding dresses, family artefacts and lots of photographs of the big day! Of particular interest are ‘flapper’ style dressed from the 1930s.’

Roderick Martin, museum secretary said: ‘Our town museum has received over 7,000 visitors annually – since the opening of its extended premises three years ago. It has no paid staff and is run entirely by volunteers who are willing to give a day each week or fortnight to help with the many and varied museum activities. We very much welcome anyone who is interested in helping in our wide range of museum activities.’

The museum will be open daily from 11am till 3pm until the end of October.