Over on the Suffolk coast is Orford Ness. What was once a secret military base was sold to the National Trust back in 1993. It was a place I had wanted to visit for a while. I had sailed past Orford Ness as a child in the 1970s and 1980s, but had never visited there, well then it was a secret military base.
One of my memories was the landing craft that was stationed at Orford which was used to transport vehicles and supplies from the Orford quayside to Orford Ness. I remember as a child thinking how cool it would be to be driven onto the landline craft to cross the river. That was never going to happen, as it was a secret military base.
In September I made a trip to the Ness to explore. It didn’t surprise me too much but that landing craft was nowhere to be seen. It was forty odd years since I last saw it.
However, on one of the displays in one of the buildings on the Ness was a photograph of the Landing Craft. It was exactly as I remembered it.
Interestingly the real vessel is still working as a diver support ship.
I think that because I also had the Matchbox toy landing craft, it embedded that memory.
