HISTORY will be brought to life as wartime England is recreated in Hampshire this weekend.

Visitors will step back in time as Exbury Gardens and Lepe County Park play host to the 1940s event The Way We Were.

Life on the Home Front will be the main focus of the two-day event as living history groups, activities and the music of the day arrive in Hampshire.

Exbury and Lepe were chosen to host the Daily Echo-backed event because of their direct links with the war effort.

Exbury was a Royal Navy shore station and played a vital role in the preparations and launch of D-Day in 1944.

Lepe was a holding and embarkation area for 6,000 D-Day troops and was also used as a construction site for parts of the Mulberry Harbour, a temporary harbour developed in the Second World War to offload cargo on the beaches during the Normandy invasion.

This weekend, a wartime kitchen will be in operation and a wartime menu will be served in a canteen. Morse Code displays, performances of period dances such as the lindyhop, guided tours of the wartime sites and displays of wartime vehicles will also take place.

Actor Oliver Tobias, who has just completed a film based on a Second World War airfield, will open the event at 10am on Saturday at Exbury Gardens.

A 1940s concert will take place on Saturday night featuring Rosemary Squires, often referred to as Britain's first lady of song.

On Sunday morning the Exbury Veterans will be holding an outdoor service at Lepe. In the afternoon, the Band of the Hampshire Constabulary will be playing a mix of period and post-war music at Lepe.

The Honeypot children's charity, which runs a respite home near Blackfield for severely disadvantaged children, will benefit from money raised at the event.

Organiser Howard Keetch said: "It is going to be a great weekend which says thank you' to the wartime generation while offering unique activities to the visitors and helping the youngsters of Honeypot.

"Our team has been out promoting the event and we have received a warm reception everywhere."

n For more details call 023 8089 1203 or visit www. seetickets.com to book concert tickets.