A major project remembering the role Pembrokeshire played in the Second World War has received a financial boost. The Welsh Assembly Government is to give a grant of £132,500 to the Carew Cheriton Control Tower Group. Already thousands of visitors, including many schoolchildren, visit the renovated Second World War control tower - the only one of its kind in Wales. The grant will enable the group to buy 3.4 acres of land at the historic airfield from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and further develop it as a major tourist and educational centre. "It's great news for Pembrokeshire," said Clr. Rob Lewis, cabinet member for cultural services. "The site is an important visitor attraction, bringing history to life. "During the Second World War, Pembrokeshire had more airfields than any other area of Britain and it's important to recognise the part that the county played during those historic times." John Brock, hon president of the Carew Cheriton Control Tower Group, and a leading force in the restoration project, said the Assembly grant would help bring to fruition the group's vision for the future of the site. "We don't aim to just remember Carew, but all 11 of Pembrokeshire's wartime airfields," he said. The airfield at Carew Cheriton was first built in 1915 as an airship base to counteract the growing threat from German U-boats in World War One. Aeroplanes were stationed there from 1917. Decommissioned in 1920, it was pressed into active service again as a bomber base and base for maritime patrols in 1938. It later also became a training centre. During wartime, the airfield's classic layout of three interlocking concrete runways was built along with several corrugated iron hangars and a control tower. At the end of the war, the airfield closed, but it got a new lease of life almost a decade ago when Carew's local history group joined forces with local community volunteers to restore its unique control tower - the nerve centre of the busy wartime airfield. The renovated building, along with a vintage Avro Anson aeroplane of the kind that once flew from the airfield, now attracts hundreds of school children every year, as well as visitors from further afield, including many ex-service personnel. The ability to purchase further land at the site will enable the control tower group to further expand the historic project, including the building of a new visitor and education centre and three hangars. It will also allow the group to display more of the vintage aircraft, which have been promised to them. Local County Councillor David Neale, vice-chairman of the Carew Cheriton Control Tower Group, said he was grateful for the support given to the group in its grant application to the Assembly's Community Facilities and Activities Programme.
"We have been greatly helped by the council's community regeneration unit, as well as by the museum service and the education department," he said. "The site is truly a partnership between a local community and local authorities."