A CELEBRATION of all things military, with aviation history at its heart, was a soaring success at the weekend.

For the past 13 years, the dedicated band of volunteers who form the Carew Cheriton Control Tower group have worked to create a piece of living history by restoring the building to create a wartime museum.

Saturday and Sunday saw the first Wings Over Carew festival, where attractions included a real Spitfire with working engine, military and classic vehicles.

There was a moving ceremony where a new memorial was unveiled, dedicated to air personnel who lost their lives locally while serving in both World Wars. Fifteen of them are now buried in the cemetery at Carew Cheriton.

The memorial plinth features the propellor of a Wellington bomber that crashed into the sea off Caldey Island.

The Dyfed and Glamorgan Corps of Drums escorted 17 British Legion standards from throughout Pembrokeshire and south Wales for the ceremony.

“The weekend was an outstanding success, and looks set to become an annual event, ” said Keith Hamer, one of the Carew Control Tower group’s 30 members. “Well over 2,000 people came along, and we had some wonderful compliments about what we have achieved.

When we started restoring the tower it was virtually derelict and had been used as a cow shed, and now we have a project that could well be a military museum of Wales.”