One of the UK's only remaining Nissen Huts from the Second World War has been given a new lease of life by a Norfolk school.
Based in the grounds of Wymondham College, the hut has been used as a chapel for more than 70 years but has now benefitted from £100,000 worth of refurbishment work.
Staff believe the building is the last of 80 Nissen Huts built during the Second World War by the USA Air Force to still be in use, opened in 1941 as a military hospital.
Most were demolished or converted to homes or agricultural buildings but the Wymondham hut was purchased by the college and was used as a chapel, but kept in its original form.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary in 2021, the college decided to add a heritage centre to the facility, raising the money in a fundraising campaign which has been running since 2021.
Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, re-dedicated the chapel in a service on Monday (January 29) that welcomed many guests including the college's first head boy from 1951.
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The college's principal Zoe Fisher said: “It was a joy to celebrate our rich heritage and for our students to be part of such a special occasion.
"We were honoured to have so many guests from the college’s past and were delighted that the bishop and His Majesty’s deputy lieutenant (Ian Lonsdale) could join us, the sun shone on what was a glorious occasion.”
The heritage centre aims to celebrate the history and development of the college campus from the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods.
During its time in service, the building served 15 Heavy Bomber bases, a fighter group, engineers, quartermaster and ordnance troops and approximately 60,000 soldiers.
Doctors at the hospital pioneered new treatments using antibiotics and it was one of the few US military hospitals to treat white and black soldiers in mixed wards.
Following D-Day on June 6, 1944, the hospital expanded its capacity from 834 to 1,254 beds to accommodate casualties returning from Normandy.
Hospital trains brought casualties to Wymondham railway station and they were taken to the hospital by a fleet of military ambulances.
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