On Saturday 20th June 2026 Handforth Town Council commemorated Armed Forces Day at the Handforth Youth and Community Centre. The event included a display of military vehicles, a bouncy castle, live music (provided by local radio station Cheshire’s Silk 106.9) and stalls selling food and drink.  In addition, several local clubs and societies were represented by their own individual stalls.

The Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) were pleased to contribute to the event by hosting a stall. Information was available about Network Rail’s plans for lift installation at Handforth station, images and photographs of work FoHS has done for the local community, and of wartime railway memorabilia and posters.

The FoHS also ran a looped slideshow on a large screen, showing photos and diagrams on the topic of Handforth’s two wartime military branch lines.

Among the many visitors to the FoHS stall was a local historian from Wilmslow, who was keen to discuss RAF 61 MU (Handforth’s  wartime RAF Maintenance Unit).

Perhaps the most significant visitor to the FoHS stall was the Rt. Hon. Esther McVey, MP for the Tatton constituency. She discussed the Access For All lifts project with FoHS members Rosemary Thomason and Roger Small. Esther said that she had contacted the CEO of Network Rail to try to speed up the installation of lifts, now more than seven years in the making!

Rosemary Thomason, Chair of the FoHS, said, ‘We were pleased to have been able to contribute to the Armed Forces Day event. We were delighted that Esther McVey visited our stall and we welcome her support, as our local MP, in progressing lift installation at the station.’