Imagine windswept Weybourne beach draped in barbed wire and studded with landmines. During the Second World War the Norfolk Coast was considered a prime target for possible invasion with Weybourne particularly vulnerable. Coastal defences and gunning placements were built along the sea and a Royal Artillery Anti-Aircraft training camp was established. It’s now the site of the Muckleburgh Military Collection, one of the largest privately owned military museums in the UK. Holding everything from machine guns and missiles to tanks and lorries, it also incorporates the Norfolk and Suffolk Yeomanry collection of uniforms, weapons, and documents. Fabulous for history buffs who can even book a military tank driving experience.

Winston Churchill visited twice during the war, but it was rumours of a German spy ring operating from Weybourne windmill that really got tongues wagging. A certain Mr Dodds rented the Mill, but it was his wife who raised local suspicions on account of her ‘strong foreign accent’ and large carpet bag which she kept close at all times. Gossip swirled around the couple, fuelled by patrolling policemen who spotted a flashing light on top of the Mill, pointing out to sea. Mrs Dodds gave tennis lessons to talkative children and a few days later it’s said she left her bicycle, and, unusually her bag, unattended at the tennis courts where an amateur sleuth discovered a radio transmitter! The Dodds were arrested, taken away and never heard of again. Spies? Austrians? Londoners? Don’t tell ‘em Pike!