Fersfield wartime huts could become family home...for around £120,000 - £150,000

Two wartime Nissen huts, which were once part of an airfield with links to America’s Kennedy family, could soon become a new family home.

The huts are among the last of 300 which housed airmen in Fersfield at the height of the Second World War. They are to be sold at auction next month with planning consent to become a three-bedroom home.

Auctioneers TW Gaze of Diss have put an estimate of £120,000 to £150,000 on the huts and, although advertising has only just begun, potential buyers are already showing an interest.

It was from Fersfield that Lieutenant Joseph Kennedy, whose brother John was to become president of America, took off for his final mission.

He should have baled out of a plane packed with explosives before it reached the English coast, leaving it to be remotely guided to a target in France by a “mother” plane. However, it blew up over Blythburgh, near Southwold, before he had parachuted out and his body was never found.

Fersfield was later passed back to the RAF but flying ceased in 1946. It briefly found a new role as a motor racing circuit in the 1950s, but lost favour to nearby Snetterton.

The two huts for sale are on Wood Lane Farm, which has been in the Burrows family for four generations.

The huts have been kept in repair and are in better condition than other outbuildings on the plot and have, in the past, been used for accommodation.

After the war, neighbouring huts were “paired”, with one used for accommodation and one as a barn. They were occupied by families waiting for the council houses which were built in the village in the 1950s, and were probably last occupied in 1959-60. They have also been used as a farm store.

The two huts will be offered at auction on June 20. Rachael Hipperson, rural director of the auctioneer’s property team, said that, as soon as advertising began, cars were seen to pull up at the site and potential buyers asked for details.

Full story in this week's Diss Express, (March 31 edition), out now.