Walmington-on-Sea

Walmington-on-Sea is a fictional seaside resort that is the setting of Dad's Army during the Second World War, including the BBC Television sitcom (1968-1977), the BBC Radio 4 series, and two feature films of 1971 and 2016.

Map of the fictional Walmington-on-Sea © Dad's Army Appreciation Society^[1]

Walmington-on-Sea is on the south coast of England which, following the fall of France and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, found itself on the front line against Hitler. It is situated in the border lands of East Sussex with Kent^[2] between the nearest large town Eastbourne — where George Mainwaring was educated at the local grammar school — to the west and Dymchurch and Folkestone to the east. It could be identified with Littleton-on-Sea just north of the Kent headland of Dungeness, but equally could be further west by Winchelsea near Rye, Sussex as the geography is left deliberately vague.^[3]

The series followed the adventures and mishaps of members of a fictional platoon of the Local Defence Volunteers to later be called the Home Guard — a (real) WWII volunteer army that was formed from those ineligible for conscription, (by age, minor physical inability, or occupation), to defend the United Kingdom from German invasion following the fall of France.

The Guildhall at Thetford became Walmington-on Sea's Town Hall

Thetford's Palace Cinema (now a bingo hall) doubled as Walmington's Empire Cinema

Several episodes were filmed at Nether Row in Thetford

Filming of "The Deadly Attachment" took place on Mill Lane in Thetford

Brandon railway station stood in for the station at Walmington-on-Sea

Amenities and filming locations

Over the nine television series, the action is set in various places in Walmington-on-Sea, the interiors of which were built in the television studios, while the exterior scenes were filmed at various Norfolk locations.^[4] Those included a pleasure pier (filmed in Great Yarmouth)^[5] sectioned with a gap, 20 foot (6 m) wide, blown in the middle to prevent it from being used as a landing stage by invading armed forces. The beach is protected with barbed wire and other defences including mines, pillboxes, and tank traps.

Other locations, typical of a seaside town during the Second World War, included at least two banks (the fictional Swallows Bank, which appeared in early episodes, and the real Martins Bank); Jones's butcher's shop; Hodges's greengrocers; Frazer's undertakers; a sweet shop, The Novelty Rock Emporium; tea rooms, the Marigold, Anne's Pantry, and the Dutch Oven; a cinema; and numerous pubs, including the Red Lion; which all suggest it was a reasonably sized place. There is also a Free Polish Club for Polish servicemen. In common with most real British towns, Walmington-on-Sea has a church, Saint Aldhelm's, with a church hall next door which is the setting for various community events in the episodes such as the Christmas pantomime and a place for the Sea Scouts to parade. It is also where the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon muster on parade nights.

Many outdoor scenes were filmed at Thetford, an inland town in Norfolk.^[4] The 1971 film, Dad's Army, moved location to Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire, even further from the coast. The 2016 film, Dad's Army, was filmed even more distantly, in Yorkshire.

Thetford's Guildhall (today the home of the Dad's Army Museum) became Walmington-on-Sea's Town Hall. The Guildhall featured in the 1972 episode "Time on My Hands", in which a German Luftwaffe pilot dangled from the clock tower when his parachute became caught in the clock's hands. The Guildhall was also used in the 1974 episode "The Captain's Car". The distinctive flint cottages in Thetford's Nether Row appeared in four episodes: "Man Hunt", "The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones", "The Big Parade", and "Time on My Hands". Mill Lane was used in "The Deadly Attachment", while Thetford's real-life Palace Cinema (now a bingo hall) doubled as Walmington-on-Sea's Empire Cinema in two episodes – "The Big Parade" (1970) and "A Soldier's Farewell" (1972).^[4]

Brandon railway station was used for exterior shots of Walmington-on-Sea railway station, while the platforms of Weybourne Station on the preserved North Norfolk Railway (a heritage steam railway) stood in for the platforms at Walmington-on-Sea station in the episode "The Royal Train".