March 2024

Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 1st March 2024

Southampton’s Spitfire Flight Shed remembered

The eighth Spitfire Makers blue plaque commemorating The Supermarine Flight Shed and all who worked in it, has been unveiled in Wide Lane, Southampton.

Around 40 enthusiasts came to see the unveiling carried out by Margaret and Peter Grubb who had sponsored the plaque, and John Ferrerolli, who worked in the Flight Shed as a Supermarine apprentice. Peter worked in the Flight Shed more recently when it had become a Tool Room for Ford.

Other Supermarine and Ford workers came to honour the heritage of both the companies who worked in the Flight Shed and also in attendance were the family of Spitfire Maker Bernard Byrne, who was there during WWII and the post war years.

The local MP for Romsey and Southampton North, Caroline Nokes, also attended and posted to her X account from the unveiling: “So lovely to be on Wide Lane in the sunshine for the unveiling of The Spitfire Makers plaque at one of the entrances to the Supermarine Flight Shed – as Churchill said, “the front line runs through the factories.”

After the unveiling the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust hosted the guests at the nearby Fleming Arms where a specially commissioned cake was cut by John Ferrerolli and the chair of the Trust, Alan Matlock.

A nationally significant building, where all production models of the Spitfire were ground- and air-tested from 1937 until the late 40s, the Flight Shed was demolished and replaced by a modern industrial unit in 2022. The plaque stands on the right hand pillar of the old entrance gates which in 1939 also served as the way in to the Cunliffe Owen Aircraft Company. Their factory was taken over by Briggs Motor Bodies and ultimately Ford who built their Transit vans there.

The photos are a collection of images from local sources, including the Daily Echo, and from guests present at the unveiling. The metal plate marked “SCWW SV 1941” is actually set in the pavement just in front of the plaque showing that the Southampton Corporation Water Works ‘Sluice Valve’ was fitted there during the height of WWII.

The other pillar will have a plaque to commemorate the involvement of Cunliffe Owen in repairing and making Spitfires. It has been sponsored by Hendy whose Jaguar Land Rover showroom is opposite and whose Ford garage in the centre of Southampton was requistioned to make Spitfire fuselages.

Part of the agreement with the developers of the site was that they would place an information panel about the Flight Shed in Stoneham Cemetery Road. This has now been done and images of it are included in the post.

All the Spitfire Makers plaques, including the Flight Shed one, have been fixed with the support of the Shirley Men’s Shed group.

For more information about the Trust, where the other plaques are, or how to sponsor one, go to spitfiremakers.org.uk

Images courtesy of Robert Stidworthy and The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust

Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 1st March 2024

Catch one of our talks and “The Shadow Factory” play!

Spitfire Makers’ chair, Alan Matlock has taken his “Building Spitfires Without a Factory” talk all over the county and beyond in the past few years. Wherever he’s gone, the mix of local and national significance in the stories of the Spitfire and the war effort in general has been very well received: “The best talk we’ve ever had here” and “Your research into the local area made it especially fascinating for our audience”, are typical of the feedback.

Along with “a mobile museum” of display materials, Alan brings a winning combination of detailed images, first-hand oral history accounts, poetry and even song to his talks.

He’s now taking bookings into 2025. Many are for members-only groups, but the next ones open to the public in the Southampton area are:

Thursday 7th March, 2024 for Curdridge Amateur Drama Group, Curdridge Reading Room, Reading Room Lane, Curdridge, Southampton SO32 2HF 8pm

Wednesday, 1st May, 2024 West End Local History Society, West End Parish Centre, Chapel Rd, West End, Southampton SO30 3FE 7.30pm

Thursday, 23rd May, 2024 for Copythorne Parish History Society, Copythorne Parish Hall, Pollards Moor Rd, Copythorne, Southampton SO40 2NZ 7.30pm.

Entry charges will vary according to the host group.

We look forward to meeting you at any of these.

THE SHADOW FACTORY – new production in Hampshire

Later in March (Thu 21st, Fri 22nd and Sat 23rd), Curdridge Amateur Dramatic Group are staging “The Shadow Factory”, the Howard Brenton play that started Alan’s own involvement with the Spitfire stories in Southampton when he performed in the 2018 and 2019 productions of it at the new Nuffield Theatre. http://www.curdridgedrama.co.uk/

Images by The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust

Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 27th March 2024

Spitfire Makers on Sky!

I was invited to guide a Sky News team around some of the significant Spitfire Makers sites in Southampton last week. They were wanting to compare how Britain had been preparing for a likely war during the 1930s with what is happening in the country now.

In a tour lasting much of the day, we started at the site of the Woolston Works, visited Spitfire Court with its commemorative plaque and got access to the Grade II listed slipway. We ended up back at the rebuilt Itchen Works, now home to a packaging company.

In between, we called in to see the magnificent Spitfire at The Solent Sky Museum where manager Steve Alcock was interviewed by Sky Defence Editor, Deborah Haynes.

At Shirley Parish Hall, the scene of our first blue plaque, I had arranged to meet up with Val Stoten, daughter of Fred Stilwell, the foreman of the Hall when it was commandeered for making Spitfire jettison fuel tanks and then called in on Vera Saxby who will be 100 in August.

Vera worked for Auto Metalcraft, the same company as Fred, and shared some great memories of life there during the war. Vera unveiled the Spitfire Makers plaque last year on the Auto Metalcraft building that still stands in Emsworth Road, Shirley.

Back in Woolston at the end of the afternoon, we were kindly invited inside the former Supermarine Itchen Works factory. It has been thought that the factory was simply re-clad after WWII but photos have come to light showing the site was actually cleared and the premises completely rebuilt, but to almost exactly the same design as before.

There wasn’t enough time in the day to include all the interviews and location visits I’d set up but they seemed really pleased with what we’d done.

The Sky News team visited sites in Birmingham the next day and also went to a nuclear bunker in Essex. The “extended news item” is expected to be broadcast sometime this week. I will post an update when I hear it is going to be shown.

Photos: Historic England, Imperial War Museum, Google Street, Spitfire Makers, The Supermariners and Vickers Supermarine Archive.

Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 31st March 2024

Spitfire dispersal site hiding in Netley? Can you help?

It’s about five years since I first heard of a Spitfire Makers connection to “some Nissen huts in the garden of a private house in Netley”. After a talk I gave in Hamble recently I was put in touch with the current owner of the house and we were invited to visit.

The story was that there were several Nissen huts, used by Supermarine to make Spitfire wings so we were a bit surprised to find just one hut. The barren ground next to the remaining one suggested that there may have been more and a 1999 view on Google Earth shows that there were indeed two smaller ones, set at right angles to the remaining hut. It may be roof sections, salvaged from these two, which are being stored nearby.

With ceiling clearance not great, the suggestion of Spitfire wings being made didn’t seem likely and we could see no evidence of jig brackets having been drilled into the concrete floor. The sloped concrete and unusual double door entrance, along with the absence of any windows, suggest the huts may have been adapted for easy access and used to store parts. We know of other locations where wings, leading edges and wing jigs were stored.

Another clue comes with a reference to a dispersal site coded as “NES” in just one of the several dispersal site lists held in the Vickers archives. In that list we have HOS – Hollybrook Stores; SHS – Sholing Stores; BWS – Bishops Waltham Stores; all these are confirmed as known dispersal locations. “NES” doesn’t match up with any other site we know of and if, as seems quite possible, it stands for Netley Stores, it is the only reference to it we are aware of at this point.

Other locations in Netley have been mentioned as being connected to Supermarine and the house owner is going to look into the deeds and other property records for us. If anyone has ideas about the use of the hut or, better still, evidence to confirm a Supermarine connection please post a reply. NB, the interior cladding and the clear panels for the central part of the roof are recent modifications.

In addition to the hut we were taken a short distance to the north of the house where the remains of part of a concrete circle could be seen in a dip in a field. It seemed like WWII era concrete and that it probably continued to complete a full circle beneath the brambles.

Google Earth and post-war aerial photos confirm that the structure was a full circle, with the hint of a smaller one within it, but initial enquiries as to its purpose have drawn a blank.

Its proximity to the Westwood ‘Z’ rocket battery, just over the hill, and another AA site near Grange Road, may be significant but it would be great to identify exactly what it was.