Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 07th September 2024
Anyone with knowledge of the local area?
I wonder if you can add anything to what we know about the Supermarine premises along Hazel Road, Woolston, Southampton? (The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust are planning to place blue plaques at each significant location.)
Please confirm, amend or add to the following…
The main Woolston and Itchen factories were put out of action following the two bombings of 24th and 26th September, 1940. The Woolston Works office block mostly survived and was used by Southampton Technical College for electrical and plumbing training until the building was demolished, in what year?
Post war we have seen photos of the Itchen Works site having been completely cleared. The factory was then rebuilt in the same place, and to quite possibly the same pre-war design.
The pedestrian tunnel under the railway line opposite the further entrance to the Itchen Works and leading to the bottom of Peartree Green, was the scene of the worst casualties in September 1940. It’s not in use now, although the ends of the two retaining walls can be seen in the railway embankment behind the railway fencing. Did it continue in use after the bombing and, if so, when was it closed and filled in? Was the tunnel demolished or is it still intact beneath the embankment?
Back along Hazel Road, the building next to the rowing club, now re-roofed and reclad and occupied by Doyle Sails, was built and operated by Supermarine. It survived the bombing. Do you know what it was used for down through the post-war years?
Further along, just past the main entrance to the Woolston Works, there used to be a covered pedestrian bridge at first floor level from the factory to Supermarine buildings on the opposite side of the road. They were hit in the bombing and have been replaced by modern housing, Dreadnought House, on the corner of Lower Vicarage Road, and the scaffolding yard.
Do you know anything about these places or, perhaps more interestingly, the solid concrete wall behind them with what look like (now disused?) oil tanks on top – see photo. In one or two places it looks like entrances into the hillside behind the wall have been blocked up. Wartime accounts mention air raid shelters here and an oil tank being hit.
If you can tell us more about these places it would be much appreciated. Thanks
Photos by Alan Matlock – Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 13th September 2024
Southampton’s new MP promotes the Spitfire
With such a big turnover at Westminster, our newly-elected MP for Southampton Test, Satvir Kaur, has had to wait a while to make her maiden speech in the house. She lost no time to mention our credentials as “the best city on earth” and, having attended some of our plaque unveilings, I was pleased to see an early reference to the Spitfire…
“We have helped shape the world and we continue to do so, from the pilgrims who set sail from Southampton on the Mayflower over 400 years ago in search of a new life in America, to being the home of the Spitfire, which helped to defeat fascism in Europe during World War Two.”
We look forward to further support from both of our new MPs and other local politicians as we mark the places in the city where the iconic fighter was built and honour the many Spitfire Makers who worked in them.
You can read the full text of Satvir’s speech Here
Posted on Facebook by Robert Stidworthy – 25th September 2024
Today 25 /09/2024
Poppy Crosses were put out at Various Supermarine Locations in Southampton to Honour the “Supermarine Fallen killed on the Raids on 24th September 1940 & September 26th 1940.
And at St Mary’s Extra Cemetery Southampton where some of the Supermarine Fallen are buried.
Crosses were placed
Hazel Road Woolston ( Itchen Works),
Spitfire Court (near Woolston Works),
A Photo of one of the graves of the Supermarine Fallen included
” Peggy Moon ” (Girl in Green) Which is in St. Mary Extra Cemetery.
They were placed there by me on behalf of: –
“Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust “
” Solent Sky Museum Southampton”
” The Supermariners “
” Southampton Roundel of the Spitfire Society”
Royal British legion had already placed Remembrance wreaths in Hazel Road Woolston Southampton and Spitfire Court Woolston Southampton
Photos by Robert Stidworthy – Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust
The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust 