Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 2nd October 2026
Spitfire Makers Blue Plaque for former garage site?
Carey & Lambert’s Austin House Garage, on the corner of Banister Road and The Avenue, was one of the many Supermarine dispersal sites in and around Southampton that carried on making parts for the Spitfire after the bombing of the main factories.
The Garage became Hartwells and then Doves before it was demolished in 2024 and replaced by May Tree Place, the McCarthy Stone retirement apartments.
Spitfire Makers have been working to get a commemorative blue plaque installed there, and as part of this plan, chair Alan Matlock and project team member Keith Baker visited last week.
Alan gave a “Building Spitfires Without a Factory” talk to the residents and staff who were fascinated by the history of Supermarine across Southampton and the work being done by Carey & Lambert in particular.
Alan shared contemporary photos from the Vickers archive of the exterior and interior of the building and commented in particular on the forewoman being Frances Penton, the only woman in charge of a Spitfire production site.
Afterwards, Alan and Keith talked to several residents with personal memories of wartime Southampton, and they have been inspired by the history of the site to help raise funds for a Spitfire Makers blue plaque. The McCarthy Stone management were equally supportive and are keen to be involved.
Residents included Mr John Parkhouse, whose family jewellery business in Above Bar Street was hit in the Southampton Blitz and who explained how, after the bombing, they joined up with another jeweller based in the High Street and they became Parkhouse & Wyatt.
The Southampton Kelly’s Directory for 1939 – 40 lists PARKHOUSE W. L. & SON, 96 Above Bar Street and PEGLER & WYATT, 151 High Street.
The Parkhouse shop, “Principal Jewellers” was at 96, and at 98 Above Bar Street was the Classic Cinema.
If any former employees or their family members would like to contribute to the cost of the plaque, please get in touch.
Images from Daily Echo archives and unknown sources
- Carey and Lambert’s Austin House garage at 1, Banister Road during WWII
- A pre-war advertisement for the garage.
- McCarthy Stone’s retirement apartments that now stand on the site.
- Fabric was used to cover some of the bodywork of early Spitfires
- Women workers inside the garage during WWII are covering fuel tanks with fabric coated in a self-sealing rubberised solution.
- Miss Frances Penton, having been the forewoman of the dope shop at Woolston, was the only woman to be in charge of a requisitioned Spitfire production site.
- The British Empire Medal was awarded to Frances Penton in the King’s Birthday Honours, June 1943.
- A Daily Echo photo of firemen tackling the blazing Classic Cinema, and shops on either side, at 98 Above Bar Street in late 1940.
- A 1960s photo of the same scene with the P of Parkhouse & Wyatt, just visible next door to the rebuilt Classic Cinema, at 96 Above Bar Street.
- Parkhouse & Wyatt Jewellers, Above Bar Street, Southampton (c1960’s). Photo: Daily Echo. Is that Mr John Parkhouse talking to a customer?
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 5th October 2026
Woolston Spitfire Trail Walk
On the 86th anniversary of the bombing raid that targeted the Supermarine factories, the chair of the Southampton-based Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust, Alan Matlock, led a guided walk around the key sites.
Starting at the RJ Mitchell Memorial on Hazel Road, the 20 participants saw six of the Spitfire Makers’ blue plaques which describe what happened at each location. (Two more will be added to the trail when final wording and permission have been approved.)
The most poignant point was reached at the entrance to the tunnel under the railway that workers went through to reach their air raid shelters at the bottom of Pear Tree Green. The 29 known casualties of September 24th, 1940, died when bombs fell short on the shelters, the tunnel or the open ground that led to the tunnel.
Standing at the entrance to the tunnel, which Network Rail cleared for the Trust last year, Alan related the moving story of the only woman to die in the attack: 19-year-old office worker Peggy Moon. Her younger sister Betty, aged just 7, who had been evacuated, had died of meningitis only a few weeks before.
Alan went on to explain how those workers who did not get out of the factory, or returned to it to fetch a coat or handbag, all survived. No bombs hit the factory on the 24th, and all who could returned to work the next day.
The walk continued past the site of the Red Lion pub on Sea Road, where, on the 26th, nearly 80 workers sheltered in the beer cellar as a second attack demolished almost all the nearby buildings.
Alan shared photos showing the devastation to the houses in Wharncliffe Road and the surrounding roads before stopping on Lower Vicarage Road to remember those who died sheltering in a railway workers’ tunnel set into the embankment leading to Woolston Station. Their names were: John Hughes, 54; George Copson, 61; Louis Hubbard, 40; Percival Keene, 56; Charles Palmer, 48; Kenneth Park, 17, who were six of the 20 or so killed on the 26th.
More details on all the casualties, and other Supermarine info here:
https://supermariners.wordpress.com/…/remembering-the…
The walk ended at the site of Supermarine’s original Woolston Works by kind invitation of Landau Marine Ltd, where they have established a new base for their boat repair business.
Working in conjunction with Spitfire Makers and Solent Sky Museum, Landau have been keen to embrace the historic significance of the site. It has been renamed Supermarine Quay, and each room in the building is now named after a Spitfire Maker or someone else who worked for the company.
Complimentary teas and coffees were served from the “Betty Stephens Kitchen” (Betty worked in the Supermarine Canteen) and were enjoyed in the impressive “Noel Pemberton Billing Conference Room” looking out over the Itchen and the original Supermarine slipway below.
Each participant left with a copy of the Trail Map and a deeper understanding of what Churchill meant when he said, “The front line runs through the factories…”
In those crucial weeks of the Battle of Britain, and under constant threat of enemy action, Southampton Spitfire Makers had built 1,198 Spitfires for the RAF before the factories were put out of action and production had to be dispersed.
Photo credits: Marc Heighway, Robert Stidworthy, Spitfire Makers, Vickers Archive, Southampton City Archive
- Telling the story of the Supermarine slipway and Spitfire Maker Ted Angel who ate his sandwich lunch sitting on the slipway.
- The slipway plaque
- The Woolston Works plaque at the entrance to what is now Landau Marine.
- Close up of the plaque at the entrance.
- The plaque on “Dreadnought Flats” Hazel Road
- Remembering the Mould Loft, now a sail loft for Doyle Sails.
- In front of the rebuilt Itchen Works, now owned by Siva Group.
- Although the Itchen Works building is essentially the same as it was before the bombing, the site was completely cleared before the factory was rebuilt. RAF photo, September 1945.
- The Spitfire Makers plaque for the Itchen Works.
- The cleared entrance to “the fatal tunnel” under the railway.
- Telling the story of the casualties at the tunnel and in particular, Peggy Moon.
- Workers dig to recover bodies from the devastated Supermarine Shelters on Pear Tree Green. Southampton City Archives.
- Peggy and Betty’s gravestone in St Mary’s Extra Cemetery, Sholing, with poppy cross placed this year by Spitfire Makers team member, Robert Stidworthy.
- The commemorative plaque at the tunnel site.
- The Red Lion on the right going up Sea Road, in a 1930s aerial photo.
- After the bombing. A 1947 RAF photo showing the Red Lion still standing whilst all around barely one other building escaped.
- One of the rooms named after Supermarine workers. Margaret took shelter in the cellar of the Red Lion on the 26th September 1940.
- The main meeting room that overlooks the Itchen and the Supermarine slipway, is named after the founder of the company.
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 6th October 2026
Memorial unveiled at Supermarine factory site in Woolston
“A small but permanent tribute to the people, craftsmanship and remarkable engineering history of this site.”
After recent construction work at the site of the Supermarine Works in Woolston, steel and timber have been recovered which was clearly part of the original factory.
Landau Marine, the new owners of the site, have taken the metal beams and girders recovered from the remains of the original Supermarine buildings and shaped them into a Spitfire Memorial Bench and Table. Other excavated items, including aircraft parts, have been preserved and are on display in the Landau buildings.
The company flag flew respectfully at half-mast as the bench and table were unveiled by Landau’s Group Managing Director, Nigel Stuart, and chair of the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust, Alan Matlock. The event was held on 25th September, the day between the two days in 1940 when the factory was bombed out of action and many workers were killed. Before the unveiling Alan outlined the history of the site and the how the Trust had been working with Landau to embrace its heritage.
86 years on from the bombing raids, with family members among the guests, Alan remembered those who had been killed and those who had been injured.
Also present were Jason Pemberton Billing, grandson of Noel Pemberton Billing, the founder of Supermarine, and Trevor Guy, a 98-year-old former aircraft apprentice, who saw the first flight of the Spitfire and began his working life as a tea boy for engineers repairing Spitfires at the Cunliffe Owen factory!
Ben Metcalfe, Landau MD, explained their approach to the heritage of their new premises, “The scarred steel girders incorporated into the memorial once helped support the roof of the factory where the legendary Supermarine Spitfire was built. For us, it was important to preserve something tangible from that history, not simply as a memorial to the past, but as something that can continue to be part of the site for generations to come.”
“Having people like Jason and Trevor with us made the occasion particularly special. For them, and for many of those who joined us, with their own connections to Supermarine, Woolston and the story of this remarkable place, the history of Supermarine is not simply something written in books, it is part of their own lives, families and memories.”
Ben went on, “For us, working from this historic site brings with it a real sense of responsibility to remember the people and engineering heritage that came before us. We’re incredibly proud that this piece of Woolston’s history now has a permanent home with Landau Marine, at Landau Supermarine Quay, where the story of this extraordinary site continues.”
Photos coming shortly!
