Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 1st September 2026
Woolston Spitfire Trail Walk
Shared from New Forest & Hampshire Wartime Association who posted this today. The ticket source link below takes you to more info and the booking details…
On 24th September 1940, the Luftwaffe attacked the Supermarine factories at Woolston, where the Spitfire had been designed and was still being built. We’ve organised a guided walk with Alan Matlock, Chair of The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust so you can hear the full story. Details are on https://www.ticketsource.com/nfhwa/t-ldxaena
But be quick – nearly half of the 20 tickets are sold already!
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 1st September 2026
Shirley Spitfire Trail Walk
As well as the Woolston Spitfire Trail Walk on Thurs 24th September, we have arranged, again in conjunction with the New Forest & Hampshire Wartime Association, to run the guided walk around the Shirley Spitfire Trail. It is several years since the Shirley one last happened. This TicketSource link:
https://www.ticketsource.com/nfhwa/t-glyezeg
takes you to the full details and booking info.
(PS: already 12 of the 20 tickets available have gone, 13.07 on 1st September)
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 6th September 2026
Ted Angel, Spitfire Maker Remembered
The sun shone on the unveiling of the 29th Spitfire Makers blue plaque this weekend as friends and family gathered to remember Ted Angel, Spitfire Maker.
Ted had been an apprentice sheet metal worker at the Woolston Works of Vickers Supermarine from 1936 and his granddaughter Sarah Penfold has been a team member of the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust since she brought Ted to the project launch in 2020.
Sarah and sister Hannah performed the unveiling of the plaque, assisted by their aunt Lorraine and cousin Sally. The plaque can be found on the security fencing at the end of the Mitchell Close green space, off Hazel Road and under the Itchen Bridge.
Guests included friends and other family members and we were delighted to welcome Councillor Pat Barbour, Sheriff of Southampton, and Darren Paffey, the MP for Southampton Itchen, at the event.
Darren said, “I’d like to commend the work of the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust and offer my support to their efforts to create a fitting and lasting tribute to the men and women, (like Ted) who helped design and build the Spitfire – and in doing so cemented the city’s place in this heroic chapter of our country’s history.”
The focus of the commemoration was the Supermarine slipway which remains, a Grade II-listed structure, as the largest remaining feature of the original factory. It was there that apprentice Ted would take his paper bag of sandwiches to sit and eat his lunch.
Before the unveiling Spitfire Makers Chair, Alan Matlock, spoke about the history of the Supermarine site and the events which it had witnessed since it was started by Noel Pemberton Billing in 1912.
Sarah shared the moving story told her by Ted, of how, when the factory was bombed 86 years ago this month, he managed to reach the company’s air raid shelters at the bottom of Peartree Green. There, lying on the concrete floor of the shelter, and holding hands with his workmates, the ground shook as the bombs intended for the factory fell short and the floor cracked open.
The sight of the carnage that met Ted as he emerged from the shelter – had a lasting impact on him and overnight his dark hair turned grey!
Afterwards, by kind permission of Landau Marine, the guests returned to the company’s Neol Pemberton Billing Conference Room on Hazel Road for a reception provided by Sarah and her mother Jenny and a panoramic view of the river and the slipway. The refreshments included a specially made cake, iced with a pre-war view of the Supermarine slipway and an added portrait of the young Ted.
As well as the cake design, Sarah has used her skills as a photographer, with a bit of help from AI, to create the touching image of her on the slipway sitting and eating sandwiches from a paper bag, with her grandfather.
Images courtesy of The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 8th September 2026
Interview with Ted Angel 2020
Following our very special unveiling event to remember Ted and commemorate the Supermarine Slipway, this is a reposting of an interview we shared in September 2020. Filmed by John Beck on Ted’s last visit to see his beloved Spitfire at Solent Sky Museum and shared with permission, Ted tells how he was “Proud” to have been “On the Spitfire”. Click here to view.
Posted on Facebook by Robert Stidworthy – 23rd September 2026
Remembering the Fallen in 1940
Tomorrow 86 years ago the bombing of the Supermarine factories in Woolston resulted in considerable loss of life.
Poppy Crosses were put out on various Supermarine locations in Southampton to Honour the “Supermarine Fallen ” Killed on the Raids on the 24th September 1940 & on 26th September 1940.
And at St. Mary’s Extra Cemetery Southampton where some of the Supermarine Fallen are buried.
Crosses were placed at
Hazel Road ( Woolston Works)
Spitfire Court near ( Woolston Works)
Hazel Road Tunnel Entrance ( Itchen Works)
A Photo of one of the Supermarine Fallen included
“Peggy Moon ” ( Also known as the Girl in Green)
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 “
Also the Royal British legion placed wreaths in Hazel Road, Spitfire Court & at Tunnel Entrance on Hazel Road Southampton
Images by Robert Stidworthy, The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 26th September 2026
Walter, 101, unveils Weir Precision Plaque
101 year old Walter (Wally) Kemish returned to his former workplace and unveiled the 30th Spitfire Makers blue last weekend. The plaque commemorates the part played by the company in secret wartime production and subsequent history of the site. It has been installed on the end of the old perimeter wall of the company’s premises, which still stands in South Mill Road, Regents Park.
Assisting with the unveiling was Walter’s former apprentice, Chris Baldwin, now in his seventies. He greeted Walter warmly, saying, “I’ve not seen you for 61 years!”
Other former company workers had contributed to the funding of the plaque, and there was a lot to talk about when the guests moved to the nearby Regents Park pub for refreshments.
Walter was first interviewed by Spitfire Makers when he was 98. He started with Weir Precision Engineering at the start of WWII and loves to share his stories of the secret production of Spitfire parts (“machined details”) for Supermarine and other components being made for the Royal Navy.
One early wartime project involved him having to stay after a full day at the factory and work through the night as assistant to two experienced engineers. For more than a week he did not go home, and then Walter accompanied the engineers when their specially designed parts were delivered to the Hants & Dorset Bus Garage in Winchester Road where dispersed production of Spitfire wings was being carried out. Not long after, Walter saw a newspaper report about the latest Spitfires being fitted with powerful cannons, rather than the machine guns of the earlier versions, and he is pretty certain that the parts they made were to hold the cannons within the wings and adjust their aiming.
After the war, the company continued to operate successfully and in the 1950s was taken over by the AVRO company, famed for building the Lancaster bomber. Geoffrey Verdon Roe, son of the company founder Alliot, was the managing director and Walter stayed on, eventually retiring as Works Manager.
The company was renamed Vero Precision and was known for being “The finest toolroom in the south”. It expanded with other bases being established in the area and was presented with the Queen’s Award for Industry.
Alongside the engineering business, the family also established Vero Poultry, and former employees remembered how they all received a Vero chicken at Christmas!
Vero Poultry is still operating in the Southampton area, and company secretary, Henrietta Verdon Roe, was delighted to be invited to the unveiling.
The factory in South Mill Road was eventually demolished and replaced with a residential development. The road was named AVRO CLOSE to honour the heritage of the site.
Images courtesy of Walter Kemish, Steve Frampton, David Olsen, and Robert Stidworthy
- 1. Next to number 3, South Mill Road, the plaque is on the end of the former perimeter wall of the Weir Precision factory.
- 2. Walter with his daughter Janet Mori and Henrietta Verdon Roe listen to Alan Matlock explaining the history of the site.
- 3. Alan with Walter’s photo of his former place of work.
- 4. Ready for the plaque to be unveiled… Walter with Chris Baldwin and Spitfire Makers chair, Alan Matlock.
- 5. Job done!
- 6. The Plaque
- 7. Joint sponsors of the plaque: Graham Martin, another former Vero engineer, is standing behind Walter, with David Olsen, wearing the Queen’s Award tie, on the left of the group.
- 8. The Queen’s Award Tie
- 9. 1933 Millbrook 25-inch map showing the Crown Works, operated by Arthur Preen & Co Ltd, which produced components under the Formo brand for the popular home radio market.
- 10 & 11. Old adverts
- 12. A post-war photo of the factory, shared by Walter.
- 13. Walter’s daughter and son-in-law Janet and Adrian Mori brought Walter to the event with his original Weir toolbox.
- 14. Where the bombs fell in the area – SCC interactive map. The red dot on the bend of South Mill Road hit a nearby house.
- 15. The Weir yard in the 1960s with autodrills being loaded onto a Pickfords lorry. In the background the missing half of the semi-detached house in South Mill Road was destroyed by the bomb that nearly hit the factory. The space created allowed the company to put another access road into the factory site.
- 16. Front cover of the Vero brochure.
- 17. Walter is listed as one of the “key men” at Vero.
- 18. Geoffrey Verdon Roe (“a lovely gentleman to work for”) accepts the Queen’s Award for Industry for Vero Precision from Prince Philip.
- 19. Steve Frampton, another of Wally’s apprentices was unable to attend but sent images of some ‘souvenirs’ he acquired during his years with Vero.
- 20. Some of Steve Frampton’s tools of the trade.
- 21. During WWII, the Regents Park Hotel was the post for the local Home Guard unit.
- 22 & 23. The pub has a new sign depicting the Titanic.
- 24. At just 9 weeks old, the youngest survivor of the sinking of the Titanic was Millvina Dean. During World War II, she contributed to the war effort as a civil servant and cartographer by drawing maps for the British government. Following the war, she worked as a secretary in the purchasing department of Vero Precision Engineering. Weir engineer Bruno Nordmanis was her long-time partner and companion and, after her death in 2009, it was he who arranged to have her ashes scattered at Dock 45/46 where the Titanic had embarked from.
- 25.Weir employees were issued with identity cards.
- 26. Ken Nobes started as an apprentice with Weir Precision aged just 14. His daughter, Clare, married another Vero employee, David Olsen, whose father also worked for the company. They both attended the unveiling, with David wearing his father’s Queen’s Industry Award tie.
- 27. Walter’s photo for his identity pass.
- 28. Weir Precision was one of three businesses working in the Regents Park area producing vital parts for Supermarine during WWII. A blue plaque has already been placed on the Solent Carpet Factory building, now Solent Blinds, and we are still trying to get BAT to give consent for a Spitfire Makers plaque to be installed at the now-closed entrance to their premises on Regents Park Road.
- 29. Walter in the front row of this photo of a Weir Precision outing. If the names of any others can be added, please let us know.
- 30. The street sign at the entrance to the residential development that replaced the factory.
