Plaque catch-up

Recently we attended the Spitfire Makers' unveiling of plaque #30. For various reasons, we haven't yet seen a handful of earlier plaques. So time to catch up!

Plaque #24 is situated at the site of the Weston Rolling Mills.

Fuel tanks and copper pipework were made here.

Plaque #25 was unveiled at the site of the Solent Carpet Factory.

They made aluminium parts for the pilot's seats, as well as other components for Spitfires.

Plaque #26 can be found at the site of the Southern Engineering company.

'Machined details' were made here. 

Finally, Plaque #27 was unveiled at the site of Oddie Bradbury & Cull Ltd.

Fasteners and wing tip details were made at this site.

Having seen all 30 plaques unveiled so far, I thought it would be nice to put them all together:

Early Seafire

The Seafire is a version of the Spitfire that was adapted for use on aircraft carriers. I already have a Seafire model in the collection.

Early on in the production of Seafires, existing Spitfires were essentially turned into Seafires. An example of this is MB304, an early Seafire version used for long-range reconnaissance.

I found a kit of this early Seafire. Note the Vokes air filter fitted under the nose, used in tropical 'dusty' environments. It got its unusual royal blue livery when flown by Duncan Hamilton in Kenya in 1943.

And here is the completed model of MB304.

I haven't been able to find a picture of the actual aircraft ...

Eastleigh FC

Why a blog post about a football club in a Spitfire-focused blog? Drive to their stadium in Eastleigh, and it quickly becomes clear ...

Eastleigh FC, nicknamed 'The Spitfires', has a Spitfire prominently in its logo.

And that logo is present all around their grounds.

And look at what the groundsmen recently did with their pitch!

So that's why I wrote a blog post on a football club in my Spitfire-focused blog!

Another day, another plaque!

Quickly following the Slipway plaque, another Spitfire Makers plaque unveiling! This time, the plaque was to commemorate the Weir Precision Engineering factory, which used to occupy the site and made 'machined details' for Supermarine.

Among those gathered were several former employees of the company, one of which (Walt Kemish) first joined the company as an apprentice; he is now 101 years old. 

Alan once again showed himself to be a fount of information on the history of the company. 

He then introduced Walt to us, showing a picture of him in his younger days, ..

... and asked Walt to do the honours of unveiling the plaque.

Note the very appropriate cushion lying on a chair at the unveiling!

And here is the plaque in its proper place.

After the unveiling, we all made our way to the Regents Park pub for coffee, tea, cake and a chat.

Slipway plaque

The unveiling of a very special Spitfire Makers plaque took place this past weekend. The only substantial part of the original Woolston works that has survived in-situ is the slipway that was used to get the flying boats into the water; I mentioned that in a previous blog post. One of Supermarine's apprentices in the 1930s, Ted Angel, used to sit on the slipway to eat his lunch, which he brought with him in a paper bag (remember that paper bag ...). And it so happens that Ted was the grandfather of Sarah Penfold, one of the Spitfire Makers' project team. Getting a plaque commemorating Ted installed near the slipway has been in the works for a long time, and the day finally came!

As always at a plaque unveiling, Alan Matlock, the Chair of the Spitfire Makers, talked about the early history of the Supermarine works, ...

... before specifically talking about Ted.

And then it was up to Sarah and her family to officially unveil the plaque.

So here it is, the slipway plaque!

And here is a picture of the slipway, taken through the fence (the closest we could come to it).

Following the unveiling, we had been invited by Landau Marine to have refreshments in their conference room.

Coming into the building, it was very nice to see that Landau Marine has really embraced the heritage of the site. A refreshing attitude in this day and age, so all kudos to them for that!

The refreshments were served in the Noel Pemberton Billing room. He was the original founder of the company that became Supermarine a number of years later.

Refreshments there certainly were! Note the print on the cake, ...

... note the Spitfire-shaped shortbread, ...

... and note the paper bags supplied for eating your cake or shortbread from. Such a nice touch to provide paper bags for this!

Time to cut the cake, with Sarah obviously doing the honours.

I mentioned the conference room being named after the original founder of the Supermarine company, didn't I? Actually many of their rooms are named after Supermarine people; two of these name plates shown here:

After a last look at the slipway from the conference room, we left for home.

At the end of this blog post on a special plaque, a perfect place for this picture, created with the help of AI: it shows Sarah and her grandfather sitting together on the slipway, eating their lunches from paper bags, while a Spitfire flies over (picture credit: Sarah Penfold, with a little help from AI, and reproduced here with permission)