Hot on the heels of the unveiling of plaques #15, #16 and #17, we went back in Woolston for the unveiling of two more plaques along Hazel Road.
The first of the two plaques to be unveiled was on the 'Spitfire House', owned by the Siva Group. This is where the original 'Itchen Works' building stood. Alan of course provided the relevant historical information, and pointed out that the roofline of the current building matches that of the original Vickers Supermarine building.
He also showed an original tail plate of a Spitfire which may well have been built in that original building!
Plaque #18!
And then to the site of the second of today's two plaques, and this is the most poignant of all plaques unveiled so far (and quite possible eventually of all Spitfire Makers plaques): the site of the tunnel under the railway which led to the air raid shelters on Peartree Green. The first wave of bombs missed the factories, but hit the tunnel and its surroundings .... about 50 people were killed while trying to flee from the bombs ...
Getting a bit emotional at times, Alan mentioned by name a number of people who were killed here that day, as well as some who miraculously survived. A Roll of Honour will be placed here once the
Spitfire Makers Charity is as sure as they can be of the names of all those who perished there.
Plants for the site were kindly donated by B&Q, and the planting scheme shows the Supermarine flag.
After a minute of silence, all attending where invited to scatter some poppy and forget-me-not seeds around the 'flag', which I felt was a very nice gesture. Look forward to seeing it in full bloom this coming spring!
We kept some of the forget-me-not seeds to plant in a dedicated pot in our garden.
Following the scattering of seeds, we went back to the rowing club building, like last week, for refreshments.
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