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)
