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Attention Spitfire Sleuths - EP172 where are you?
Posted by PeterA on Sun Sep 01, 2002 12:03:05 PM
In reply top null posted by null on null
Referring to my ?Rumours Book?, you can trace the story of a Spitfire located on a Scottish farm back to Doug and Tony Bianchi in the 1970?s. Well nobody is going to tell you the whole story, particularly if there is a possibility of acquisition. You can bet also that the story is going to get enhanced along the way - as aviation stories do. Whilst it would be nice to think a trainee pilot at some OTU had just dropped it into a field, the farmer had just rolled it into the barn and it had just got forgotten - well hardly.
In the late 1980?s several of the South African Spitfire fuselage sections were being rebuilt in Oxfordshire and one in particular MH603 was being funded by vintage sports car dealer John Sykes. Somewhere along the way John latched on to the Scottish farm Spitfire story and tracked it down to a Mrs Margaret Meikle of Newton Coldwells, Longhaven, Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire. He visited the farm and the Spitfire consisted of a substantial Merlin engine with prop bent back, a trailer full of crash residue that included a remarkably straight firewall top section. By 2002 standards all very desirable material and certainly within the frame of a basis for a reconstruction. The parts were available for sale but an offer in the region of ?5000/?6000 was declined. John did not take any photographs.
John relayed this story to me circa 1993 and I started to back track. Margeret Meikle had sold or vacated the property but not to Verna Thomas the 1991 occupant. Neither the Post Office nor local people had a forwarding address or any indication of the current location of Margaret Meikle.
David Sainsbury had also viewed the parts at some time and had photographed them but decided against purchase. I have copies of his photographs.
With all the Spitfire activity in the early 1990?s I imagined that this project had been acquired by one of the then builders and that in the course of time it would emerge. It hasn?t and my principal suspects have all now moved out of the Spitfire business.
A possible clue is an add that appeared in Flypast circa 1992:-
"Merlin III Engine and 3-bladed prop (blades bent back) recovered from crashed Spitfire. Also various other small remains. Good state of preservation. Brass identification plaques accompany. Known history. Unlikely engine or prop usable but parts reclaim possible. Best offer secures. Tel 0954 719702 any time."
By the time I matched the add with the lost Spitfire, if they are connected, the phone number was disconnected. The telephone number was located at Caxton in Cambridgeshire.
So there you have it. Something of the order of ?6000 spent on a Spitfire wreck was serious interest thirteen years ago. EP172 where are you?