WIX Archives

Re: A true story........

Posted by TonyD on Fri Nov 01, 2002 03:38:48 PM

In reply top Re: A true story........ posted by Ron Henry on Fri Nov 01, 2002 02:21:27 PM

Good story Ron...no doubt th parts your friend sold went to Alan Downings delightful Biggles Restaurant (fast food with Hurricane burgers etc!)

alas, the restaurant and its lovely museum with working spot lights succombed in the late 1980s

: : abandoned airfields lately?
: :
: : The stories about the many dumpsites on disused airfield
: s
: : around Britain still fascinates me. Despite all the inte
: re
: : sting stories, are there actually any activities recentl
: y
: : where parts have been unearthed?
: :
: : Little Snoring has yielded many interesting parts dug up
: f
: : rom pits. Tony Agar for instance found his cowling panel
: s
: : for his Mosquito rebuild. Furthermore what happened to t
: he
: : dozens of Typhoon firewalls that were found about a dec
: ad
: : e ago. Where they sent for scrap?
: :
: : FlyPast promised many years ago to do an article but not
: hi
: : ng has ever been done about that.
: :
: : Cees
:
:
: This would be an appropriate time to tell the story about
: a friend of mine (from Liverpool). The timeframe would be
: about 20 yrs ago. I've forgotten some detail, but here is
: the main part of the story.
:
: Like most of us, he was fascinated by the idea of buried a
: ircraft. I can't remember where he got the story, but he h
: eard about the probable existence of some buried aircraft
: on the edge of the then closed Bramcote airfield, NE of Co
: ventry. It had been a RAF base during WW2 (can't remember
: what, but not operational sqns, I think), then RN post war
: . It had probably closed, as an airfield, after the rundow
: n of the RNVR in 1957.
:
: The story was that aircraft had been buried in a pit on th
: e edge of the airfield, and the pit had been filled in whe
: n the airfield closed. My friend did all the research he c
: ould, and it all confirmed the story. He obtained permissi
: on to excavate (can't remember who from), hired an excavat
: or and an operator, and digging commenced. After quite a b
: it of digging, not a great depth had ben excavated, but pu
: lling out a few very minor parts kept him motivated. Never
: theless, it was an expensive business, and his funds got l
: ow. In searching for a cheaper option, he talked to a loca
: l Territorial Army (TA) unit who were engineers, and they
: had just got a new excavator. He persuaded them that his c
: ause would be a good trial for the new kit.
:
: Digging started again, and a few larger parts started to c
: ome out of the hole. Sadly I can't remember the detail, bu
: t I think there were some nacelle and cowling panels, plus
: possibly some undercarriage parts. The whole excavation o
: peration covered a few weeks (the TA could only dig occasi
: onally). One day, the excavavator operator went to the chi
: p shop in the local village in search of lunch : following
: that, the excavation stopped!
:
: At the chip shop, the operator met an old friend he hadn't
: seen for years. They swapped stories about what they had
: been doing, and, of course, the local asked the op why he
: was in the village, and he explained that he was digging f
: or the buried aircraft. The local confirmed that the story
: was, indeed, true, but, unfortunately, the excavation was
: 20-odd years too late - the scrapped aircraft had been re
: moved just before the airfield closed !!
:
: The whole thing cost my chum more than he could easily aff
: ord, and he needed to get money back. He decided to sell t
: he recognisable stuff and they went to a guy who was going
: to open a bar with an aviation theme somewhere in Yorkshi
: re (IIRC). The purchaser was going to use them as atmosphe
: ric artefacts. My friend also had some other panels he'd c
: ollected over the years (including, I remember, a 1950s RN
: Avenger cowling with artwork - "The Ruptured Duck" ?) and
: he also sold these to the bar guy. So, if you go into a b
: ar somewhere in Yorkshire, and see this stuff, you now kno
: w how it came to be there!
:
:

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