The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

The RAF Museum, Hendon have two record site plans on their listing:

Kidbrooke 145/17, 303/19

Both WW1 but I suspect that the boundaries may have been retained for WW2.

Welcome from me too. I have an uncle who helped in the construction of the airfield at Wormingford in Essex, this I believe involved the destruction of his ancestral home, a farmhouse. I have a feeling that the building firm of Frederick J. French may have been based in Colchester, I certainly associate the name with Colchester (Britain's first city) which is where I live.

Found! Frederick J. French now based in Chelmsford. Corla Works, Cedar Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2QQ
Perhaps they will have something in their archives, worth a try. This is their website www.fjfrench.co.uk and phone number 01245 266966. Good luck.

Pauline.

Thanks, I now have thanks to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. a 1951 ordanance map showing building locations... but no names of use.

I will follow up your lead. I am getting lots of help. Slowly a picture of the place is emerging.

PeterS

BTW: is Tengah jeep's canvas painted or kakhi? dedox.

Sorry mate don't know I would do it a very dark colour almost black;

RAF Kidbrooke was located right next door to the railways station. I traveled daily past this site in the 1960's. There was Hastings or maybe a York airframe in bits and pieces stood up against a wall during that time there were also a few "Queen Mary" trailers for collecting aircraft for shipping around the country. there didn't seem to be very much going on there and little sign of RAF life. I would think there is very little left of the site now as it is in a very populated area of SE London. I no longer live in the area but looking a bing maps there seems to be a lot of very new roads having been built in recent years

I should have mentioned that the Kidbrooke site is shown in the Google Earth 1945 view:



This site, if you have not seen it already has lots of relevant information, stories and pictures:

www.bbrclub.org/Site%20Directory.htm

Peter (Original poster), see also my e-mail to you

Arcade wrote:

Presumably being of "Non Standard Construction" they are cheap because it's more difficult to obtain a mortgage?

No - mortgages can be got without difficulty. There's no problem with insurance either because they have a very sturdy roof and solid concrete walls. They were built to withstand a nuclear attack! They were originally fitted with an oil fired hot air heating/filtration system also designed to keep them safe during a nuclear war but most of us have removed that oil guzzling machinery and installed conventional heating.
Someone has asked about "tobacco houses". Never heard that term - can you elaborate please?

slightly off the Kidbrooke thread but hhere are a couple of links relating to 992 Sqn and the mention of Cyprus was in answer to the recon balloon from your main home page
Hi George. Most interesting the R.A.F. were called in to fly one of their old war time barrage balloons in Cyprus in the fight against the EOKA terrorists. I was there at the time but was far away from Nicosia and the Kyrenia mountains so I never saw it fly. I saw a house fly and a dragon fly and heard a rubber band but not a barrage balloon in Cyprus. Mind you I saw lots of them when I was a kid and more recently, about 1984 in a park at Lincoln, I saw one being used to put members of a T.A. Parachute Regiment unit through their annual qualifying jumps.
A year or so ago one of the T.V. channels screened a series of G.P.O documentary films beginning with the iconic “Night Mail” and its stirring, rhythmic verse by W.H.Auden:-

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060005895

Much as I enjoyed that one, I just loved the one, “922 Squadron" made in 1940. This is a dramatisation of life in a barrage balloon squadron which after training is posted north to defend the Forth Bridge against the Luftwaffe.
It shows new recruits receiving instruction in the care and handling of balloons, including rigging, splicing, sewing (one recruit comments "I hope my missus don't see this film") and winch control. They learn to manoeuvre the unwieldy objects out of their vast and echoing hangars before flying them. Purpose of the balloons is to prevent enemy planes dive-bombing, so that when German bombers (He 111s) (actually they used Blenheims as I suppose the Germans could not be persuaded to corroborate) unexpectedly attack the Forth Bridge (subsequent pursuit and shooting down of the enemy by a Spitfire is inter-cut with the chase and killing of a hare by a poacher's dog) Squadron 992 is immediately ordered north. Mobility of Balloon Command and the resilient good humour of the men are demonstrated on the long journey north through the tranquil but bleak and wintry landscape of rural England and Scotland; past Edinburgh in dawn light. British officers have meanwhile planned positions for the balloons beside the Forth and have politely obtained the permission of Scottish householders for this purpose. Upon arrival men set up and inflate their balloons and by the time evening falls the Forth Bridge stands protected against any possible enemy dive-bombing raid. I think you might be able to see the whole episode here:-

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060005895

"Tobacco houses" were built by the 'Brits' to a US design, and the US Government, paid the 'Brits' for the build, with tobacco!
Hence the name 'Tobacco houses'.
There are quite a lot surviving at RAF Upper Heyford, all lived in, complete with 120/240 volt electricity.