About the author: Dave Key is the voluntary archivist and historian at Hursley Park. He is trying to locate as many ex-Supermariners, or their relatives, as possible in order to record their stories. Could you help?
In September 1940 the Vickers Armstrongs (Supermarine) Woolston & Itchen workshops were bombed, forcing the complete dispersal of Spitfire production around the south of England (principally Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire).
By December the Design & Production departments had relocated to Hursley Park and many small business premises, including some in Chandler’s Ford, were requisition to enable Spitfire production to continue.
To allow the relocated Supermariners to continue to work there was a pressing need for accommodation and by December 1941 prefabricated huts, the Hutments, were under construction, some already having workers living in them by this time.
For the next sixteen years, until Vickers finally relinquished Hursley Park and moved the design team to Weybridge, Supermarine was an integral part of the local area.
This photograph below by Vickers-Armstrongs Collection, Cambridge University Library, was taken in 1943 of the design and production team outside Hursley House (it excluded the drawing office and experimental hangar workers, so is not the whole ‘team’).
75th Anniversary of the Supermarine Dispersal
Later this year will mark the 75th Anniversary of the Supermarine Dispersal.
To help commemorate this event I am trying to collect as many memories and pictures of those who worked for Supermarine as possible. From reading some of the posts already made on the Chandler’s Ford Today website I know there are still those who were themselves, or whose relatives were, Supermariners. I would very much like to hear your stories.
If you are able and willing to help I would love to hear from you, either via the site or contact me via my research email.
There is a Facebook page.. we remember submariners which may be a good place to post a request.
Hi Ann,
Did you mean “We remember submariners” or “We remember Supermariners”?
I could only find a facebook page for Submariners, i.e those who go in served in submarines, not one for “Supermariners” i.e. those who worked for Vickers-Armstrongs (Supermarine).
Have I missed something? It would be great if there was a page!
Thanks
Dave
Hi! David My mother was a tracer at Hursley Park and worked for Joe Smith. She will be 90 tomorrow! she remembers much about working there and lived and was brought up in Hursley.
Best wishes Robert Walker
Hi Robert,
First a very happy birthday to your mother!
I would very much like to hear about her time working for Supermarine and growing up in Hursley. I will send an email about maybe arranging a time to have a chat to hear her stories.
Thanks again
Dave
I’m so glad to see this beautiful connection. Good luck to you all.
It would be good to hear from some supermariner designers and their descendants. The elliptical wing of the Spitfire was said to be difficult to manufacture. It was designed to have a minimal drag but ideally should have been more slender near the fuselage. There had to be room for the armaments and undercarriage so compromises had to be made. The designers had to achieve maximum lift and strength with minimum drag and weight and still have room for the ammunition boxes.
It’s me standing by a spitfire pretending that I am the pilot.
Hello
My father Kenneth Marsh worked at the Eastleigh/Southampton Airport during the war. I think he worked on building/repairing Spitfires and other aircraft. We lived on Belmont Road, Velmore Camp was just around the corner. We often had American military members at our house for tea or a meal. They usually brought some special goodies for me, Lifesavers or a chocolate bar. I remember many convoys of military vehicles on Leigh Road and Bournemouth Road, bomb shelter on the corner and our Anderson shelter. Can still hear the sound of bombers approaching, but luckily never hit.
Joanna Marsh Blacklock
Hi Joanna,
Thank you for sharing your recollections of you and your father’s wartime experiences. I really enjoyed reading them. Do you know when he started working at the airport or when he finished? I ask as there are a few pictures of the Supermarine team there post war, you never know he might be in one!
If you remember any more… I’d love to hear it all!
Although I started this talking about Hursley the project has grown (a lot!) and I’m now trying to build a more complete record of memories from Supermariners and from stories that put what they did in context. So things like the adjacent company of Cunliffe Owen at the airport and what it was like for the families of the workers, so your stories of the shelters and the Americans are brilliant.
Thanks again
Dave
Hello Dave,
I think my father worked at the airport from 1941-1945. Before the war he worked at Pirelli Cable as an electrician. He met my mother there, she was employed as a nurse. I was born in 1940 so was very young then, but have clear memories of the bomb shelter. My father was also an Air Raid warden, he alerted people to head for the shelter. We children would play card games, snap and happy families to pass the time. Adults would chat or sing songs, one neighbour had a harmonica to get the music going. The Vera Lynn type songs were popular.
Sadly when we emigrated to Canada a lot of our momentos were left behind. I have been back to Chandler’s Ford several times and am always amazed at the changes.
Cheers
Joanna
Hello Dave,
My father worked for Vickers during the war at Hursley Road Chandler’s Ford where Drapers tools are now operating from, although they were not so grand premises then. He also worked at their other site where Hendy’s used to be. We also had a lodger who came up from Cornwall, a Bert Frazier and he worked at Vickers as well. Before WW2 my Dad’s family were from Hursley, their address was just 83 Hursley, one of the estate cottages and I believe at one time they worked on or for the estate when Sir George Cooper owned Hursley Park.
Hi Roger,
Many thanks for the comment and the extra information on your father’s time at “Supers” in Chandler’s Ford. It all adds such a lot to the overall story. Do you know much about what your dad did there. The Hursley Road was a store as far as I can tell. The Hendy’s site was, after the initial confusion following the attack on Southampton when it housed “wheelers” making shaped body parts for the Spitfires, a pre-production site linked to the work at Hursley Park.
If you remember any more please let me know either here or send me an email
Thanks again
Dave
Hi Dave
My Dad had no trade as before WW1 he worked on steam agriculture tackle so he was probably a storeman or labourer at Vickers if it was a store . ” Bert Frazier ” may have had a trade he lodged with us for a few years and was well liked by all of us , I believe my middle name was the same as his ,I do remember Dad brought a kitten home from the works about the same time as I was born and died on my 21 st birthday
Hi Dave, My father Eric Witts was working at the supermarine works in Woolston when they were bombed, then went to Hursley Park when the company moved there. He became chauffeur to the Chief Designer Joe Smith until his death in 1956. After his death my mother and father drove Joe’s to her new home at Solihull after their house in Chandlers Ford was sold. He continued to work for Vickers Armstrong after they left Hursley and moved back to Woolston. My sister Julia Witts also started her career in the Drawing Office at Hursley Park about 1950 where she worked under the supervision of Miss Leach. Unfortunately both my father and sister are now deceased. I have photos of Prince Philip’s visit to Hursley Park in the early fifties when my father drove him from Eastleigh Airport and back again.
Hello. My Great Uncle Louis Roy Payne was a Signwriter. He painted the circles on the Spitfire at Hursley Park. That is all I can tell you about his time there.
Hi
Thanks for the comment.
I’ll do some digging and see whether I can find Louis’ name in any of the notes I have. If he was painting the aircraft at Hursley then he would probably have been doing it on the prototype aircraft in the Experimental Hangar, which might well mean that some of the photographs of the prototype Spitfire’s are his very own handiwork!
I’d be very interested in any more detail on Louis if you do think of anything.
Thanks again
Dave
Dave, My grandfather William Alec Conley was part of the Mitchell drawing office team and then the successor team working on the Spitfire all through the war. It was my understanding that he worked on the designs of the Spitfire engine housing. All through the war he had to travel back and forth to the Midlands to liaise with Rolls Royce in relation to fitting the engines into the Spitfire. I believe he worked for Supermarine and successor companies from about 1926 until about 1960. We have pictures of the design team and also of my grandfather meeting the Duke of Edinburgh as mentioned in the previous post. My grandfather joined Supermarine from the Navy shipyard in Plymouth in 1926, having moved from the Rosyth shipyard. Supermarine recruited draughtsmen from the ship industry both because there weren’t many aircraft designers in the 1920s and also because the early aircraft were flying boats. My grandfather was part of the team that worked on the design of the aircraft that won the Scneider trophy. Each member of the team was given a small replica copy of the trophy. During the bombing of Woolston and during air raid alerts my grandfather and some other friends from the drawing office would rush up to an air raid shelter on Pear Tree Green as they were worried about being in the shelter by the factory. My grandfather was moved to Hursley Park and along with another member of the team, Mr Kettlewell (my godfather), lived in a cottage on Farley Mount (no longer there) for the remainder of the war. My mum was 17 on the day the war broke out and recalls working as a Land Girl nearby during one summer. She said that there were also men working on the land who were conscientious objectors. She described a fight that broke out one day between two factions of the conscientious objectors who had opposing philosophies as to why they were not fighting in the war! Another friend who worked at Supermarine or Hursley was a Mr Hetzel (my brother’s godfather). I am trying to to track down more information about this period and my family connection.
Hi Douglas,
Many thanks for the fantastic account of your family’s links to Supermarine and Hursley!
I had a quick look at some of the documents I have and Mr Conley is listed as a subscriber on a 1927 Supermarine Ragazine (their inhouse, and definitely unofficial, magazine) so your date of 1926 sounds spot on! He is also listed in “The Spitfire Book” as one of the “Section Leaders & Senior Draughtsmen” as responsible for the Engine Installation (Mr Kettlewell is there too for detail design) … have you seen either of these/would you like a copy?
I’d love to see any of the pictures or anything else you might be able to add to their time at Supermarine (both Woolston and Hursley), for example do you know where their House was on Farley Mount?
If I can help add to what you already know about your family and Supermarine then please do let me know and I’ll do my best to help.
I have a website that I’m trying to add the stories and history of “The Supermariners” like your grandfather.
https://supermariners.wordpress.com/
There is a lot of work to do and it’s a bit clunky, Mr Conley is on it https://supermariners.wordpress.com/organisation/design-department/the-drawing-office/ ( and now I can add some detail!!) but as you’ll see lots to do but feel free to take a look and there is a contact there for me or my email should be on my gravatar profile.
Thanks again for the post, really appreciated!
Dave
Hi I think my dad started work at Hursley as an apprentice in 1943. Unfortunetly he passed away last May but I have found items from that time while clearing out the house.
Hi Jeremy,
I’d be very interested to hear anything you do know about your father’s time with Supermarine.
Also, if I can be of any help in helping to answer any questions you may have, please do ask.
If he joined in 1943 he may be in one of the photos taken of the team that year.
All the best
Dave
A short comment to thank all of those who have helped in y research into the stories behind the men and women who worked for Supermarine at Hursley Park (and beyond).
The research is on-going and I am still very interested to hear abour anyone or anything else relating to Supermarine at Hursley.
I’d also like to add a slight correction to my original post. I incorrectly labelled the picture of the Supermarine Team outside Hursley Park House as ‘credit the Cambridge University Library’. Why the mistake, well most of the pictures from the Vickers Archive do come from the collection at Cambridge, curiously this photograph is not one of them.
In 1943 Vickers took a series of photographs of their numerous ‘dispersal works’ including Hursley Park. These photographs, including pictures of the outside of Hursley Park House and inside some of the workshops and Drawing Office were included in a series of albums telling the story of the works.
However, this particular photograph was not included and copies were given to members as momentos, it is from this source that this particular photograph comes from.
To my knowledge, the picture is not in the Cambridge University Library ‘Vickers Archive’, it may be … but I have not to-date found it there.
My apologies for any confusion
Sorry,
Not familiar with your email system.
Worked under a Mr. Don Burns who was my Boss in Cathay Pacific Airways btwn 1988 -1998 .
Seem to remember him talking about a Company , although it may have been Handley Page.
He was Head of Aircraft Performance and, Flight Planning and Navigation Development btwn these years, although he retired around 1995 to the Philippines ;
May ring a few bells with anyone who remembers him.
A tall, very knowledgeable person in these fields who was always, very correct, when discussing technicalities.
May be of Help ? Brgds.
Malcolm Pickup. Ex of Cathay Pacific Airways.