Another Outing on Ginny - RAF Tour 1

Using the Traces of War website, I came up with a route that would take me to memorials around Kent, linked to the RAF, and give me a nice 80 or so mile ride in the sunshine. The website lists war graves/cemeteries and memorials but also more specific sites, where aircraft crashed and if a memorial exists, then where it is located. Using the website, I discovered the site of a crashed Hurricane, apparently in the corner of a field I have driven by numerous times but had no clue. Unfortunately, there is no memorial to the aircraft or pilot. In some cases though, people have taken the trouble to erect a memorial and one such place, is where I started the tour.

Farningham is a little village near Swanley, just south of the M20. Sparepenny Lane links Farningham with Eynsford and just 500m out of the village, on the left hand side, you come across a small stone memorial to a Flight Lieutenant James Paterson, a New Zealand pilot, who sadly lost his life when his Spitfire crashed nearby. One of 'The Few', he was just 20 years old. A rather sobering few minutes were spent here.

 

From Farningham I continued on my journey, to Tunbridge Wells, where I parked up in the Great Hall car park, next door to Calverley Grounds, a landscaped park area dating back to the 1830s. I'd brought a picnic, so this was the ideal spot to eat it. That was not my primary reason for the visit though. Just inside the park, there stands a memorial to Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. He lived in the Tunbridge Wells area for almost 20 years, before his death in 1970. As Air Chief Marshal and head of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, he was largely responsible for defeating the German Air Force in its attempt to gain control of British skies, in preparation for a German invasion of England. Sir Laurence Olivier played Dowding in the 1969 film The Battle of Britain.

After my picnic and brief spell sitting in the park, I made my way to Kings Hill, a new(ish) town between West Malling and Wateringbury, formerly known as RAF West Malling. RAF West Malling was a satellite airfield in the Biggin Hill sector of fighter command. Built in 1917, it was used as a private airfield up until it was commissioned by the RAF in 1940, even being known as Maidstone Airport in the early 1930s. Closing in 1969, the developers moved in and little now remains of the original infrastructure. Little but some, including the original control tower, original RAF officers mess (now council offices) and a Bofors gun tower. Besides these relics of days gone by, there are some memorials around the town but also, though I was unable to locate it due to further construction work, a Pickett-Hamilton Fort or pop-up pillbox. These forts, made of concrete, could hold 3 men with rifles and were sunk into the ground, though ingeniously, when needed as defense, they could rise out of the ground to allow the occupants sight of any approaching enemy.

Officers Mess

Control Tower

Running Airman

Bofors Gun Tower

Leaving West Malling, I made my way to my final stop. Detling is a village that sits on the outskirts of Maidstone, on the Pilgrims Way. The Pilgrims Way is the historical route taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. Besides being a point on this famous route, Detling was also host to an RAF airfield. RAF Detling was located about 1.5 miles, north east of the village, on top of what is known as Detling Hill, 600m above sea level. I don't think anything remains of the airfield these days but in the village, there is a memorial to all those who served there between 1915 and 1945. 

Detling RAF Memorial

Concluding my historical tour, I rode the 7 miles home, passing along the way, the field I spoke of in my first paragraph. It had been a very pleasant and interesting ride. It's heartwarming to see these places and people remembered in these ways, people who lived, worked and even died in places now long since removed from the landscape. Lest We Forget.

I have another tour lined up, for, as Vera sang, "some sunny day", so watch out for that one.

For now though, stay safe.