Topic: Stow Maries open weekend.

Hi Folks,

Dawn Patrol will be attending Stow Maries on remembrance weekend, come and see the place if you haven't already, it's worth it I promise.

I have extracted this from Stow Maries Facebook page...

"Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, Purleigh, is to show its respect and support of the Royal British Legions work by opening the site to the public, free of charge on Friday 11th, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November. This event is to commemorate all those that have given their lives and those that still need support after their service to this country. Entrance is free but any donations given on site will go in their entirety to the Royal British Legion.

 The site has just taken delivery of two Great War replica aircraft which will be on display, the museum will be open, the Dawn Patrols 1/3 scale Great War flying models will be on site as will re-enactors to add atmosphere to the event. Tours of the site will take place free of charge.

 Friday the 11th will see a small service at 11am, Saturday will see flying by the Dawn Patrol models and some other aircraft movement, re-eneactors on site, Sunday will see the same plus a small service at the memorial at 3pm."

Muds 

its only two weeks away , so come on be interested, there are a goodly few stallwarts attending from DP and we will be welcomed like you would not believe, if you have any interest in WW1 and DP then you will be missing what will be i,m sure the best end to a season ever, there is to be a DP meal out Sat evening at the local pub, that has been there for longer than the airfield and was the regular watering hole for the pilots,

  COME ON DOWN

  chris

DP meal out Sat evening at the local pub, that has been there for longer than the airfield and was the regular watering hole for the pilots,


Is that the Prince of Wales at Stow Maries?

My old Haunt owned by a friend.

Great Beer and even better food!

Nige

thats the very one, and yes food and beer 

  chris

Thought so, being as there is not many pubs left around that area had to be!!

Remember before Rob bought it, was run by two aged sisters been in their family fo over 100 years was one small bar and served through a hatch and you bought a pitcher of beer to save their legs!! well that is what we said anyway, that must have been in the late 1980's.

I suppose you know the story of the church the other side of the road with the illuminated red cross on the spire and the connection to Flambirds (the airfield)?

no

       do tell do tell

  chris

http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/stowmarieschurch.htm

The illuminated cross is dedicated to the Pilots of the airfield, two of which are buried at St. Mary and St. Margarets, it is also said as the squadron was night fighting that the church had a red lamp on the roof so they would follow the River Crouch as far as the red light (from London I guess) and turn left! the runway is basicly in line with the church and the Prince of Wales funnily enough

What ever the finer details of that all happens to be, the fact that over the many years I lived in the area, Man and Boy I never remember the cross not being illuminated.

There is a lot of aviation history in close proximity to there, the first experimental aircraft station in the world was established at South Fambridge just the other side of the Crouch North Fambridge being just about a mile away, and from there the first flight off water to take place was on the crouch, South Fambridge has a Float plane as a village sign.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_fambridge_sign.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Fambridge

And the Prince of Wales, many a wonderful days and nights spent there!!


http://www.prince-stowmaries.net/

I would like to make it there if I get time having just moved down from Shrewsbury to Sandhurst, I love Flambirds have spent many wonderful summer days there during school holidays flying freeflight and R/C and many years after that time.

I think Russell Savory is doing a fantastic job of the site and deserves all the support people are giving him, I last visited about this time last year so it probably about time I made the effort again!

Regards

Nige.   

Thanks for reminding me. I now find myself off work that weekend.

I think it is time I paid a visit.

Kev

http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/stowmarieschurch.htm

The illuminated cross is dedicated to the Pilots of the airfield, two of which are buried at St. Mary and St. Margarets, it is also said as the squadron was night fighting that the church had a red lamp on the roof so they would follow the River Crouch as far as the red light (from London I guess) and turn left! the runway is basicly in line with the church and the Prince of Wales funnily enough

What ever the finer details of that all happens to be, the fact that over the many years I lived in the area, Man and Boy I never remember the cross not being illuminated.

There is a lot of aviation history in close proximity to there, the first experimental aircraft station in the world was established at South Fambridge just the other side of the Crouch North Fambridge being just about a mile away, and from there the first flight off water to take place was on the crouch, South Fambridge has a Float plane as a village sign.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_fambridge_sign.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Fambridge

And the Prince of Wales, many a wonderful days and nights spent there!!


http://www.prince-stowmaries.net/

I would like to make it there if I get time having just moved down from Shrewsbury to Sandhurst, I love Flambirds have spent many wonderful summer days there during school holidays flying freeflight and R/C and many years after that time.

I think Russell Savory is doing a fantastic job of the site and deserves all the support people are giving him, I last visited about this time last year so it probably about time I made the effort again!

Regards

Nige.

Cheers for that Nigel, Do you do tours??! It'd be great if you could make it

Ian.

The illuminated cross is dedicated to the Pilots of the airfield, two of which are buried at St. Mary and St. Margarets, it is also said as the squadron was night fighting that the church had a red lamp on the roof so they would follow the River Crouch as far as the red light (from London I guess) and turn left! the runway is basicly in line with the church and the Prince of Wales funnily enough

How great is that.   I shall be looking out for that when we visit the Pub on the Saturday evening 
Thanks for all that great information. As Ian says any chance of a tour.
Simon

thats three of us for the tour/lecture what time does it start

  chris

  i love all this history, need to visit some of these locations.

  i love all this history, need to visit some of these locations.

Perhaps Chris we could go a day early for the May due and spend a day doing just that

as i will have just had Easter hols, getting another day off before might be a bit of a problem , however may 7th is a bank holiday Monday and no school 

  Chris

Cheers for that Nigel, Do you do tours??! It'd be great if you could make it

Ian.

Hi Ian

I want to make it as I have had a bit of a time of it over the last couple of months would be nice to catch up.

As for the tours that would be great, sadly not much to see apart from a memorial of South Fambridge, but I could show you the spot where Bushey Hill was blown away by a V2 the propulsion unit of which was in a hedge for years, we used to sledge down that hill was very steep at the bottom!!

Up the road about 20 miles is the old RAF Bradwell Bay home of the the Pathfinders Mossie's, Pigeon Dock Mayland on the river Blackwater where they built MTB boats also in Burnham on Crouch where they did the same, there are still Mulberry's there turned into house boats.

There are various crash sites around too but obviously nothing left to see one site not 2 miles from Prince of Wales and airfield  was Edwins Hall where an Me 110 crashed crewless into the moat, story has it that it hit Mill Hill just opposite left the wings behind on two Oaks and the fuz ended against the house, they found slats and other wing parts in the moat when it was drained in the 70's I think it was see report below it is mentioned at the bottom of page 4.


http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=11&gs_id=16&xhr=t&q=edwins+hall+woodham+ferrers&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=edwins+hall&aq=0&aqi=g2g-v2&aql=f&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&fp=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&cad=b

Sorry could not go stright to it so 5th one down PDF Edwins Hall, Woodham Ferrers
archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/.../essexcou1-11738_1.pdf

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/756531
 
All this is making me home sick!

I will try hard to make it.

Cheers

Nige.

http://www.essex-family-history.co.uk/stowmarieschurch.htm

The illuminated cross is dedicated to the Pilots of the airfield, two of which are buried at St. Mary and St. Margarets, it is also said as the squadron was night fighting that the church had a red lamp on the roof so they would follow the River Crouch as far as the red light (from London I guess) and turn left! the runway is basicly in line with the church and the Prince of Wales funnily enough

What ever the finer details of that all happens to be, the fact that over the many years I lived in the area, Man and Boy I never remember the cross not being illuminated.

There is a lot of aviation history in close proximity to there, the first experimental aircraft station in the world was established at South Fambridge just the other side of the Crouch North Fambridge being just about a mile away, and from there the first flight off water to take place was on the crouch, South Fambridge has a Float plane as a village sign.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_fambridge_sign.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Fambridge

And the Prince of Wales, many a wonderful days and nights spent there!!


http://www.prince-stowmaries.net/

I would like to make it there if I get time having just moved down from Shrewsbury to Sandhurst, I love Flambirds have spent many wonderful summer days there during school holidays flying freeflight and R/C and many years after that time.

I think Russell Savory is doing a fantastic job of the site and deserves all the support people are giving him, I last visited about this time last year so it probably about time I made the effort again!

Regards

Nige.

I like Nige was brought up in the belief that the cross on Stow Maries Church was there as a beacon to the pilots, however from what I have gleaned it was not there before 1921, when Claude Ridley the old CO of 37 Squadron set up a trust to keep it illuminated as a memorial to those who flew from Stow. He is also buried in the churchyard I believe, when he died of natural causes during the last war.

An old resident in the village Dennis Emmett who lives in the village of South Woodham Ferrers where I live, was present when the Me 110 crashed at Edwins Hall in August 1940. He attended the crash site and had a plastic Me110 mounted on a sodium filled valve from one of the engines for some years, but think this has long gone now as he is very frail at the present time. He later went on to fly Beaufighters on shipping strikes from North Coates in 1945, having trained in the USA.
He also advised the lady author on the Flambards book. The site was known to us as Flambirds Farm, where I flew models for some 33 years, untill 1999 and I reckon she twisted the name to arrive at Flambards.

As Nige says there is a lot around the area of aviation apart from Bradwell, see http://www.controltowers.co.uk/B/Bradwell_Bay.htm
Pemberton Billing set up a small airfield and manufacturing facility at Althorn/Fambridge during the WW1.

The Prince of Wales Pub was as Nige described it when I moved to the area, with the two old sisters going out to get a jug of beer, after asking if you were going to drink more than one

In passing my partner Marlenes brother flew Wellingtons in WW2 with 37 Sqd in the Med. He went on to own the pub in Goldhangar called the "Cricketers", which is now been turned into a house, that unbeknown to him was virtually adjacent to the other site that 37 Sqd used in the WW1 for one of the flights from 37 at Stow.

There is also a good pub called the "Hurdlemakers Arms"  at Woodham Mortimer, near Stow Maries. The squadrons headquarters were here during the WW1. When I first moved here in the late 60,s the pub still had posters showing lots of aircraft from the first WW

woo hoo    pub crawl it is then

  chris

Kim and I will be there at some point over the weekend, probably the Sunday. What time will Dawn Patrol be flying assuming that they do not just fly at Sparrow's fart.

There is also a good pub called the "Hurdlemakers Arms"  at Woodham Mortimer, near Stow Maries. The squadrons headquarters were here during the WW1. When I first moved here in the late 60,s the pub still had posters showing lots of aircraft from the first WW

Oh Yes Brian! was my local when Mum and Dad moved to Danbury 

Lovely little pub, when Wally had it he used to steam up his traction engine on a sunday lunch, I used to take the brothers up they used to get very sooty and oily on the foot plate much to my Mums amusement or was it annoyance 

I had thought that you told me about the red light navigation aid when we were there last time, but I like the story anyway  how many years did we believe that?

Will speak to you soon.

Cheers

Nige.

Kim and I will be there at some point over the weekend, probably the Sunday. What time will Dawn Patrol be flying assuming that they do not just fly at Sparrow's fart.

  should be all day sunday at regular intervals, with hopefully a special flypast at 11am,

  chris

I think at 11am we will be in Rettendon Church but should be with you in hte afternoon.

Supposed to be a poppy drop at 3pm on Sunday by an unspecified aircraft

Hi peeps

  i might have mentioned this earlier but still

  on the Saturday there are a few of us off down the pilots walk to the prince of wales for a meal/drink and a social evening, so who,s up for it as if there are quite a few it may be polite to inform the pub that we are descending on them,
  now here are the ones i know are up for it

    me  ...ceejay
   Ian  ... idigbo
  Matt  ...mudflap
  Neil   ...buzz
  Andrew  ...buzz senior and bugler extraordinaire
 Hagan  ...Buzz junior
  SI  .......Cornish pixie
  Si,s mate  ... another pixie

  what about you Ken and lady


    that's 8 of us allready so put your name on here somewhere then i will ring pub this weekend and warn them

  Chris

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BribGLszN9o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BribGLszN9o</a>

Would the DP allow my 1/3rd scale Pup to be brought along for static display?

as its an open weekend DP would not presume to say  who attends the event, we are going on the invitation of SM and i,m sure the invitation is open to all interested in SM and WW1 aviation, the only thing DP will be controlling is our own display slots, on the Sunday the intention is to have WW1 themed slots much as we do at all our shows, outside of that, fill yer boots.

  chris

Looks like I have a pass for Saturday!

See you guys there.

Cheers


Nige.

Also good news that Nigel has posted the Paint masks for the 1/3rd scale ASK13 today so that will be painted and ready for a flight on the Saturday.
Make sure you bring your tug Mudders. 

Simon

Hi peeps

  i might have mentioned this earlier but still

  on the Saturday there are a few of us off down the pilots walk to the prince of wales for a meal/drink and a social evening, so who,s up for it as if there are quite a few it may be polite to inform the pub that we are descending on them,
  now here are the ones i know are up for it

    me  ...ceejay
   Ian  ... idigbo
  Matt  ...mudflap
  Neil   ...buzz
  Andrew  ...buzz senior and bugler extraordinaire
 Hagan  ...Buzz junior
  SI  .......Cornish pixie
  Si,s mate  ... another pixie

  what about you Ken and lady


    that's 8 of us allready so put your name on here somewhere then i will ring pub this weekend and warn them

  Chris

Like to have a camera there to catch the walk back in the dark up the hill, from the pub

Good mornin peeps

    given that the date next Friday in relation to armistice day is somewhat unique.....  its 11 hour 11th day 11th month 2011  so 11/11/11/11.

  just doing a commemorative logo to engrave on a glass, wine/beer or flower it dont matter, ie DP at Stow Maries on this date.

 anyone want one...£3 or 2for a fiver= glasses,  flower vase/trophy types depends on object and size. do a couple to present to SM you think!!

  Chris

Is there hard standing or camping area?  I'm thinking perhaps bring my trailer to sleep in and spending Friday till Sunday there, is that ok as a spectator non DP member?

Is there hard standing or camping area?  I'm thinking perhaps bring my trailer to sleep in and spending Friday till Sunday there, is that ok as a spectator non DP member?

  see reply 23

  cj

I think you misunderstood my question Chris,  I realise the flying is under the control of DP and the invitation for visitors gone out from SM to anyone.  I was asking if SM has an area for camping and is it available to non fliers as well as DP.

No problem at all with that Shaun. There is plenty of room to camp there.
Great toilets and running water facility's as well.

Si

Thanks Simon    I will drag my trailer along just to sleep in and pop my Pup in the car for static.  I will have to nip over to Wiltshire to pick up an airframe so maybe I can leave the trailer and Pup at SM for a few hours whilst I go. 

Chris any chance of that 1/3 cowl being with you there 

Woah there sparras, !

Shaun, please hang on a bit while I check with SM  To clarify, DP will be staying there as we will be flying each day, It's not open to anyone who fancy's a long weekend. As we know you I would think it'll be ok but I don't want to take the you know what!! Best to check first, I'll ask for you today 

Muds 

Thanks Mat, that's why I was asking it all seems a bit vague and I did not want to turn up with an unwanted static and or trailer.  I will leave both at home and maybe just pop along for an hour or two on Friday afternoon if I go.

Thanks Mat, that's why I was asking it all seems a bit vague and I did not want to turn up with an unwanted static and or trailer.  I will leave both at home and maybe just pop along for an hour or two on Friday afternoon if I go.

Hold fire NFG before you cancel your plans.....Mudders will do his best to get you a pitch...more the merrier.

However it will cost you a round of drinks in the Pub   

sorry for any confusion matt, i was trying to say that anything other than our flying was not upto us and your quite right we have to clear any extra,s to DP members camping with SM management.

  chris

It's not a worry mate, I just need to speak with SM to keep it all aboove board.

I tried a few times today, but no response so I'll try again tomoz 

Muds 

Have just returned from Stow Maries from the Remembrance Tribute. Very moving and worthwhile. Had welcome tea & coffee in the mess, afterwards as it was cold and very misty.

Giles one of the flyers from the Anglia club, flew an SE5 over the memorial after the tribute and dropped poppies which was good, and must have been tricky flying in the mist, from some 100 yards away.

Going tomorrow, not to be missed.

I set off early this morning and headed for Stow Maries.    When I arrived, the airfield was clothed in fog; it was cold, damp  and extremely atmospheric.   

The service at 11:00 was very well attended by the locals and volunteers, infact, I think the numbers astonished Russell and Ivor.   As Essex said, the service was very well done and very moving, the SE5A Poppy drop rounded it off nicely.    Good to see you again Essex BTW.

DP began to turn up at about 1:00 with the arrival of Flappers followed shortly after by the Cornish contingent  and Pat D.     

Just watching today's "Lost Heroes of  WW1" on Channel 5 as I write this - most relevant considering the day.   Well worth watching  http://www.channel5.com/shows/lost-heroes-of-world-war-one/episodes/deadlock-2 

SM really is a magical place, I can't think of a better place to attend a Service of Remembrance.

An excellent little video by GilesFordCrush  to set the scene for the service.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/31897394?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0%22+width%3D%22400%22+height%3D%22225%22+frameborder%3D%220%22+webkitAllowFullScreen+allowFullScreen%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E

Anyway, a few photographs ......











Alan