Northfleet History Group - January 2015 Meeting.
THE STORY OF GRAVESEND AIRPORT
St Botolph’s church hall was almost ‘bursting at the seams’ when we gathered for our first meeting of 2014 on Tuesday 7th January. A capacity audience listened to Frank Turner relate the history of Gravesend Airport from its pre-war origins, through the Battle of Britain and the war years, until its closure after the war. In the early 1950s Essex Aero manufactured products ranging from beer crates to very lightweight folding chairs made from magnesium in its workshops on the former airfield and even a car built from this revolutionary material on a 1951 Allard chassis for its managing director. When Essex Aero went into liquidation in 1956 the former airfield was sold to Dolphin Developments who built the Riverview Park housing estate on the site. Frank concluded his talk by reminding us that early in 1990, some War Office papers came to light which showed that a network of pipe bombs had been buried at the old airfield during the war, the idea being that, in the event of an invasion, these would be detonated to prevent enemy aircraft from using the airfield. Many of the residents of Riverview Park had to be evacuated whilst the Royal Engineers carried out ‘Operation Crabstick’ to look for and remove any remaining underground explosives and members of the audience recalled being given a free coach trip to Thorpe Park whilst this work was carried out!
After the tea interval, members were shown pictures of a variety of possible venues for our summer outings and were invited to indicate their preferences by a show of hands in order to help the committee decide on this year’s trips, which will be announced in due course.
After the tea interval, members were shown pictures of a variety of possible venues for our summer outings and were invited to indicate their preferences by a show of hands in order to help the committee decide on this year’s trips, which will be announced in due course.