Capel Le Ferne

Capel Le Ferne, just outside of Folkestone, is home to the Battle of Britain memorial. It is only around 30 minutes from me so I have been a few times over the years and even seen it from the air when we flew in a helicopter alongside a Spitfire a few years ago. It's a great replace that remembers 'the few' and the visitor centre is worth a look. The upstairs cafe has a balcony that overlooks the site.

Here are some pictures from different visits - the Spitfire and Hurricane are of course replicas and the Stuka a full size sculpture.

Chester Cathedral Memorials

Chester Cathedral is a grade 1 listed building and construction dates from 1093 to the early 1500s. It has been the seat of the Bishop of Chester since 1541. As is the case with many churches and cathedrals it has space dedicated to the armed forces connected with the local area. These memorials relate to the RAF.

Duxford drop in

On the way home from a couple of days away and it seemed rude not to pop in to Duxford as I was kind of passing by. After all, there is always something to see.

Midland Air Museum

So today we headed over to Coventry, or Baginton to be more precise, for a visit to the Midland Air Museum which is on the edge of an industrial estate next to the airfield. There is quite a large collection of aircraft, most of which are situated outside although  a few rarer older aircraft are inside a display building along with a number of artefacts and historical displays.

If, like me, you time it OK you can have a tour of the Vulcan cockpit and the staff seem quite prepared to go out of their way to give you a closer look at some of the aircraft. We found them very friendly and approachable. Certainly a museum worthy of a visit.

Sywell

Second port of call today was Sywell Aerodrome, rumoured now home for future Flying Legends shows. Today was my first visit and its a nice airfield with a good car park for visitors who want to watch the comings and goings or head to the Aerodrome Cafe. As for hosting a major air show I have reservations about the roads handling the traffic flows efficiently but I guess that time will tell. Today there was enough to keep us interested for a while and we were lucky to catch a Mustang and Spitfire giving flight experience trips so worth dropping in.