Building Spitfires: Without a Factory

Alan Matlock

Alan Matlock talking to Clarence (Ben) Bennett (1926-2020) – a Spitfire Maker
(Photo: Liz Webb, The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust)

BLHS Monthly Meeting Saturday 12th, March, 2022
at 7.00 pm, United Reformed Church (above Iceland), Bitterne Precinct

Alan Matlock is the Chair of the Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust and a retired teacher. His interest in the Spitfire started when he took part in the play ‘The Shadow Factory’, performing in both runs of the play. He then set out to find the real stories behind the play, tracking down the “hidden” locations of Spitfire production in and around Southampton. To verify the locations Alan followed leads from local and national archives, local history groups and comments on social media.

Eighty one years ago, with the Battle of Britain being fought out over the summer skies of southern England, the Luftwaffe began targeting the aircraft factories, including the Supermarine Spitfire factory in Woolston. A plan to move production of RJ Mitchell’s iconic fighter from the Woolston and Itchen Works had already been begun some months before but now a complete dispersal was ordered.

This talk by Alan Matlock will explore the human story of those attacks from the point of view of those in the buildings or watching from across the town at the time and will also investigate some of the secret sites used to manufacture Spitfires in Southampton and beyond.

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