Hawkinge

I live on what was a famous airfield. Used during the Battle of Britain  for both Spitfires and Hurricanes it is now sadly a huge housing estate and very little remains of it's past except all the roads are named after planes or pilots. The local hostelry is The Mayfly and the school is named after Churchill. I can still see a Pill Box over in a distant field that hasn't succumb to the bulldozers as yet.
To imagine what it must have been like during those dark days is difficult but in 1969 the film The Battle of Britain was made on the airfield before it was finally covered in concrete and brick. In the film you can make some of the old houses and from the hills work out exactly were they filmed.  The also filmed at a pub called  The Jackdaw but called The Raven in the film in a nearby village that looks pretty much the same today. Go inside and you can still sit on the same seats as Susannah York and Christopher Plummer.

Not many of the old RAF buildings remain but we have a Battle of Britain Museum that is visited by hundreds of people even German coach parties sometimes. Although an interesting museum it is also very sad reading about the young men who lost their lives defending our country. 

It is a common sight to see and hear the Spitfires and Hurricanes in the sky over my home even today.  Whenever they are in the area for air shows or to visit the battle of Britain Memorial at Capel le Ferne a few miles up the road they like do a special fly over what was there home many years ago.  

The last month or so because of the 70th anniversary it has been more frequent. I love to hear the humming noise they make and run out into the garden when I do but I don't think that I would have had the same feelings in 1940.  They are due to go over again next week on Saturday when the village of Hawkinge holds its annual community day and this year we will be remembering the Battle of Britain.  In the evening there is a special concert. 

The airfiield may have disappeared but we still remember them.