Time team at Kenley

[cash_13]

Has anyone heard anything about time team making a dig at Kenley airfield near Croydon,

I live a couple of miles away and have heard nothing but my father in law who works in coulsdon is addament that time team are doing a dig and looking for crated up spitfires and hurricanes that were surplus at the end of the war and burried...

I have looked at the time team website and there is nothing mentioned

Is it Bull or is it possible?

[the_historian]

Haven't heard of that myself, but keep checking the Council for British Archaeology's newsfeed at CBA's British & Irish archaeology newsfeed

Or this guy might be able to help you-
RAF Kenley airfield

It was normal practise to bury unissued equipment (motorbikes, aircraft, warship engines etc) and then build over them. as to Time team they never ever announce where they will be digging until the series is due to air. gits

[cash_13]

Cheers, I live in Coulsdon myself and pick my wife up from Caterham on the hill 3 days a week from work so I will check as much as possible

Regards Lee

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by cash_13

Has anyone heard anything about time team making a dig at Kenley airfield near Croydon,

I live a couple of miles away and have heard nothing but my father in law who works in coulsdon is addament that time team are doing a dig and looking for crated up spitfires and hurricanes that were surplus at the end of the war and burried...

I have looked at the time team website and there is nothing mentioned

Is it Bull or is it possible?

There are stories aplenty about crated up aircraft and engines from many parts of the world where the RAF where stationed.

But I have posed a question on the Time Team Forum about it. Someone should have some information

RAF Kenley - Topic Powered by eve community

[Gage]

Used to like Time Team but haven't watched for ages. They never really seemed to find anything everytime I did watch. Would be interesting thou.

You never seen the ones where they dug aircraft then?

Time Team were meant to be joining in the digging of the Roman town of Middlewich a few years ago. The archaeologists already there were sceptical but willing to give it a go, until they were told they had to pay for all of the accomodation and catering for over 250 people that would descend on them and take control for three days then bugger off.
Time Team were desperate to get their hands on the digs but were told to go away with extreme impoliteness.

[Andy in West Oz]

Enjoy the show when I remember to watch it. It's on the ABC (BBC equivalent) down here once a week (and no doubt on Foxtel/cable more than that). If they're filming a Kenley show, it'll probably show up here in a couple of years!

[cash_13]

Found this guys,

ROYAL Air Force engineers are set to dig up Kenley Airfield as part of a secret mission to uncover its wartime past.
The project has been kept under wraps because bosses fear a swathe of metal detector-wielding plane enthusiasts will move in before them.
Archaeologists from the Ministry of Defence Fire Training School, in Manston, Kent, will help excavate a patch of the historic site believed to be an old aircraft dump.
Starting on August 7, it is hoped the dig will solve the 50-year-old mystery of what lies beneath the former RAF base.
Bomb disposal teams have carried out a subterranean survey of the World War Two site in preparation for the excavation.

It is thought that legendary aeroplanes such as Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes, the two fighters that won the Battle of Britain, are buried there.
It is also rumoured that an old Avro Lincoln bomber - a high-altitude four-engined plane not used in the war - was left at the site.....

.......Chris Baguley,chairman of the Friends of Kenley Airfield, said: "Who knows what's in there. They're going to be digging up old scrap buried a long time ago.
"It could be bits of an old tip or it could be something tangible. Maybe even an important piece of military history.
"The RAF wants to dispel all the myths about what is down there by finding out about the planes.What happened then we don't know and it will be very interesting to find out."
.....
Squadron leader Keith Chandler, of the 615 Volunteer Gliding Squadron, said: "In the 1950s the RAF used a number of out-of-service fighter planes there, including Spitfires and Hurricanes, for fire training.
"In the early 80s one of them surfaced and was taken away but the rest have been buried there for years. I think the RAF wants to keep it quiet, though, because the last thing they want is a legion of people with metal detectors digging up the land before they get there."

Wing Commander David Lainchbury, the commandant at the fire training school, said ......."The site survey revealed three or four large, unusual shapes which may be aircraft fuselage. Earth-moving equipment will be used initially in the excavation, while air training corps members will then be involved in the hand-dig. "It would then be up to the Corporation of London, which owns the land, to determine what to do with any interesting finds

[cash_13]

Well I went up there yesterday to pick the mrs up and if they are doing it they have invisible men!!!!!!