Southampton: Spitfire Makers recall Supermarine Flight Shed

The Supermarine Flight Shed in Wide Lane, Swaythling, was where thousands of newly-built Spitfires underwent final checks before being delivered to the RAF.

Today the site is just across the M27 from Southampton International Airport, where the first Spitfire took to the skies in March 1936.

Despite a storm of protest, the Flight Shed was bulldozed two years ago to make way for a modern industrial complex.

The Supermarine Flight Shed in Wide Lane, Southampton, was demolished two years ago (Image: Solent Sky Museum)

Now the Spitfire Makers' Charitable Trust has unveiled a plaque marking the site's contribution to the success of the famous fighter plane.

The ceremony was performed by Margaret and Peter Grubb, who sponsored the plaque, and John Ferrerolli, a former Supermarine apprentice who worked in the Flight Shed.

Peter was also employed in the building, but only after it became part of the Ford factory in the 1970s.

READ MORE: Tens of thousands back campaign to save city's famous 'Spitfire Sheds' from demolition

One of the other 40 people who attended the ceremony was Spitfire Maker Bernard Byrne, who worked there during the war and its immediate aftermath.

Alan Matlock and John Ferrerolli cut a specially commissioned cake in the Fleming Arms (Image: Spitfire Makers)

Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, was also there.

Posting on social media she said: "So lovely to be on Wide Lane in the sunshine for the unveiling of The Spitfire Makers plaque at one of the entrances to the Supermarine Flight Shed. As Churchill said - "the front line runs through the factories".

READ MORE: Controversial plan to demolish Supermarine Flight Shed is given the go-ahead

Following the unveiling guests gathered in the nearby Fleming Arms, where a specially commissioned cake was cut by Mr Ferrerolli and the Trust's chairman, Alan Matlock.

The Flight Shed was where production models of the Spitfire were tested from 1937 until the late 1940s.

John Ferrerolli with the blue plaque commemorating the former Supermarine Flight Shed on Wide Lane, Southampton (Image: Spitfire Makers)

The plaque stands on the right-hand pillar of old entrance gates which in 1939 also served the former Cunliffe Owen Aircraft Company.

The other pillar will bear a plaque commemorating Cunliffe Owen's role in making and repairing Spitfires.

It has been sponsored by Hendy, whose Jaguar Land Rover showroom is opposite the site and whose Ford garage in the centre of Southampton was requisitioned to make Spitfire fuselages.

An information panel about the Flight Shed has been unveiled on nearby Stoneham Cemetery Road.

The cemetery is the lasting resting place of R J Mitchell, who worked at Supermarine's Woolston factory in the 1930s and designed the Spitfire.

All the Spitfire Makers plaques have been put in place with the help of the Shirley Men in Sheds group.