West Wickham Commons Newsletter – November 2018
4th November 2018
Remembrance Day Parade and Service
6th November 2018
West Wickham Commons Newsletter – November 2018
4th November 2018
Remembrance Day Parade and Service
6th November 2018

November 2018

Welcome to the Kenley Revival Project Newsletter.

Theatre: Kenley Memories

Join the Kenley Revival Project for a series of events to remember and commemorate those who served at RAF Kenley.
Theatre performances
Bringing to the stage the memories of Lillias Barr, Assistant Section Officer for the Kenley Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, in 1940. Suzanne Marie has created a composition from a publication written by Lillias Barr, when she returned to Kenley in 1991, this including her account of The Hardest Day and much of World War II.

Tickets only £5 each, there will be two performances:

Friday 9 November, 7pm at Matthews Yard, Croydon: Tickets available here
Friday 16 November, 7pm at The Arc, Caterham: Tickets available here


Scroll to the bottom to see more upcoming events. 

Article of the Month:

‘RAF Kenley’s Tribute’

Read about the history of the RAF Kenley Tribute;
The tribute was originally created as a millennium project, in 1998 the Kenley and District Residents Association (KENDRA) listened to their residents who were asking for a millennium project, and for this to be a memorial of some sort on the airfield; KENDRA member Mike Street headed the project along with Chris Baguley.

The RAF Kenley Tribute is a key feature of Kenley airfield, where people gather to ride their bikes, walk their dogs and more but most importantly where the community comes together to remember those who served.

Click here to read the full article on our website.

Think you could write for our website? Take a look at our volunteering opportunities online.

Videos are now live!

A key part of the Kenley Revival Project was to interview a few of the people that have stories of Kenley Airfield throughout WWII, the process was long but five videos have now been edited, many thanks to James Kenning and they are now ready for you to watch! These can be viewed on our website in ‘History’, click here to watch.

There are also transcripts on our website from more of our Oral Histories, click hereto read these.

We know that there are many more stories to be told by so many fascinating people, sadly we cannot video them all, however, we are looking at posting blog posts about some people’s memories so if there is anyone you think would be interested in sharing their memories with us, please let us know.

Want to get involved?

At the Kenley Revival Project we are always looking to expand our team of lovely volunteers. With our Remembrance Season coming up, there are so many opportunities for you to volunteer, run activities at our pop-up museum, research and write articles for our website or assist with guided tours of the airfield. Our roles are completely flexible so if you’re interested in preserving and promoting the best surviving example of a WWII fighter airfield we’d love to hear from you.

Check out our website for details or for more information contact us at kenleyrevival@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Mystery artefacts!

Silver Propelling Pencil

Acquired by John Justice this pencil is hand crafted silver, marked with the date 26.4.42, and ‘N.C.O’s Kenley’ whether this pencil was a gift for someone or was given to Kenley we are not sure, around this date Kenley had a visit from King George VI as well as the departure of Alan Christopher “Al” Deere from 602 Squadron, either of these events could have been reasons for this pencil to come about. What do you think the story behind this pencil is?

There are a number of objects we have acquired here at Kenley Revival HQ (Merlewood Estate Office) over the years. Reckon you know what they might be and what they might have been used for? Get in touch with us via our websiteTwitter and Facebook to let us know.

Do you have anything relating to RAF Kenley you can share?

We have an amazing online archive where you can upload memories, photographs, documents or links to other online sources which relate to RAF Kenley’s history. We rely on the community to help us build what could be the most extensive resource of all things relating to RAF Kenley’s Battle of Britain past.

Events

Theatre Performance: Kenley Memories
Tickets £5 (book tickets here)
Friday 9 November
7pm (arrive from 6:30pm)
Matthews Yard, Croydon (CR0 1FF)

Bringing to the stage the memories of Lillias Barr, Assistant Section Officer for the Kenley Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, in 1940. Suzanne Marie has created a composition from a publication written by Lillias Barr herself, when she returned to Kenley in 1991, this including her account of The Hardest Day and much of World War II.

Remembering Spitfires
Paul Beaver – Author of Spitfire People: The Men & Women who made the Spitfire the Aviation Icon

FREE  (book tickets here)
Tuesday 13 November
Arrive from 5:45pm for talk 6pm – 7pm
Soper Hall, Caterham

Chats about the magnificent Spitfire, its significance to the Battle of Britain and Churchill’s links to Kenley.

A Tribute to RAF Kenley
Charlotte Islin – Learning and Volunteers Officer at the Kenley Revival Project

FREE  (book tickets here)
Friday 16 November
10:30am – 11:30am
Coulsdon Library

Discover more about the Kenley Tribute and how we remember those who served. Hear the stories of some of the brave men and women who served at Kenley.

Theatre Performance: Kenley Memories
Tickets £5 (book tickets here)
Friday 9 November
7pm (arrive from 6:30pm)
The ARC, Caterham (CR3 5XY)

Bringing to the stage the memories of Lillias Barr, Assistant Section Officer for the Kenley Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, in 1940. Suzanne Marie has created a composition from a publication written by Lillias Barr herself, when she returned to Kenley in 1991, this including her account of The Hardest Day and much of World War II.

Spitfire Film Screening
Tickets £6.50 
(book tickets here)
Monday 19 November
3pm Matinee
7:30pm Evening
Harlequin Theatre, Redhill (RH1 1NN)

Spitfire is an epic, sweeping tale of determination, vision and courage. It is the story of an aeroplane that was forged in competition, shaped as the war clouds gathered, and refined in the white heat of combat – going on to become the most famous fighter plane ever made.
The Kenley Revival Project team will be giving a shot talk before the start of the film.

Why Concrete Rocks: The Importance of the Kenley Structures
Jane Sidell – Inspector of Ancient Monuments at Historic England
FREE  (book tickets here)
Tuesday 20 November
Arrive from 5:45pm for talk 6pm – 7pm
Soper Hall, Caterham

Join the Inspector for Ancient Monuments in conversation about the impermanent architecture at Kenley. How it was conserved and why Historic England wanted to designate the structures as scheduled ancient monuments.

Pop-Up Museum – RAF Kenley Fun
FREE – no need to book
Thursday 22, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 November
10am – 4pm
Suitable for Ages 5 – 12 (Saturday)
Croydon Library Foyer (CR9 1ET)

We are bringing Kenley to Croydon! Join us in Croydon Library for family friendly activities: handle replica objects and real archaeological finds from Kenley, hear stories from people who lived and worked at Kenley during WWII and see our amazing collection of photographs and maps.

Saturday will be our family fun day so join us to create your own felt poppy, hear war stories and complete some fun trails!

This is a drop-in event so there is no need to book, just pop in anytime between 10am and 4pm!

Conservation works: brick and mortar update

Visitors may have noticed there has been a lot of hard work going on at Kenley, this is the installation of test panels of the brick and mortar to be left over winter so that we can find the best solution for conserving our brick work and our blast pens, we apologise for any inconvenience and we thank you for your patience.

We will provide updates via this newsletter once we have a better understanding of what has happened and how the problem can be resolved. Please do observe any safety messaging you may see onsite.

Volunteer Survey 2018

We are carrying out a volunteer survey to help us understand what you think about your role within the Kenley Revival Project. There is a simple online form that you can fill in. It shouldn`t take more than a couple of minutes to complete.

Thank you very much for your time.

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