Flying high!

Our new replica Spitfire is safely installed at the Memorial alongside our other replica fighter, the Hawker Hurricane, thanks to the generous support of J&M Crane & Transport Ltd.

The Trust decided to purchase a new replica after the original was blown off its undercarriage in a storm earlier this year. Experts said repairing the 20 year-old replica and returning it to the wild winds, coastal rain and salty atmosphere of its clifftop home was not a good idea.

The new replica, built by GB replicas to look like the Spitfire flown by Flying Officer Jeffrey Quill (later OBE) AFC during his short operational attachment to No 65 Squadron during the Battle of Britain, was delivered to the site last week, but poor weather meant it could not be installed in its permanent home.

That meant the Trust faced the additional cost of moving it a second time, from where it had been 'parked' to the concrete pad on which its predecessor had stood for the past two decades.

Step forward Jay Lawrence, of Gravesend-based J&M Crane & Transport Ltd, who immediately offered his company's services and craned the fantastic new replica into place in front of impressed visitors, staff and volunteers (all at a safe distance).

It was essentially a lucky coincidence, as Jay explained. "I visited the site a few weeks back and saw the Spitfire was missing. I assumed that at some point it would be coming back and sent Jules, the site manager, an email suggesting that if he needed help he should call me.

"At that stage Jules thanked me for the offer but explained that GB Replicas would be doing the job when they delivered it, as that was the original plan. When the weather got in the way of that plan, though, Jules got back in touch - and I was only too pleased to help.

"It just happened that we had a one-day gap in an otherwise busy calendar the following day. That coincided with good weather being forecast - and the GB Replicas team was also available to return that day and put it all together, so it all worked brilliantly."

Jay is a regular visitor to Capel-le-Ferne and a huge admirer of the memorial, the Few and their bravery during the Battle of Britain. "It was fantastic that we had the opportunity to help such a worthy cause," he commented."It was just lucky that I called in that evening on the way home from a trip to Folkestone - otherwise I would never have known that the Trust needed our help."

Jay's team - supervisor Richard Quincey, crane operator Tony Wiggins and truck driver Ian Edgler, used a Hiab lorry and an impressive 150-tonne crane to move the Spitfire to the car park in front of the Beaverbrook Wall and then swing it over the wall, past the Biggin Hill yardarm and down onto the base.

Trust photographer Barry Duffield was on hand to catch the replica coming into land.