Head's Newsletter - 21 January 2022

LOCAL AVIATION HISTORY WALKS WITH YEAR 9

could be finished off and flown out. Sopwith chose an ice rink at the end of Canbury Park Road and he converted this into Kingston ’ s first aircraft factory.

A Sopwith Camel

Our tour then took us down Canbury Park Road, which is just seconds from the school. We were shown where the ice rink factory was (which made the Sopwith Camel) and where the Hawker ‘ Island ’ Factory was, which made Hawker Hurricanes in WW2. This site is now a housing estate but some of the original buildings have been preserved, including Sir Sydney Camm ’ s design office. He designed 52 aircraft in total and at one point in the 1930s, 84% of RAF planes were designed by Camm, and that all happened on our doorstep in Kingston!

In the first week of December, Year 9 went on local history walks to see the sites, and the remnants of the sights, where the legendary planes used in WW1 and WW2 were built. Our first stop was the Bentalls furniture depository which is at the back of the Rotunda. The government used this building in WW2 to store components for the planes being built in the Hawker ‘ Island ’ Factory down Canbury Park Road. The most important aircraft being built at this time was the Hawker Hurricane as it played a vital role in the Battle of Britain to stop Hitler launching Operation Sealion. Our second stop was the dip in the road, next to the train station that was intentionally put there to allow trams to pass underneath the railway. This handy dip influenced Thomas Sopwith, when he was looking for a site to build the first fighter planes in WW1 as he wanted to take the planes by road (minus their wings) to Brooklands aerodrome where they

Arnav Shinde 9FA

The NHS has produced guidance on how to support your children during exam periods. Please click here to read the guidance .