Head's Newsletter 22 June 2018

design office which was preserved when the land was re-developed into a housing estate and we were able to see the original crane and lifting chains in the Experimental Building where prototypes were tested. We also studied the Bentalls Furniture Depository (behind the Rotunda cinema) as this was used in WW2 to store spare parts for Hawker and is now Grade II listed. Hawker went on to design the 'Harrier Jump Jet', which was the first aeroplane to achieve vertical take-off and landing; proving that Kingston really was at the forefront of aviation innovation.

Year 8 students have stepped out of the classroom in their history lessons this week. Each form has had a local history tour focusing on the cutting-edge aviation design and production that took place in and around Canbury Park Road during WW1 and WW2. They discovered that the Sopwith Aviation Company bought and modified an ice rink which was on the corner of Canbury Park Road and this became the first 'aviation building' in Kingston. This company developed the 'Sopwith Camel' (a fighter plane in WW1— shown below) along with other aeroplanes

like the 'Sopwith Pup'. Taking advantage of 'the dip' that had already been dug to accommodate trams under the railway bridge at Kingston station, Thomas Sopwith saw the opportunity to design, test and mass-produce these planes in Kingston before transporting them by road to Brooklands Airfield in Surrey. In the 1920s, Harry Hawker (Sopwith's chief test pilot) and Sir Sydney Camm (Sopwith's main designer) went into business and they created the 'Island Factory' further down Canbury Park Road. This company designed the Hawker Hurricane, which played a major role in the Battle of Britain in 1940. We spotted Sir Sydney Camm's