Fort Paull (Beverly)

Just to keep it on topic, I am amazed at what the guys do at Paull, having been closely involved with the saving and preserving of the Shack at St Mawgan I can appreciate the effort and dedication that goes into looking after such a huge aircraft. Would love to travel up and see it sometime.
I too think that what happened to the Hendon Beverley was shameful, whoevers fault it was (maybe ours for not kicking up about it at the time), I saw it complete and in the same week as it was broken up.

some time in the late 1960s, I remember seeing a brief clip on TV of Sandy Shaw (I think) standing on the undercarriage of a Beverley and calling up (a long way of course) to the crew in the cockpit.

Cor! Sandie Shaw – did she leave footprints on the tyres? 😀 😀

Roger Smith.

I was at Finningley in the mid 70’s when the Beverley there was cut up along with a couple of Varsitys and an Argosy. If I remember correctly the cockpit section went to Newark along with the Shackleton.

I used to have two of the prop blades in my garden………they were hoooooge. Wonder if they are still there??

A225HVY

Beverleys

I visited Paull on 5-9-06, almost solely to see the Beverley. Internal access was freely available and the aircraft is in great condition internally-or seemed to be to my non-engineer’s eye. No access to cockpit though. Not bad condition externally at all, bar some algae growth on one small area. They’d moved the Portaloo………. See photo attached and also one of XH124 which I unearthed to my great surprise and pleasure the other day.

Also, a bit of Beverley trivia: some time in the late 1960s, I remember seeing a brief clip on TV of Sandy Shaw (I think) standing on the undercarriage of a Beverley and calling up (a long way of course) to the crew in the cockpit. Anyone else remember this or, even better, know where to find that clip?

most of the stuff from transport museum was on loan from mod/ imperial war museum so a lot went back down south a lot went by drops from a local ta unit and low loaders for the rest from catterick. as for tail section yes i did sneek a peek not a bad view

Thank you Landraver and Consol. Did you go upstairs into the tail section. While in Beverley it had a very intresting display with a Para ready to jump from the hatch. Will have to visit soon. I have no excuse, its right on my door step.
The Army Transport Museum was an excellent museum, its a real shame it is no longer there. Great memorys of playing in some of the vehicles and riding in the DUKW. Does any body know where the Rhino went after the museum closed. It was like a monster truck designed to carry supplies.
And even further off topic. Where did the T-34 from Hornsea pottery go.

Sorry to drag this one back up. Has any body visited paull recentley.The web site is still having problems. I would like to know if the public can now tour the Beverley. Some thing I have not done since I was about ten when it was at the Army Transport Museum.

Certainly can. I made a visit last year and here are a couple of shots I took of her at the Fort. Just as a matter of comparison, many years back I was allowed to take some rare angles of the same machine when she was at the old Paull airfield prior to he moving to Beverley. That wing is a long way up – the things we do – not sure I’d do it now:)

yes u can tour the beverley me and my dad where looking in and around just before crimbo had my own personal guided tour, he didnt fly in the beverley but did argosy caribou and hercs pretty good stuff

Sorry to drag this one back up. Has any body visited paull recentley.The web site is still having problems. I would like to know if the public can now tour the Beverley. Some thing I have not done since I was about ten when it was at the Army Transport Museum.

never surfed it but if any one wants photos of the beverley im glad to help

Its a pity their site isn’t running due to hackers! 🙁

move her to driffield a good reason to save both the beverly and driffield move the comet too it was there when my dad was at lyneham save 2 birds with one stone im also a member of the beverley rivet owners club

How strange this thread has been bumped at exactly the same time I was given a video that has some superb footage of them rebuilding XB259 at the Transport Museum at Beverly.

A lot of the manpower and equipment used to do this in the early eighties was donated by local engineering firms and voulenteers, the comentator goes on to say that this converted into money terms equated to roughly £300,000 !!!.

One thing that did interest me was that once XB259 was whole again the Museum started a fundraising effort for the restoration and up keep of her, this took the amusing for of the Beverly Rivet Owners Club, the idea being that anyone could purchase a rivet from XB259 at the cost of £1.
There was a total of around 400,000 rivets in the Beverly so if succesfull then there would be enough money raised for her up keep, of course they kept the rivet and you never actually knew wich one was yours 😮 .

What has happened to the Beverly Rivet Owners Club and could the resurection of such a scheme help her now?

Regards,

John.

Fort Paull…Weird, weird place. Worth a visit just to see how weird it is!

Anne

im all too happy to save this almost extinct bird, i live in hull and ive often thought that this plane is in the wrong place but at least they are doing something about it, my dad was an air despatcher and it brings back memories for him. to see this bird turned into coke cans would be a national shame and a local tradgidy, im all too willing to volunteer to save this aircraft lets get off our backsides and do something about it before the gas axe comes calling. and im also a member of the beverley rivet club

The great thing about this forum is that there are so many new faces on it, and they appear all the time. Yes, this does come up a lot, but every time it comes back, its brought back to a fresh audience – at least in part. If you dont want to read it, then dont!

Philip,

If you want to do what you can for preservation, then get involved! You clearly have a great deal of drive and enthusiasm. Go join your local museum, and do what you can to see these things preserved. Set up your own group if you must, but get involved.

However, next time something gets scrapped, dont come up here and say ‘told you so’, if you havent made an effort yourself. There are only so many of us in the preservation movement, and frankly the numbers are going down not up…

Bruce

RAF Driffield is my life – check out (if you haven’t already) www.driffieldaerodrome.co.uk. RAF Driffield is located a few miles from Driffield – not only the Capitol of the Wolds but also the capitol of apathy and indecision. At the moment I’m trying to save the hangars at Driffield from being demolished – the only way forward is to suggest new ways in which these hangars can be employed, like public and private sector document storage. I’m working with Business Link to create a database of potential customers. When not trying to save RAF Driffield, I’m writing about the RAF Fire Service – I’m also working on a DV documentary film on Bomber Command.

If the Comet (one of only five left in the UK) at Lyneham or the last surviving Queen’s Flight Andover or if all of the RAF’s fleet of original No.10 Squadron aircraft are scrapped (without a single example being preserved) I’ll be doing more than say I told you so. We may not have the money, but the least we could do is learn from past mistakes. And if a few people get a little tired of hearing me going on then at least I can in future years say at least “I” tried my best and say “I told you so”.

The great thing about this forum is that there are so many new faces on it, and they appear all the time. Yes, this does come up a lot, but every time it comes back, its brought back to a fresh audience – at least in part. If you dont want to read it, then dont!

Philip,

If you want to do what you can for preservation, then get involved! You clearly have a great deal of drive and enthusiasm. Go join your local museum, and do what you can to see these things preserved. Set up your own group if you must, but get involved.

However, next time something gets scrapped, dont come up here and say ‘told you so’, if you havent made an effort yourself. There are only so many of us in the preservation movement, and frankly the numbers are going down not up…

Bruce

Very

yawn

This morning I received confirmation from the Science Museum.

Despite it being agreed in 1986 that the Hendon Beverley be offered to either the IWM or Science Museum, the Science Museum have got back to me and have confirmed that they were not offered this aircraft. The ScM Freedom of Information officer even contact the old curator of the Science Museum (not sure which curator) who also couldn’t recall being contact by either the RAF Museum or MoD regarding this aircraft. Now I know I keep going about this, but don’t you find it at all frustrating that if in a meeting it was agreed to offer this aircraft to other organisations at least someone would have act upon this agreed line of enquiry.

An interesting footnote the ScM have a PRISM Fund file relating to the purchase and Transportation of XB259. No dates are given, as the file was transferred to the Museum Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Can anyone expand on this?

The Vulcan at Blackpool is one of around 16? In 1989 there were three Beverley transports – now there is only one. The RAF Museum was to blame in part for the loss of XH124 because of the lack of care in the preceding years. Yes the MoD owned the aircraft but it appears that the RAF Museum was tasked with the maintenance. And remember the reason why XH124 was flown into Hendon was because of the RAF Museum and no other reason. If the aircraft was maintained and “primed” for long term external display when the airframe first arrived at Hendon then the annual cost of such maintenance would have been must lower than the cost of reversing the accumulative years of neglect. The problem is that we have not learnt from this mistake – the comet at Lyneham has been on external display for years and faces an uncertain future because lessons learnt from Hendon weren’t learnt.

And with that I’ll sign off. Yes, money is a problem and will remain a problem as long as “our” aviation heritage is deemed not as important as other aspects of our heritage and culture. This has to change before we loose another airframe or aerodrome or temper.