Biggin Hill trip and interesting find – can anyone i/d these parts?

As per usual, I headed off south for the Shoreham jumble “do” a couple of days early to have a look round one or two places on the way and do some walking.

It was late in the afternoon on the Thursday (4 April) when I parked in Jail Lane at the southern end of Biggin Hill airfield, and headed up into the woods to have a poke around. I’d done this before a few year’s back so took my sack trolley along to rescue a few bits I’d seen.

The path runs alongside the boundary fence between the airfield and the woods and seems to be a place very much unchanged since WW2. As many will know, Biggin Hill airfield was heavily bombed and there can still be seen to this day numerous overgrown craters amongst the trees, there being no necessity to fill them in not being on the operational area. There are also several wrecked buildings.

After passing between the houses at the start of the walk I headed down into the woods a bit further on. As I entered the wood, on the right hand side, there were a couple of huge craters, all overgrown and filled with an assortment of rubbish old and modern. I immediately saw what at first looked like the end from a bouncing bomb then another smaller piece a bit further on.

By now it was snowing quite a bit and as I dragged the half-concealed items out it became apparent that these were indeed aircraft parts. I soon ascertained that they were the remains of a large aircraft spinner, made of steel and therefore rather rusty. They were not familiar to me at all though I could see they were quite old. First thoughts were that they could be German, possibly removed from a crash-landed aircraft which had been stripped down by the recovery crew. They needed to be rescued.

I hauled the parts out of the wood on my trolley and up to my vehicle where they were stashed to be taken home for further investigation. There was too much rust on the main backplate section to see any part numbers, it having been used as a brazier at some time, so was heavily pitted and the aluminium parts melted. The front support plate, however, after a bit of cleaning of one of the support brackets, yielded an inspector’s stamp and a part number. It wasn’t German but, judging by the p/n , part of a de-Havilland unit. Details as follows:

(Bracket) part number: P25703, Inspection stamp: S43. It also became apparent it had been taken off (it wasn’t a crash-site item) a four-blade prop and with a diameter of 33 ins (840mm) it must have come from a pretty big aeroplane. There weren’t many war time RAF aircraft I can think of which had a de-H 4-blade prop of this size. Following the proven fact that the manufacturer of the propeller also makes the spinner (if fitted) one that does spring to mind is the Tempest. I can find no trace of any quick-release fittings for the removal of the spinner dome, instead, a row of captive nuts are fitted for the purpose.

Here are some pics of my trip. I’d be glad of any suggestions as to the type of aircraft the spinner could be off. First pic shows the old main BH entrance – who’d have believed it was early April not mid-January:eek: More pics of parts are available if required.

Anon.