Fairey Aviation Archive – What became of it?

hi alan,

as i understand it it all went to the museum, but hey i have been wrong before:D

I thought that at least some of it went to Westland?

hi alan,

according to my good friend Ian Huntley it is all at the RAF museum, indeed that who i contacted for my Spearfish photos.

I visited the Museum of Science & Industry Archive a few years ago.

I was shown a card index system for the contents of the archive. There didn’t seem to be a lot in it, tbh, just mostly books. It certainly didn’t seem to be the repository of treasure I was hoping for.

I remember an AP for the Firefly 7 (possibly some Gannet APs too) was one of the few things to catch my eye but I cannot recall whence it came.

I think the lady I dealt with implied that some of the archive had yet to be catalogued.

It has to be worth a phone call or email?

Much of the Fairey achive was destroyed, but some of it was rescued by some private individuals who made a last minute attempt to save as much as possible. Sadly a vast amount of material didn’t survive.

John

A lot of the Fairey archive did go Westlands, and they were (this was 10 ish years ago in the Fred Ballam days) very helpfull with access and copying etc, at the time I was going through info they were under the impression that Ian Huntley had the rest of it.
See this thread.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=96328&highlight=westland+archive

The service side of Fairey products for the Navy is also very well catered for in the FAAM archives.

I was unaware that the RAFM had any Fairey archives, they certainly have pics and APs of various types but these come from a variety of other sources.

I’m guessing that the Science Museum at Manchester might have some of the Fairey Heaton Chapel archives?

Sounds like many company archives then.

That’s excellent news Judwin.
did Ian Huntley pass his stuff on to the RAFM then?

Fairey Aviation Archive

Ian Huntley rescued what he could.
The RAF Museum is reported to have had most of it, and some (too little) did find its way to Westland.

I have inherited Fred’s task and am currently trying to sort out the Westland archive to make it more accessable.

When complete I will let it be known on this forum.

Fairey Archive material

When Westland decided to close the Hayes site two of the Fairey Directors, in a miff, put much of the archives in the incinerator. Ian Huntley had the foresite to fill his car boot a number of times with archives before they disappeared. Ian still has that in his collection. Westland only took what they thought would be useful and nothing that was duplicated at either site. The remains of anything from Hayes did go to the RAF Museum and are stored in boxes. The contents have never been sorted into any sort of category and much of it is day-to-day notes/letters etc although there is some interesting stuff. There is an archive of drawings – all unsorted! According to the ‘Museum it would take years to sort. The RAF Museum library has a small quantity of old files, mostly I think on transparent card. The archives from Stockport/Heaton Chapel/Ringway sites were for the most part after the war put in one of their old factory air raid shelters and with the development of the area for housing were bulldozed into the foundations of new estates. How do I know? I used to visit all those sites before their demise and talked to many people on the workforce – including Ian Huntley who became a friend.
Billbattle

When Westland decided to close the Hayes site two of the Fairey Directors, in a miff, put much of the archives in the incinerator. Ian Huntley had the foresite to fill his car boot a number of times with archives before they disappeared. Ian still has that in his collection. Westland only took what they thought would be useful and nothing that was duplicated at either site. The remains of anything from Hayes did go to the RAF Museum and are stored in boxes. The contents have never been sorted into any sort of category and much of it is day-to-day notes/letters etc although there is some interesting stuff. There is an archive of drawings – all unsorted! According to the ‘Museum it would take years to sort. The RAF Museum library has a small quantity of old files, mostly I think on transparent card. The archives from Stockport/Heaton Chapel/Ringway sites were for the most part after the war put in one of their old factory air raid shelters and with the development of the area for housing were bulldozed into the foundations of new estates. How do I know? I used to visit all those sites before their demise and talked to many people on the workforce – including Ian Huntley who became a friend.
Billbattle

Hoped that you would pop up Bill.

Regards

John

Aw, that’s a shame.

Thanks for the input then guys- we seem OK for drawings, it’s stuff like photos and manuals that I’m after.

I believe Ian Huntley passed away a couple of years ago .

The RAFM has a large number of drawings for Fairey aircraft “on microfiche”, but they do not have an exact list of what drawings they have.
The late Mr Robinson of Stockport, had a number of drawings for Fairey aircraft, including some for the Hendon. These came from the Heaton Chapel factory. the where abouts of these & other drawings acquired by him, are currently unknown.

Bob T.

Just resurrecting this old thread as I’d love to get in touch with Ian Huntley re. anything Barracuda related that he may have that could help with The Barracuda Project…anyone?