Thanks, Robert, but pardon my apparent ignorance here, why is this trailer so narrow and short, as there appears no room for the wings, etc to be carried on it as well?
For £11,000, I would have expected a more protective piece of kit for it…..

Edit: Correction: There is this article in The Northern Echo dated 5th May 2008 relating to Bill Plant Ltd providing a trailer and Land Rover Defenders for transport…..

Roadside assistance for replica Spitfire
8:48am Monday 5th May 2008

By Ian Noble

A STRANDED replica Second World War fighter built by volunteers will tour air shows in the UK after a businessman stepped in to help make it mobile. Volunteers from the Royal British Legion’s (RBL) branch in Ripon, North Yorkshire, spent 7,000 hours and more than 11 months building the full-size replica Spitfire. It is the only one of its kind in the UK and was built as close to the original drawings for the fighter as possible. The aircraft is more than nine metres long, but does not have an engine, so volunteers were left with the problem of how to transport it.

Then Ripon-based Bill Plant Limited, a driver training company, contacted the group and arranged to move the plane with the loan of two vehicles and an exhibition unit. Howard Whiting, chairman of the RBL’s Ripon branch, said: “Interest in the aircraft is immense.

“But it’s not an easy thing to take around. In fact, travel arrangements to air shows and events was a nightmare until Bill Plant Limited stepped in.” The Spitfire was stored and maintained at RAF Leeming, near Bedale, while it was being built. Funds raised by the plane’s appearances at events will go towards helping to support RBL members and their families.

It is also hoped that the Spitfire project will educate people about the sacrifices made by the Armed Forces.

Bill Plant, managing director of Bill Plant Limited, said: “We are very proud to have the opportunity to be able to help in this way to support the Royal British Legion. “We are proud to support its work with servicemen past and present – in particular those involved in recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.” The replica Spitfire will be at Ripon market place on Saturday, May 17, before heading off on a nationwide tour. Among the shows it will visit are The Great Yorkshire Show, at Harrogate, and the Sunderland International Air Show, both in July. The plane is built from aluminium and instead of an engine has counter balance weights fitted to keep it level.

Visitors can sit in the plane’s cockpit and feel what it was like to be a Second World War fighter pilot. Its wingspan is 11.2 metres, but the wings can be detached for transportation.

Just a slight correction; according to the Southease War Grave web page, his aircraft appeared to have run out of fuel and force landed between Chartham and Chicham. Chartham is in Kent, which fits with 242 base, but Chilham, no Chicham in Kent. There is a Chidham, near Chichester but nothing like Chartham there.
Otherwise it seems strange that he is buried where no one now seems to know anything about him or his wife, nor can anyone remember why.
If he was an “outsider” surely they’d want to know why he was being buried there?
There has to be some connection, now forgotten, such as a sister marrying locally or perhaps they were married there?
It’s just intriguing that literally from out of the blue a pilot from a well known squadron ends up being buried far from where he crashed and with no apparent connection.
You don’t just turn up with a coffin and say “this’ll do”!!!

NPB12: You’re right about Tebbutt being from Luton.
His CWGC entry:
Name: TEBBUTT, RONALD
Initials: R
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant (Nav.)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 107 Sqdn.
Age: 32
Date of Death: 31/10/1942
Service No: 1254448
Additional information: Son of Vince and Martha Ann Tebbutt; husband of Ida Tebbutt, of Luton, Bedfordshire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: VI. AA. 8.
Cemetery: ADEGEM CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY

SD90: Is that kev35’s album!!
Very good posting and the other tracks mentioned can be accessed from the righthand list on the link…
Very thought provoking….
Wiki (yeah, I know but…) has this
Harding’s father, Louis Arthur “Curly” Harding, was a a navigator in the RAF who was killed during World War II, a few weeks before his son’s birth.
Name: HARDING, LOUIS ARTHUR
Initials: L A
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Flight Sergeant (Nav.)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force
Unit Text: 9 Sqdn.
Date of Death: 24/09/1944
Service No: 574158
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot 15. Joint grave 13.
Cemetery: HOLTEN GENERAL CEMETERY

So you can understand that this is really a song from the heart…..

There was one hanger on the far side from the Control Tower near the runway crossover where I’m sure there were stacks of Rapides, including wings stacked against the rear wall. Near where the Avian fuselage was. There were a lot of aircraft scrapped in a dump with what seemed like hundreds of radial engines in wooden pallets stacked about 6 high.
Seemed to me to be WW2 stuff by the age of it (early 60’s) with dirty cracked perspex etc…. fascinating stuff for a kid and fed my aviation interest…. dunno about ‘elf n safety though!! Crawling through wrecks 5 or 6 high and squirming into cockpits imagining I could fly!!

Originally adopted in 1915 by the RFC, its use was continued by the RAF until superseded by the Navigators’ and Air Bombers’ badges in 1942

Any help?

Old Fart – As you ask, I was born in Rochford Hospital and lived near the end of the runway until 4 years ago… If that is the worst joke you’ve heard, you’ve had a very sheltered life….
It’s obvious you misunderstood the SEE planes, so as you’re that easily offended, I apologise….. It was in response to comments that the thread had drifted t
away from SEAplanes….. Calm down dear…..