Well, these things can be found all over Europe (and wouldn’t surprise me if in other countries all over the world).

The Fw200 Condor project in Germany uses a fuselage section that was formerly in use in eastern germany to shelter a trabant. It’s now on show at the Deutsche Technik Museum in Berlin and is fitted out with passenger seats, it looks fantastic. There was a rumoured Constellation fuselage section (Roger?) in use in a garden near Amsterdam. We got a complete Rotol propeller from a belly landed Wellington that had been standing in a garden for decades without the missing propeller tips. A section of B17 showing wing battle repairs in use as a fence. In Belgium a tailsection of a B17 was in use as a garden barbeque:D
The most puzzling items I ever saw in flypast were Brewster Bermuda canopies in a UK garden (US designated Buccaneer, with now only a few preserved). The Elvington Halifax reconstruction uses a dorsal turret cupola that came from a garden.
Cotswolds Aircraft Restoration Group formerly at Innsworth got a lot of interesting items from gardens,sheds etc. Even Lancaster flame exhaust shrouds that were in use as pig feeding gutters, they were reported to be provided to the BBMF (Fluffy?)
Alan (air ministry) you must know a lot about these finds as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if the RAF Museum in their infant days got a lot of these finds, a pic in Aeroplane showed a lot of turret cupolas in storage.
Keep them coming

Cees

The frontarea of our museum (you can’t call it a garden) has a fence made from sections of Junkers 52 mainspars. Years ago one of our members visited a loca garage to find an Oerlikon 20mm gunmount. While rummaging in the area he tripped and when trying to get onto his feet again he looked up and saw that the roofstructure was made of a large number of these wingspars. Leftovers from wartime repairs from the nearby Fokker factory. As the roof was to be renewed he arranged to get the spars but the owner thought he wanted them for scrap and made things easier by cutting them into sections 😮 One was left intact and that is now on display in our museum while the rest was made into a fence.:D

About the great responses:
I think it was indeed a Felixstowe nose section. Great to see so much response to this interesting thread. Who knows what’s left to find. Ian Foster told me about the Halifax bombdoors (and was also reported upon in FlyPast), the doors however were not in good condtion and served as a pattern for new doors (Deryck, pleas correct me if I’m wrong). Also half a Halifax C Mk VIII cargo carrier was found (anyone know if that turned up in Canada as well) During the active 57Rescue days Ian and friends discovered a lot of interesting items in gardens etc. One section of Halifx NA142 was even found to be in use as a shed and was later transported to Canada to fill in the missing rear fuselage section of NA337.

From the top of my head there were articles in flypast about Hurricane canopies near the editorial office in Stamford at the time, a Typhoon canopy frame as well as a section of Stirlilng N3600 (serial?). Propeller blades serving as a fence and of course many turret cupolas (any more of those?).

Keep them coming chaps

Cees

A section of fuselage from a Mk IV Stirling was used as a garden shed for many years. It came from one lost during Market Garden. There are some photos, including a nice series documenting its move to the local museum, here: http://www.museumvlbdeelen.nl/index-1.html. Look under ‘Diversen’, De Short Stirling, pictures are under ‘Klik hier voor foto’s’ 😀

Cees, have you seen this ‘in the flesh’?

DS

Hi DS

Yes, I’ve seen it and it looks magnificent in it’s own wright. It cannot be used for a reconstruction without replacing the formers which have all been cut off at the base unfortunately, but it’s a prime example of what I was aiming at.

In the UK a mid fuselage section of a Wellington was found in use as a green house and incorporated into the Loch Ness Wellington. IIRC there was also a nose section of a WWI British flying boat in use as a shed. Anyone have pics of turret cupolas retrieved from gardens? Peter, the Nanton museum recentely got a Type E tailturret from a Halifax from the UK.

Keep them coming

Cheers

Cees