My first visit to Old Warden must have been about 1971 or 72. It was a school trip which stopped at Old Warden on the way to Dunstable where we had arranged glider flights. The Old Warden visit was an unexpected bonus as was the Rollason Condor tug at Dunstable breaking it’s tailskid so I was aerotowed behind a Tiger Moth instead.
Maybe the following will help jog your memory. The black and white picture looks pretty much as I remember the Spitfire and Hurricane on that first visit. It would be unthinkable to leave a Spitfire and Hurricane outside like that today – times change.

http://http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1359700/

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1031359/

and also the Hurricane

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1000716/

In those days I think it was the first hangar to the left of the entrance / shop as you stood with your back to the airfield was full of stored airframes. There were at least 2 maybe 3 Cierva autogiros and I think there were 2 Magisters in there. I remember Comet G-ACSS and Jean Batten’s Gull G-ADPR on display and the “De Havilland” hangar didn’t exist then. There must have been a lot more but I am getting older and my memory banks are over full. I am sure I have got my log book in the loft but finding it is another matter. Old Warden has changed and expanded since then but thankfully has never lost it’s unique character.

Thanks again for the uploading the pics of LIH.
The ebay picture still shows in a google search here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Avro-Anson-derelict-G-ALIH-Southend-1968-original-colour-slide-/160917485383?nma=true&si=%2FYlihicU2iGV5whxS0c0m5ma3Wo%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
From memory the Prentice hulk was probably G_AOKT and had been around the airport for a very long time. Real shame LIH was torched as she was a bit different from the Avro 19s that are still around in the UK.
There are also other pictures of LIH in 2 x EKCO colour schemes on the Air Britain ABPIC site.

My first Spitfire was at Southend probably around 1966 – 68 i have been told this is probably MH434

I am almost certain that MH434 didn’t appear at any of the Southend Airshows at that time. I don’t think MH434 was reimported from Belgium until 1967 and in the early days still flew in a civil colour scheme as G-ASJV.
Mark12 can probably confirm it but, from memory I think the only Spitfires at the Southend displays in 1967/8 were AB910 and 2 seater G-AIDN in the flying display and K9942 which in those days was carted around on a trailer by the RAF exhibition team.

I first visited Southend Airport in 1967 and soon became a regular spotter there cycling over several times a week. At that time G-ALIH was still in use and I remember Ekco acquiring G-AGPG.
According to GINFO GPG was registered to Ekco on 20/10/67 and LIH was permanently withdrawn from use on 6/5/68 so it was late 67 / early 68 when Ekco first started operating GPG.
LIH was fitted with the nose from GPG and consigned to the dump for a while. There was a picture of her on the dump on Ebay a few weeks ago. She was subsequently acquired by Newark Air Museum and, as has already been posted, torched by vandals.

Thanks for that. It brings back a few memories. The fuselage is sitting in Bill’s garden in Oaken Grange Drive, Southend less than a mile from the airport. There was a report in the local paper when she arrived as they had to get a fair sized crane to lift her over the wall and telephone wires. Bill had to endure the local spotters peering over the wall to add another registration to their lists.
Next time I saw her I was about to cycle away from the airport one day when a articulated lorry came slowly through the main gate with TB863 aboard. I recognised a couple of the people sitting on the back as ex-Channel Airways engineers who were working at the museum. I asked where they were going and they said to the museum. I cycled round the road and the lorry took a shortcut past Aviation Traders and I arrived at the museum just in time to see her offloaded. I remember the crane driver earned his money that day moving the telescopic jib in and out to avoid all the beams in the museum roof.

TB863 bought by Bill Francis at the end of the Battle of Britain film and kept in his garden in Southend for a while. He subsequently moved her to the museum building at Southend where we got every ounce of publicity possible out of having a Spitfire in the building.
As a teenager looking at the holes in the wing skins and the other battered parts I found it very hard to believe Bill’s assurances that she would fly again one day but ultimately she did fly again in New Zealand with Sir Tim Wallis.

Just found a link to a photo of Thruxton Jackaroo G-APHZ when it was operated by Airspray.

http://http://www.airliners.net/photo/Airspray-(Colchester)Ltd./Thruxton-Jackaroo/2101385/&sid=55f359d829bf8aa6598d26352f6fb39e

That would make a change from a standard Tiger as an RC model.

I think the Panton brothers have worked miracles to get NX611 to her current state. She spent many years sitting outside as a gate guarduian which can’t have been the best environment for preservation. In view of the years she spent outside I am surprised to hear that her spars are said to be in good condition which must be an important factor in being able to consider a return to flight
I really hope they are able to get her flying again and if they are ever in a position to offer passenger rides I hope I am able to raise the money to be aboard one day.