Dave, once I get back on my feet I will hot foot it over there again to check. The Swift parts were not useable for my project. The rear most part of the fuz with XF113 had suffered terribly from souvenir hunters with machetes (they would not let me buy just that bit). I did fall off a rather high heap but where there is no sense there is no reason and I was unhurt! The Swift is an unsung hero of aviation. You know full well my ridiculous passion for saving lost causes, but I do not have endless cash to spend on parts I cannot use. (especially with my divorce). This is a superb thread. I have some phots of other yards which I hope to post after the weekend.
I would ask others to keep it going.

Tony,

I’m gonna pop in this Sunday on my return from Brooklands

I told myself I wouldn’t bite, but Consul, you have my sympathy. Not all that long ago I posted a colour shot of an RAF Neptune in the Lasham scrapyard, and no-one took a blind bit of notice.

Uhmm… . quite agree, a scrapyard near Frome full (potentially) of parts waiting to be found and also containing the rest of Swift XF113 for a mere 400 quid. What price preservation ? :rolleyes:

How much for the Bucc windscreen ?

I went to see the sections in the yard tosee if anything was useful. Unfortunately most was bent and out of shape….besides they wanted £400 at that time.

But what, if anything, is still there ?

Swift XF113

As you may be aware, TonyD holds the nose section of Swift F.7 XF113.

You may not be aware this was discovered in a yard nr Frome by Dr Robert Poulter who had is transported to his home nr Bath (along with his Seahawks) in the mid 80’s.

I visited this yard in ’87 and again in ’95, and the rear fuselage and (seperate) centre section of XF113 were still extant.

On my first visit it was still owned by the original family concern, and was full of wing sections, boxed & greased parts, wheels, tyres etc… the old chap even claimed he had TSR2 sections from Boscombe for scrapping !! (The Swift came from Boscombe also)

In ’95 it had become a car breakers, but the site was bigger than the (considerable) amount of cars they had, hence the ‘aeroplane’ parts hadn’t yet been touched or were likely to in the near future.

However, that was then, and now health & safety rules have affected car breakers etc… so questions i’d like to ask is: has anyone else heard of the place or can shed any light on its contents ? As i’ve not seen it mentioned to date.

Cheers….

oh p.s. No Tony isn’t interested in making his Swift whole again !

Terrific photos in this thread. Well done to all who took them. I’d formed the belief that the scrapping of Tiffies had been comprehensive and after about 1947 only the US example and a couple of cockpit sections existed. But from 682al’s postings it seems that remains continued to exist into the 1980s, even the 1990s. I wonder how much was ever rescued.

But what happened when Flowers’ yard in Chippenham was cleared & auctioned circa 1998-9 ?

I used to poke around in there quite a bit, with parts of Tiffies, Spits, Canberra, Scout, Beaver, Swift, Varsity/Valetta, plus some submarine parts and of course the dismembered remains of Seahawk WV838 (cockpit now with a guy in Liverpool)

The Typhoon cockpit now with John & co’ at Staverton, was also extracted fairly recently, and there were 3 large piles of scrap each the size of a house.

Surely something was underneath ? But alas i missed the clearance & auction of contents.

Anyone know more… please ?

…….the scrap pile that they came out of….

Is that Chippenham by any chance ?

According to Ch4 forum, the Invader dig is to be aired 16th Jan at 6.30pm.

Anymore know more or can comfirm this ?