When I was a lad, I used to scour the farms and junk shops around Witney in Oxon for such stuff. A farmer still uses 4 Horsa wheels on a hay trailer. I used to find spit tailwheels and old Mk1 Hurri tailwheels were used in the local, now closed, blanket factory. Some stuff came from the old Witney airfield but most from 6MU at Brize which got rid of such stuff just after the war.
The farmer with the Horsa told me how he had bought 4 complete gliders and that he had the undercarriage and wheels for his farm and the rest stored around somewhere! I was wide eyed and followed him to the tiniest hut you have seen in your life out of which he brought a bucket of metal fittings which (after he had burnt the fuselages) he thought ‘might come in useful’!!. Since then I have recovered at least 4 spitty mainwheels (1 early and 3 AH10019s) from assorted trailers and some 7 spit tailwheels (in the last 4 years).
Best find was a row of cloches (formerly Hurricane canopies) in varying states near North Weald. I just missed a Spit canopy being used for the same use, it was trashed a month before I got to it.
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