Items discovered at Newchurch

The following items were discovered on the site of the ALG in 2017 by Alan Tomlin, Geoff Kingwell, John Doyle and Jenny Carr.  They donated the items back to the landowner in the presentation case shown below.

The following items were discovered by Simon Jenkins on the site of 3 Squadron dispersal.

These two glass bottles were discovered intact.  One very clearly says "Brylcreem" we presume this belonged to a pilot as during World War II, members of the RAF were known as "Brylcreem Boys".  The second bottle is believed to have to have been a hip style bottle.

Below are some 20mm cannon ammunition casings (larger ones) and four 303 bullets. Many of the V1 interceptions would have happened in the vicinity of the airfield and the casings would have been littered from the Tempest V fighters. In 1964 a consignment of live 20mm ammunition was discovered buried in an adjoining field presumably left behind because of lack of transport. In the 1990's a large quantity of spent casings was unearthed by a trenching machine on the site of an aircraft gun alignment bay near "Chestnuts" Cottage. The .303 bullets may have come from Spitfires also operating from the airfield.

More personal items that were discovered here at Newchurch are shown below.  These consist of:

• Two buckles (one of which is called a 37 pattern)
• Buttons
• Button loop engraved “Firmin London” (they produced buttons for the military since the 1600s)
• A one-penny piece from 1938 (the larger coin)
• A three-penny piece from 1943 (the smaller coin)

These items most probably belonged to pilots and groundcrew stationed at the airfield during WWII.

An RAF button and an RAF badge were also discovered.  The detail of these iems are clearly visible. It is remarkable that they were buried in the ground at Newchurch for many years and were discovered intact.

Items of cutlery were also found, pilots probably ate their lunch with these.  You can see the hallmark and the date on the middle handle as 1942.