the newsletter of the pembroke dock sunderland …...one, of a boeing b-29 superfortress, is used in...
Post on 18-May-2020
2 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
The Newsletter of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
2
Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust
Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre
The Royal Dockyard Chapel,
Meyrick Owen Way,
Pembroke Dock, SA72 6WS
01646 684220
enquiries@sunderlandtrust.com
www.sunderlandtrust.com
Facebook/SunderlandTrust
Twitter/PDHeritageCent
Registered as a charity
in England and Wales, number 1120476
Registered as a company
limited by guarantee, number 05920931
With the Christmas and New Year holiday
period upon us, all of the Pembroke Dock
Sunderland Trust Team send our very best
wishes to you for a Happy and Healthy
Christmas and for the coming year.
We thank all our supporters for their continued
backing during the year and look forward to
welcoming many of you again in 2017.
With Very Best Wishes,
Winter Closure
Please note that the Heritage Centre will be
closed from Sunday 18th December 2016 until
Friday 17th February 2017. The Centre re-
opens to the public on Saturday 18th
February, in time for the half-term holiday.
Opening hours will remain for the new season:
Monday to Saturday, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
From Wednesday 4th January until Friday 17th
February the Centre will be open for group
bookings and for staff and volunteer activity.
Group visits are most welcome at this time
and throughout the year. Contact the
Heritage Centre team in advance to discuss
making a group booking for any time in the
year.
Please call 01646 684220 or email
enquiries@sunderlandtrust.com for further
details.
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
3
Ron Boreham receives the Sunderland T9044 print
from Trustee colleague Graham Clarkson (left) and Trust Chairman Gareth Mills.
Farewell to ‘Sunderlander’, Ron
The Heritage Centre’s ‘resident Sunderlander’,
Ron Boreham, was given an emotional send
off before heading to a new home in Norfolk,
this autumn. A Sunderland Trust Volunteer
Team stalwart, Ron has been involved in town
heritage projects for many years and was
also a Trustee of the Sunderland Trust.
A former aircrew signaller who served in the
RAF for 34 years, Ron’s first connection with
‘PD’ came in the early 1950s with a posting to
No 230 Squadron on Sunderlands. He
completed an 800 hour tour on Sunderlands,
moving on to fly in Shackletons and then
various jet aircraft before becoming an air
traffic controller.
Originally from London, Ron met his late wife
Nan in ‘PD’ and they were married for 53
years. Ron, who has three sons, a daughter
and nine grandchildren, will be living with
daughter Gill and family in Norwich.
It was appropriate that Ron’s leaving gift was
a print of a Sunderland donated by Welsh
artist John Wynne Hopkins of the Guild of
Aviation Artists depicting Sunderland T9044
over a convoy. T9044’s story and its artefacts
are the centrepiece of displays at the
Heritage Centre, 76 years after it sank off PD,
in November 1940.
Other News in Brief
Cockpit progress
The replica Sunderland cockpit – detailed in
the last ‘Webfooter’ – has been having the
final finishings applied at the Heritage Centre
and will officially ‘take off’ in the spring.
Watch out for news in the next Webfooter,
spring 2017!
Castle market
For the first time the Sunderland Trust had a
stall at the hugely successful Christmas market
held - over a long weekend in November -
inside the walls of nearby Pembroke Castle.
Rotas of Volunteers helped Centre Manager
Stuart ‘man the ramparts’. The Castle and the
Heritage Centre co-operate closely to
promote each other’s attraction. To keep up with all our news and
events, follow us on Facebook:
facebook.com/sunderlandtrust
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
4
Cubs plant for spring spectacular
The Cubs Daffodil Planting Party all set to go in the
Heritage Centre grounds.
With them was Centre Manager Stuart Berry (right).
Hardworking cub scouts have made a major
contribution to turning the grounds of the
Heritage Centre into a spring bloom
spectacular.
On a wet Saturday in November, ten
members of the 3rd Pembroke Cub Pack
planted hundreds of bulbs in the grounds of
the former Dockyard Chapel. They were
helped by cub leaders, family members and
Heritage Centre Volunteers.
On the day, over 600 bulbs – many
generously donated by local Wilko and Tesco
stores, as well as green-fingered Trust
volunteers – were planted in good time for a
spring showing.
Uniform grant
The Sunderland Trust has been successful in its
bid for a small grant to help look after the
collection of military uniform in its care.
With the £3,000 grant the Trust will seek to
improve the storage of around 100 items of
military uniform, and to purchase vital
equipment and materials including
conservation-grade garment covers, storage
boxes and rails.
The Heritage Centre will also be able to buy
equipment such as environmental data
loggers - essential for curatorial staff and
volunteers to keep track of the temperature
and humidity within the exhibition spaces and
stores.
As well as items in the permanent collection,
which will be preserved as part of this project
for research and display, the Heritage Centre
also has a small number of uniform items
which form part of its ‘handling collection’.
These are very popular with visitors and school
groups who want to get up close, and even
try them on.
The project grant will be funded by the Welsh
Government through the Museums, Archives
and Libraries Division and the Federation of
Museums and Art Galleries of Wales.
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
5
Mrs Ann McPhee admires the prototype Sunderland model
with Autodromo’s Andy Cann (right) and John Evans of the Sunderland Trust.
Sunderland on an educational mission
A Sunderland flying boat is set to touch down
in 2017 at Pembroke Dock where it will take
on a unique education mission at the
Heritage Centre.
The Sunderland, an impressive scale model
with 14ft wingspan, is being created by a
Pembrokeshire company, Autodromo, which
is pioneering large aviation educational
models for museums.
In a first for a UK museum the Sunderland
project is being funded thanks to generous
sponsorship by the family of former RAF pilot
Wing Commander Harry Bunting. He flew
Sunderlands in wartime from stations including
Pembroke Dock and returned to the town in
the 1950s as a senior officer at the RAF base.
Wing Commander Bunting’s daughter, Mrs
Ann McPhee, and grandsons Ross and
Quentin keep in regular contact with
Autodromo and with the Sunderland Trust.
Ann paid an autumn visit to Autodromo’s
workshop to see the prototype model from
which moulds will be made.
“It was so good to see the wonderful job
Andy Cann at Autodromo is making of the
Sunderland and how far it has progressed”
said Ann.
Andy Cann added: “We have previously
made large models for the Imperial War
Museum at Duxford. One, of a Boeing B-29
Superfortress, is used in the museum’s
education programme with young people
assembling the aircraft from component
parts. The Pembroke Dock Sunderland will be
similarly constructed and used for a similar
role.”
The Bunting family and Autodromo are
working with the Sunderland Trust’s John
Evans to choose the markings depicted on
the model.
“Wing Commander Bunting flew hundreds of
hours in Sunderlands. His is a remarkable story
which we will tell thanks to the model and
through archive items generously loaned by
the family” said John, “no other museum in
the UK will have an exhibit like this - we look
forward eagerly to when it is completed.”
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
6
Reunited with Dad’s uniform
Wartime connections brought two Canadian
families to Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre,
following in the footsteps of airmen who were
stationed in the town.
Allan Doern and his wife, Bev, from Winnipeg,
Manitoba, made a long promised visit and
were ‘reunited’ with the uniform worn by
Allan’s father, Doug, a wartime member of
No 422 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force.
Doug Doern’s corporal’s battledress and
forage cap, along with photographs and
memorabilia, were donated to the Pembroke
Dock Sunderland Trust some years ago and
are on display at the centre.
Bev and Allan Doern, and the Canadian uniform,
are pictured with Sunderland Trust Patron John
Evans and Heritage Centre Manager Stuart Berry.
Research
For Aileen Petri and her husband and friends it
was equally memorable to visit Pembroke
Dock. Aileen’s father, James Strathie Ladie,
was a wireless operator/air gunner with 422
Squadron flying out of the Haven on wartime
patrols. Aileen is looking up her father’s
records and will send copies for the Heritage
Centre Archive.
The Canadians are just a few of the many
overseas visitors who have made tracks to
‘PD’ in 2016 with many countries noted in the
centre’s visitor books.
Long distance volunteer
Australian Volunteer Anne Flaherty displays a
model Sunderland flying boat with (left to right)
Sunderland Trust friends John Evans, Marilyn
Mitchell, Margaret Black and Peter Mitchell.
Australian volunteer Anne Flaherty again
travelled half way round the world to support
the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust.
Making her fourth visit to PD in recent years,
Anne, from Blackheath, New South Wales,
was very impressed with developments made
at the Centre since last visiting in 2014.
“I look upon Pembroke Dock as my second
home as it has such strong family ties for me,”
said Anne. “It is very important to my family to
remember our personal connections with PD
and to support the Heritage Centre.”
Anne’s father, Merv Pike, was a Sunderland
flying boat pilot stationed at PD with the
famous 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air
Force. And her mother, Barbara, came to the
town in 1944 as a new bride.
Her father’s wartime story, published in
Australia by the family, is on sale at the
Centre. It is entitled ‘Just As It Happened’.
Legacy Giving
Leaving a legacy or a donation in your will is
a very special way to support the Trust’s
work. To find out more about legacies and
donations please see our website:
www.sunderlandtrust.com/donate/gift-in-
your-will
This information is also available by post,
please contact Glynnis Iles on 01646 684220
or write to us.
Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016
7
Taffiators’ host art activities
The ‘Taffiators’ – Welsh-based members of the
prestigious Guild of Aviation Artists – returned
to Pembroke Dock during October half term
to host a range of art activities for all ages at
the Heritage Centre.
Artists James Field (left) and John Wynne Hopkins
at work at the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre
Five artists visited at various times and led
sessions with visitors as well as painting and
sketching their own subjects. They were Ruth
Lewis, Tim Jenkins, James Field, Ieuan
Leighton Matthews and John Wynne Hopkins.
Among the many subjects worked on by the
artists was a fine study of a 422 Canadian
Squadron Sunderland preparing for a wartime
operation patrol at Pembroke Dock. Artist
John Wynne Hopkins did most of the painting
while at the Centre, finishing it later at his
home studio. This will be one of several
subjects from which prints will be available at
the Heritage Centre.
John’s painting of a wartime Sunderland
Successful Talks Programme
In the four months leading up to Christmas
four very well attended evening talks were
staged at the Heritage Centre. Speakers were
Gareth Mills (The Friendly Invasion); Ted
Goddard (Nelson in Pembrokeshire), Derek
Church (The Fire of Pembroke Dock) and John
Evans (PD and Battle of the Atlantic).
We are hoping to plan further series of talks,
and in order to make sure that we make
these as good as they can be, we are asking
for feedback from anybody who attended or
wanted to attend this programme – type in
the link below, or look for links on our website:
https://goo.gl/forms/u3NLBY91mbDgbn5D3.
For details of upcoming events, please follow
us on Facebook, or sign up to our events
mailing list – both can be found through the
links and buttons on our website,
www.sunderlandtrust.com.
In tune with the past
This organ, made in Boston, USA, has been turning
heads at Reception of the Heritage Centre.
A recent sort some of the Trust’s collections of
artefacts have turned up not one, but two
pedal organs! The instruments are in working
order, and new ongoing research is intended
to provide new material to help interpret the
vibrant social history of Pembroke Dock.
The Mason & Franklin organ, pictured, is
thought to date from the late 1800s, having
been made in the USA and sold by a shop in
Swansea before being used by a school in
Pembroke Dock.
top related