Biggin Hill

We visited Biggin Hill Memorial Museum today. Biggin Hill is used as a private civilian airport nowadays but 82 years ago, at this time, it was in the frontline of the Battle of Britain. It is quite a small museum but excellently curated with much to reflect on from a time when the threat from fascism was so real and immediate. Sadly that threat, masquerading sometimes under different guises, still threatens the democratic freedoms and values we too often take for granted. The main photo is a replica of a Hurricane fighter plane; there is also a replica of a Spitfire alongside it at the entrance to the museum.  The extra photo is of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that powered the Hurricanes and Spitfires. In the Chapel, I signed the book of condolence for Her Majesty the Queen, who joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1944 at the age of 18 to "do her bit".