David Martin

Local historian David Martin shares more tales of what life was like for pilots flying out of RAF Fairlop

Christmas at war time was very different to the home comforts we enjoy every December. David Martin writes about the 1944 festive period at RAF Fairlop

This week, David Martin retells the story of Spitfire pilot and prisoner of war Harold Bennett who flew from RAF Fairlop

We welcome all people in Ely to join us at the cathedral on Sunday November 10 2019 for a spectacular and very moving service, as well as a march through town, parade and act of remembrance in the Market Square.

In this week’s heritage column, local historian David Martin of the Fairlop Heritage Group reproduces a Recorder article published in May 1946.

The diarist is Alexandrina Elizabeth S. Munro, who resided at 177a Fullwell Avenue Barkingside. Born August 3 1895, possibly in Scotland, died 1984 in Redbridge.

After a complicated journey, P/O Stanislaw Kurowicki arrived at RAF Station Fairlop on August 21, 1943, to serve with 317 (Wilenski) RAF Squadron.

Towards the end of the Second World War, the government began to look at the requirements for civil Airports.

Fairlop plain is an extensive area created in the middle of the 19th century, following the destruction of Hainault Forest.

While everyone knows Fairlop hosted RAF fighters during the Second World War, not everyone is as aware of the area’s anicent past. David Martin, of the Fairlop Heritage Group, sheds some light on the Romans’ time there.