Trenchard Museum

22/12/2023

14/12/2023

The final (extremely wet and windy) graduation parade of 2023 was held yesterday, and it concludes a very busy, constructive, and enjoyable year for the Trenchard Museum. We have seen over 5000 visitors (a record) and had, amongst many others, more than 20 graduation parades, 12 school visits for WW1 or WW2 and 3 for Cool Aeronautics, 3 Apprentice Entry Reunions, innumerable Cubs, Scouts, Brownies, and Beavers groups, Cadet Spring, Summer and Autumn camps, several U3A groups, quite a lot of serving military personnel and a sprinkling of car and motorcycle clubs. We also gained several new volunteers this year, we have new exhibits, our website has been updated, especially the gallery, and this page already has 150 followers. All of which I would say is something of a success story for a small enterprise run entirely by a happy band of “not quite so young” volunteers.

06/12/2023

Today saw the final school visit of 2023. This one had been to us before, but not for a couple of years. Yes, it was very cold, in the main museum it often feels colder inside than it is outside, but the children come prepared. And boy, were they a lively bunch.

30/11/2023

We often have visits from schools, studying WW1, WW2 or Cool Aeronautics (STEM). They seem to enjoy it, as do we, and from time to time we receive rather nice thank-you letters from the children, so a small selection of recent ones are attached. They are obviously well brought-up!

22/11/2023

Not a bad turnout today, probably around 110 visitors after the graduation. It would be unfair to suggest that some of them might have come into the museum just to get warm but the end result is the same, busy and happy volunteers and a few visitors that say they will come again.

10/11/2023

Last night some of the Aylesbury Cubs paid us a visit, and the other half of the troop will come next week. They are one of our many regular visitors that come back year after year with a different group of children. As usual, a good time was had by all.

04/11/2023

We had another busy day at the museum, a dozen or so people in the morning then a group of almost sixty ex-apprentices having a reunion in the afternoon. Trouble is, I was so busy hosting that I completely forgot to take any pictures. Normal service will be resumed shortly :-)

25/10/2023

Back in September we were given the complete uniform of an RAF Police Corporal (thanks again Andy), and it is now on display on a suitable mannequin, standing on guard duty in the entrance to the Flight Heritage Centre. “I’m watching you sonny…..”

25/10/2023

A perfect day for a graduation, not so cold that all the visitors wanted to dash home after the parade, but just cool enough for them to want to seek a bit of shelter in the museum – so we were very busy again. Also, one of the recruits came off the parade square, went down on bended knee and proposed to his girlfriend there and then. Thankfully she said “yes”, so a big cheer from visitors and volunteers alike, and moist eyes all round!

18/10/2023

One of our regular schools visited today for the first of three days they have booked with us for WW2 activities. The children are all issued with ID cards before they arrive and when the siren sounds our friendly “Gordon the Warden” is at the ready with his official rubber stamp to check them safely into the Air Raid Shelter. He does love that little rubber stamp…….

12/10/2023

The museum donated some unwanted equipment to our local flying school, "letsflyright" who are based at Holmbeck airfield. In return they offered free “rides” to some of our volunteers, all of whom had a great time. Another mutually-beneficial relationship.

06/10/2023

Now that the schools have returned from their summer break we have been inundated with bookings. Every Wednesday from now until Easter we either have a graduation parade or a school booked in for WW1, WW2 or Cool Aeronautics. First to arrive this week were our local village school, and we appear to have found a way to keep them quiet……..

28/09/2023

Yesterday's graduation parade was a very low key event, less than 50 recruits passing out, no visiting reviewing officer and no fly-past, but the rain held off and we still had a reasonable turn-out at the museum.

26/09/2023

Best laid plans and all that. We had put considerable effort into arranging a mass fly-in of modern Autogyros and a couple of important guests to remember and honour 529 Squadron that flew Autogyros from Halton, the only rotary-winged aircraft to see active service with the RAF in WW2. We managed to get a couple of aircraft flown in for the practice run but on the day of the event, and on the reserve day a week later, we had dreadful weather so reluctantly had to cancel. One of the guests still made it, John Arkell, the son of Squadron Leader Basil Arkell who actually flew “our” Autogyro AP 507. John represented his father and kindly opened our little exhibition of Autogyro artefacts.

20/09/2023

Today we had a valuable addition to our RAF Police exhibit when Andy, accompanied by his wife Jo, kindly dropped in to donate his full Corporal’s uniform complete with hat, boots and even the whistle. When installed on a suitable mannequin this one will go on watch in the Flight Heritage Centre.

10/09/2023

Well, what can I say? The first Halton Heritage Day for four years and it was a belter. We simply couldn’t keep up with counting the number of visitors coming through the doors but the bus drivers estimate that they dropped off around 1500 people at the museum today. The volunteers were run off their feet all day but did a sterling job, and really enjoyed it. The only downside was that we didn’t get our lunch until the museum closed at 4pm, a very minor price to pay.

30/08/2023

Yesterday we had a dozen or so RAF Police personnel from the Force Development Programme, who turned up only two hours late. Luckily we had plenty of housekeeping to do to keep us amused while we waited. Today was the final Wednesday in August, and another really busy one. We had a few young families in as well as a large (and rowdy!) not-quite-so-young U3A group all the way from Wokingham. Once again a jolly good time was had by visitors and volunteers alike.

23/08/2023

Another very busy, and very warm, day at the museum. Thanks to our advertising on local social media we had a whole load of visitors in the morning, then an even bigger load in the afternoon for the graduation. We have seen over 400 visitors so far just this month, with more yet to come.

05/08/2023

Today we had a return visit from the lovely folk of the Triumph TR Club with their little sports cars. As you will see, not the ideal day to get an open-topped car out, so I left mine snug in the garage. They were off to also see Halton House in the afternoon.

26/07/2023

Despite today being the graduation parade for a relatively small intake, we had our biggest crowd so far this year. We counted in no less than 154 people, all friends and families of the graduating recruits. We were also treated to a fly-past of the BBMF Spitfire and Hurricane, who gave us three low and fast passes. Stirring stuff!

07/07/2023

The Air Cadets were on the station for their Summer Camp so two large groups came to visit the museum. They did the full tour but are seen here learning about the Chipmunk trainer, and flying the Chipmunk simulator, in the James McCudden Flight heritage Centre.

03/07/2023

The Tring U3A Painting Group visited the museum today, for a tour, a cup of coffee and to make a few sketches. When the results are revealed we will be interested to see which of our many exhibits caught their artistic eye.

20/06/2023

We had over 30 year 6 pupils from an Aylesbury school today, the second of their three planned visits to take part in our Cool Aeronautics programme (STEM). The pupils were divided across four activities: making and flying gliders, making and firing rockets, flying the flight simulator and manning the flight plotting table. I can report that the rain held off and with a stiff following breeze the rockets went very well indeed, so much so that at one point we even managed to get in the way of the graduation parade rehearsals...... (oops).

16/06/2023

We have had a very busy week at the Trenchard Museum, as we saw visitors on five days out of seven. We had Scouts, then Defence College students and their teachers, some families, a very large party from a private member’s club, then today a group of CCF Cadets. We are back in on Tuesday for a day of Cool Aeronautics with a local school, then more families and a graduation on Wednesday. We think we have a day off on Thursday, but that may yet change…

13/06/2023

We had Aylesbury Scouts at the museum last night, for the third of their three visits this year. They come back to see us every couple of years, as the Scouts change. As well as a talk by Francis, and looking around main museum, they visit the Flight Centre and get to fly our Chipmunk Flight Simulator, which is always a sure-fire winner.

11/06/2023

The museum had a stall at the RAF Halton Families Day yesterday, and what a scorcher of a day. We had the RAF Regiment one side, with all their big guns, and the cute baby owls the other side, so competition was rife, but we still saw some old friends and made some new ones.

09/06/2023

Always happy to help.

08/06/2023

Another fantastic day at the museum yesterday. The weather was kind so we had well over 150 visitors after the graduation parade, but one was maybe a little more special than the rest. Our friend Jack came to see us again, this time as a V.I.P. guest of the station. Jack, now in his 90's was in the RAF Regiment, and trained at Halton back in the day. Great to see you again Sir!

01/06/2023

Yesterday we had a visit from the local branch of the Midget and Sprite Club (MASC) so the parade square was full of little noisy open cars. Thankfully the rain held off.