Lunch at Knightstone Tea Rooms

RAF Harrowbeer
17 February 2013

Some 24 members assembled on a very cold, windy but mercifully dry day on the edge of the WW II RAF airfield at Yelverton.
Knightstone Tea Rooms have been converted from the former Watch Tower of RAF Harrowbeer, and the owners have collected memorabilia of the brief period from 1941 to the end of the second world war when Harrowbeer was home to a variety of coastal defence aircraft, including Typhoons, Hurricanes and Spitfires.

We learned that a Lancaster had also flown in, but had only just managed to take off, despite having been lightened for the purpose - so subsequent Lancasters had been taken away by road (presumably on Queen Mary transporters).


	A Rolls Royce Dart engine ...

... provided a handy hitching-post for Titus

Lunch

The Museum

"When am I going to get my walk?"

A brisk walk

The cold wind deterred us from a circumnavigation of the airfield, but we were able to see inside the one air raid shelter that has been cleared; they were sealed after the war and remain so. The many revetments provided some defence against air raids by dispersing aircraft around the perimeter of the airfield. In fact, Harrowbeer was never attacked by the Luftwaffe.

"Walkies now!"

And finally ...

A very pleasing two-tone finish on this late-model Arnage. A subtle coach-line between the two greys can just be discerned.