Fairey Aviation in Hayes

[Brian Lawson]

Gday to everyone

My grandfather George William Patmore started work at Fairey Hayes in 1936 aged 25yrs and retired (took redundancy) in 1975 ish. He was offered a transfer to Devon but declined. He lived his whole life in Denham.

He recieved a gold pocket watch for 25yrs service, he also had a brass plane (looks like a spitfire) mounted on cockpit sheilding as well as a knight in armour 6 inches in height, very detailed, given to him in the 70's at Fairey.

The thing is nobody seems to know of him or what he did their. In WW2 he was a LAC. He only ever made one statement about the war:

"I island hopped salvaging downed aircraft parts to repair damaged ones, that we knew would never come back"

I have knocked on just about every door and came up with very little. I am about to apply to MOD for his service record.

Any help or information will be looked into as " I NEED TO KNOW" I have pictures i just do not know how to upload them :ugh:

Regards Brian

[Evileyes]

Welcome Brian. Try this thread for posting pics.

http://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/203481-image-posting-pprune-guide.html

Please remember to restrict the size to 850x850 pixels or they overun the page.

[Warmtoast]

Fairey Aviation at Hayes in the mid-1950's built Gannets for the Fleet Air Arm at their factory at Hayes. The unassembled Gannets were taken by road to RAF Northolt where they were assembled, and flight tested. Not sure where they went to after that.

I know this because in the summer of 1955 I was on temporary detachment to Northolt and wandering around the station getting my bearings was astonished to see a hanger full of Gannets in various stages of assembly being assembled by civilian workers. ISTR output was one Gannet a week, but am not 100% sure of how many.

[GANNET FAN]

I think you will find that some went to HMS Gannet at Eglinton, NI

[chevvron]

Funny, I always assumed they were assembled and test flown at White Waltham where Faireys had the hangar on the northside next to the railway line, but that would explain why we often had Gannets over my hometown of Chesham; you could hear them coming about 5 minutes before you saw them!!

[Warmtoast]

From Flight Magazine 9th April 1954


At present the machines [Gannets] are built at the Hayes factory, transferred to Northolt for assembly, and finally flown to White Waltham for collection by the Navy. In due course, the greater part of the production will take place at Stockport, detail parts being made at Hamble.

[radioian]

There used to be a Yearly meetup of retired staff at Hayes village in the Hall on Church Rd., and apparantly, I heard, the innovative Rotodyne was flown into the Hayes and Harlington plant once ,but cracked quite a few windows-there were complaints!

Mercedes-Benz are in the Fairey site now, until recent years, you could still see the old buildings with FAIREY painted on the roof.

[Chris Royle]

This is a reply from a friend who's father used to work for Fairey's at Hayes.
"My father, John Chinery, worked at Fairey (and Westland) from 1946 to closure of the latter, and ran the Fairey Retired Member's Group until his death in 2000. I actually live across the road from the Hayes site so can vouch for the latest situation. Mercedes have come and gone, as have Marks & Spencer and the occupant of the largest part of the site (now a trading estate) where the old canteen was, is Nippon Express air-freight company. At least 70% of the site is vacant, including the large warehouse that was Merc and Marks!

The final assembly of most Gannets was completed at Northolt, but at least a dozen of possibly the early aircraft were towed to Northolt from the factory by public road in the dead of night on their own wheels with wings folded. I remember seeing pics in the local newspaper at the time!"

[Brianf127]

You might find HillingdonChat.com useful.
There was a Chinery at Townfield school in the '50s, can't remember his first name though.