Spitfire pilot Leonard Haines talks with No. 19 Squadron's Intelligence Officer, 1940. By permission of the Imperial War Museum, IWM CH 001457

Welcome to the Historic Duxford blog!

Where to begin? Well, this project marks the latest stage in what has been a mammoth effort over the last 20 years by staff and volunteers here to really understand the history of Duxford. This runs alongside some pieces of work published by authors outside the Museum.

We’ve undertaken some pretty major interpretive works ourselves. This has taken the form of exhibitions (such as the 1940 Operations Room reconstruction, the display in the front of Hangar 4: Battle of Britain, and the photo exhibitions we’ve been mounting in AirSpace), articles, presentations and just recently, Historic Duxford DVD documentaries.

Now it’s time for Historic Duxford to be given its own, distinctive location on site. This means re-converting one of our historic buildings – the old Watch Office, in front of Hangar 3: Air and Sea, into an exhibitions gallery.

In here, we will combine accurate period reconstructions,  interactive, graphic and audio visual displays and real objects. The focus of the exhibition will be both the site and the men and women who served here, taking advantage of the rich source material provided by hundreds of hours of interviews with ex-Duxford personnel, and the thousands of photographs and pieces of film gathered over the last 20 years.

Over the last two years, lots of planning work has taken place across the Museum. This is where the need for the project was identified.  Our brilliant fundraising team then set about getting the money together so that we could make this a reality. We had some amazing support from donors all over the country, and especially from our own Friends of Duxford organisation.

This blog will be a focus for what we’re doing, and will hopefully  keep interested parties informed about how the project is progressing. It will also allow us to share with you some of the fruits of our research ‘as it happens’. It is written by members of Imperial War Museum Duxford’s Department of Interpretation and Collections. The views expressed in the blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Museum.

Thanks for reading!

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