David Brocklehurst MBE is the chairman, historian and a volunteer at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum in Hawkinge near Folkestone. He began working at the museum aged just ten years and, after a short stint in civil engineering early in his career, took over running the museum full time when founder Mike Llewellyn stepped down due to ill health. Twenty-six RAF squadrons were posted to RAF Hawkinge at different times during the Second World War, but the museum focuses particularly on the 1940 conflict, paying tribute to the 2,938 pilots and aircrew known as The Few through a multitude of artefacts and exhibits both from the conflict itself as well as the 1969 film.
In this episode David talks about the Battle of Britain in relation to the Goodwin Sands – the German Dornier 17 bomber which was lifted from the Sands which is now held at RAF Cosford museum, the difficulties in identifying the planes that crashed on the Sands (sometimes due to the bureaucracy involved), and notable pilots for whom the Sands might be their final resting place.
This is an interview conducted as part of the Goodwin Sands Oral History Project, a podcast series which speaks with those who have grown up within sight of the Sands, who make their living upon or around them, or who have been creatively inspired by the air of uncanny mystery they invoke. The Goodwin Sands are a pair of large sandbanks of the south-east Kent coast which offer both shelter and a dangerous hazard to unwary shipping or those caught in storms, and are the site of great historical importance and maritime archaeology.
This podcast project was undertaken as a response to an application to dredge the Goodwin Sands for aggregates and building materials to expand Dover Harbour, a proposition vehemently opposed by local residents and the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust, who have created this podcast series. It is hoped that through hearing the voices of the people connected with the Sands their cultural status might be raised and further industrial interference might be avoided in the future.
Credits:
Presented and interview conducted by Joanna Thomson, co-founder of the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust.
Production, editing, sound design by Ben Horner.
The music is "Nebula Soundscape" by Universfield, used under Creative Commons licence.
Please visit the Battle of Britain Museum's website: https://www.kbobm.org/
For more about the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust please see https://goodwinsands.org.uk/, and please see https://theaudiosphere.com for more on our producer.
