Spitfire in Norwich 1960s

This post is a short one, more of a response to this post and the photo which was found in a jumble sale in 2016 by Julie Chettleburgh. It contains a fabulous photo of a Spitfire on Farmer’s Avenue (above) which caused a flurry of excitement as everyone either remembered it or tried to work out which spitfire it was. Finally after a bit of Faffing about Peter Arnold – a spitfire expert has got in touch and confirmed one of the various ideas that was being thrown around, which was that this Spitfire above was the Gate Guardian at Coltishall which he has confirmed it was.

You can see what a remarkable hobby Peter has here on Youtube.

He has provided me with three images of SL542 in situ transferred to Coltishall in 1963 with the BBMF.

Image 1: Horsham St Faith in July 1962 with the Grey/Green camouflage and type C1 roundel, all correct for a Mk XVI.

RAF Horsham St Faiths gate guardian

Image 2. RAF Coltishall some time after the move from Horsham St Faith. Note exact match to your Norwich image but in the incorrect scheme of Brown/Green with early type roundels.

RAF Coltishall gate guardian

Image 3. RAF Coltishall in March 1983 but repainted, again incorrectly in the Brown/Green scheme. Note camouflage delineation changes.

RAF Coltishall gate guardian

Curiously I remember the gate guardian from going to RAF Coltishall in the 1970s when we used to cycle there to use the swimming pool which was opened up to the public during the summer holidays.

Images courtey of Peter Arnold with huge thanks.