Day 6/10: Visit to Eastchurch Aviation Museum

I met Janys Thornton at Rose Street Cottage. She was one of the team who did research on the Women in world war one display that Jo showed me. She also makes absolutely delicious jam. Before I bought the jam (rhubarb and ginger) from Rose Street Cottage, I told her about my letter writing project and she asked for my address. A few days later, I received an illustrated letter from Janys detailing her childhood on Sheppey. This included her recollection of (in my opinion) a totally banging Girls Brigade initiative for the “Knowledge badge" whereby girls were asked to memorise the locations of all the bus stops and post boxes on the island. I carry this with me as I wait for my first ever bus on Sheppey from outside Sheerness railway station. I'm waiting for the 367 from Sheerness to Warden Point. There are 3 on a Saturday and I'm an hour early as I'm determined not to miss it. I also need to scope out whether any of the buses - let alone the 367 - are running today as I've read that Arriva aren't renewing their commitment to provide bus services on the island and I've got it down in my diary that this weekend might be the first one without a service. 

Luckily it turns out the buses are still running. Once onboard, having paid with my card (like in London) not with all the loose change I'd cobbled together in anticipation for needing to pay with coins (like in the olden days) I was interested to see which places of public interest had made it onto the bus route. These included the hospital, fire station and prison. At the hospital, while we were waiting for the timetable to catch up with us (we'd made good time as no one else had got on the bus) the bus driver shouted down to me that he'd drive me to the door of the museum instead of dropping me at the nearest bus stop, which according to my calculations was the stop for the fire station - a 10 minute walk away from the museum.

As a big fan of public transport I've been sad to hear numerous people tell me how crap it is on the island. There used to be a light railway that ran between the East and West side of the island for holidaymakers. I totally get why 3 buses a day isn't going to make you want to travel by bus (there's more on a weekday and none on a Sunday). The problem is when subsequently nobody gets on the bus, the bus company can say it's unprofitable and reduce the service even more or in this case pull it completely. 

Getting off the bus, it becomes clear that I'm now on the site of an open prison. I have an absolutely smashing lunch at the onsite cafe and manage to avoid getting stung by any of the bees swarming around the hive outside the entrance to the museum. I stand chatting to the bloke hosing the hive down and he quickly bats off any bees that land on me.

Eastchurch Aviation museum tells the history of the Short brothers who manufactured the first aeroplanes on this site. As Peter tells me this is the first aeroplane manufacturing site on the PLANET. Their collection used to be held at the Bluetown Heritage Centre in Sheerness but as it grew it needed a new home. The prison still had the original accommodation blocks so one of them became the museum. It's fitting that the museum was relocated as the Short brothers were also relocated from Shellness where they met with the Wright brothers and other rich white men to experiment with flying.

My guide is very open about it being a “boys and their toys” vibe. They even took a poor pig named Icarus on one flight so they could debunk the saying “pigs might fly”. And then had a BBQ. We talk about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos going into space today and how it's not that different. I'm really not into these rich individuals pioneering the way. I kind of thought these pioneers were a myth that history museums create. 

Here's some snaps of some of my favourite bits. I'm particularly a fan of the photoshopping, maps, models explaining the “catapult style” lift off technique, blueprints and laminated info boards. 

This one showing a "A Day in the Life” of a royal naval air service trainee is an insightful tidbit. I'm always on the look out for different ways of living (in theory) so maybe I'll try this for a schedule. Props to Crafty Jack's club from All Saints Church for stitching this hangar hanging. And check out the original destination panel for the bus route that originally serviced the base. 

Outside we have a look at the shrapnel that hit the goods shed during a bombing raid and the remaining hangars that the museum is asking the prison to release into its capable hands. We look out across the marsh and talk about the flooding in 1953 and the trip that my guide took with his dad around the island after the flood as a child. He said he saw dead sheep “hung up like washing” where they'd be blown up against the barbed wire fences after they'd drowned. I ask him what it would be like if the Swale was filled in and the island reclaimed. He said he didn't think that would happen and if it did it would just be like the isle of Thanet and the isle of Grain.

We talk about people on the island and their relationship to the collection. The collection is growing because local people involved are dying and their families are finding their uniforms and keepsakes from flying in the war. Local people are also finding weapons on the beaches – a phosphorous bomb went off in someone's tesco carrier bag so be careful. They search for words to describe the mentality of locals... Insular? Introspective? Inwards looking? All of these would make me think it meant they'd know this history but they don't. Apart from all the people I've met who do.

I walk back up to the fire station bus stop to wait for Jo Eden and pass these signs and an incredibly vocal oyster catcher on top of the prison wall. There's no bench at the bus stop so I sit on the manhole cover and enjoy the bus stop graffiti.