Royal Air Forces Association Corsham and Chippenham Branch
Branch History
What's On
Annual General Meeting
Annual Dinner
In Memorial
Social Events
Parades and Ceremonial
Wings Appeal
Conferences and Re-uniions
RAF Lyneham
Contact Information for Royal Air Forces Association Corsham &am
Links for Royal Air Forces Association Corsham & Chippenham
Mail Form
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Social Events
On this page we will record some of our social events including meals and outings to places of interest |
Weston Super Mare
 | | First port of call was “The Helicopter Museum”, we arrived at 11:00, had a coffee and then joined our guide Ray, for a very interesting hour long “short tour” of the main exhibits. |
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Connections
 One of the exhibits had direct connections to the branch: a listing of Queens Flight Senior Engineering Officers shows Flt Lt WT Bussey, BEM in post between June 1948 and June 1950 then later Squadron Leader WT Bussey LVO, BEM from November 1955 – May 1961. This is of course our very own Wing Commander WT (Tom) Bussey LVO, OBE, BEM.
After a quick snack in the Museum restaurant we spent a while wandering around taking photographs, exploring the shop and other exhibits. |
Flowerdown House
| Next port of call was RAFA Flowerdown House, where we were met by the Manager Maura Hart. We were offered tea and cakes and given a guided tour of the facilities. |  |
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| We also had the opportunity to sit in the lounge together with some of the current residents and discuss the services offered at Flowerdown – all 20 of us considered booking in there and then as we were all extremely impressed by the facilities and the staff. Several of our members then took a short constitutional along the sea front, until it was time to move on. It was really nice to see what the fund-raising effort is spent on and we can honestly recommend the service. |  |
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RAFA Club Weston Super Mare
| The trip organiser arranged with the Club to provide us with a meal early in the evening, and a fine spread it was, many congratulations to Diane the catering manager and her volunteers. |  |
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FAA Museum Yeovilton
 | On Saturday 29 April 2006, a group of members and their wives visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton. We enjoyed the “Carrier Experience” a very good simulation of life aboard HMS Ark Royal in the 1970s with Phantom and Buccaneer aircraft. The museum has the largest collection of naval aircraft in Europe and also houses the British prototype Concorde G-BSST. We lunched in the Swordfish restaurant.
Fleet Air Arm Museum Link |
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Haynes International Motor Museum
 | After lunch we made our way to the nearby Haynes International Motor Museum at Sparkford. On display over 340 cars and motorbikes dating from 1886 to present day. The photo above depicts part of the “Red Room” a fantastic collection of red sports cars.
Haynes Museum Link |
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Burlington
 | | Branch members were given a unique opportunity to explore “Burlington” the 35 acre underground city where the royal family and government would have taken shelter in event of nuclear war. Andy Quinn the Quarry Manager for DCSA led us 100 feet below Corsham into the old bath stone quarry workings which became the Bristol Aero engine factory in WWII. During the cold war in the early 1950’s the site was reworked to become “Burlington”. A fascination snap-shot – the 50’s technology was still in place – just waiting for the personnel to arrive. Enough kit in the stores to support the whole staff for 90 days – imagine how much toilet paper that included |
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RAF Museum Cosford
 | On Saturday 19th April 2008, a coach load of members, family, friends and even several members of the Chippenham Royal British Legion travelled to the RAF Museum, Cosford. We had a couple of hours inspecting the exhibits and then had a break for lunch - hot meals provided by the Museum's cafeteria. Suitably replenished we continued to explore. The new Cold War Exhibition being of particular interest - several members having worked on the 3 V-bombers, one was even involved in Polaris missile testing an example of which was on display.
I myself was a craft apprentice Telegraphist at 2 School of Technical Training from 1965-66 and returned for various trade and promotion exams regularly throughout my service career. I was very happy to see a small room in Hangar 1 which reflected the history of RAF Cosford and paid particular attention to the Boy Entrant and Apprentice entries. |
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May 2008 Social Event
 | On the evening of Tuesday 13 May 2008 we held a social evening at the Methuen Arms Hotel in Corsham.
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New President
 Our new President , Wg Cdr John Kearney used the occasion to get to know some of the members
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Guests
As usual we invited guests from Bath and Melksham branches to socialise with us. Twenty eight people enjoyed the excellent buffet laid on by the hotel.
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Veteran's Day
 | JSU Cosrham invited members of local veterans associations to an event at Basil Hill Barracks on Saturday 5 July 2008.
This was run in conjunction with 10 Signal Regiment reformation anniversary parade.
We were treated to a display by the White Helmets Motorcycle Display Team of the Royal Signals.
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