The original home of the iconic Spitfire, next to the airfield from where it first flew, escaped war time bombing but is now under threat of demolition. 

Amazingly, the "Flight Shed" aircraft hangar where thousands of Southampton-built Supermarine Spitfires were taken for final testing, remains where it was erected just over 80 years ago. (Google Maps, 50.944055, -1.364930)

From this building almost every one of the vital Spitfires that fought in the Battle of Britain was delivered. It is the only surviving building that has an association with the Spitfire from the very first to the very last. It is unique.

However, a planning application is seeking its demolition to create space for several new generic warehouses and the report on the site calls the building, "a non-designated heritage asset of lower significance". We don't agree!

As chair of the Southampton-based Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust (find us on Facebook - @Spitfire Makers and Web - www.spitfiremakers.org.uk I want voices to be raised around the world to stop the loss of what has been called, "the single most important Spitfire-related building in existence".

Hidden behind the former Ford Transit Factory, it was not widely known that this unique building had not only survived but was re-used during the Ford years as their tool room and paint shop.

It is part of the heritage of this city, the country and indeed the world and the unsung many men and women who worked inside it during the dark days of WWII deserve to be commemorated along with the pilots who tested and delivered the plane for the famous Few to fly it in combat.

Spitfire Makers are dedicated to, "Commemoration, Preservation, Education" and we can't stand by and watch this unique part of local, national and international heritage just disappear. Currently, the only listed Supermarine structure in Southampton, the ‘home of the Spitfire’ is the seaplane slipway at the Woolston site which was never used by Spitfires.

We are already working on this with the Solent Sky Museum, The Supermariners website and significant figures in the local council but we want this to go global!

Please sign this petition and make our combined voices of protest sound louder than a thousand Merlin engines!