To walk onto the airfield perimeter, especially on a quiet day like today, with just a couple of hardy dog walkers, huddled behind scarves and turned-up collars, for company, is to step onto a piece of history. Only the dogs seem totally oblivious to the cold and the history as they have other things and smells in the surrounding grass to distract them.
RAF Kenley is said to be the most complete of the remaining Battle of Britain fighter stations, at the forefront of the country’s defence. The hangers and many of the buildings have long gone or become derelict, but around the perimeter road, the aircraft blast bays are being restored. The bombs have, thankfully, also long gone, but the grass-covered brick and concrete structures now provide welcome relief from the constant blast of the wind. The entrances to the shelters that would have been used by pilots and ground crews in an emergency have been uncovered, years of swamping vegetation removed. I stand in the doorway and wonder who else would have stood in my footsteps, and what became of them.