South East: 11 Group Heritage Trail
The 11 Group Heritage Trail 2023.
Our heritage trail for the South East of England features 17 historic airfields, museums, memorials and aviation sites concerned with aviation history in the South East of England ranging from the earliest experimental aviation projects through to the Cold War and beyond.
Many sites are located at airfields used by RAF Fighter Command 11 Group, a section of the RAF formed in 1936 to provide air defence in the run up to the Second World War. The area is best known for its role in the Battle of Britain when it bore the brunt of aerial attacks from the Luftwaffe.
This region contains a huge array of aviation heritage sites connected with Fighter Command, and several are connected with the earliest days of aviation. Civil aviation also has a major role in a region with a large population and many airfields are still in use.
The trail is aimed at families and includes a range of historic buildings and features including an underground bunker, a historic chapel, a national memorial, a control tower and numerous airfields and aircraft hangars featuring priceless collections of aviation heritage that are accessible to the public.
The attractions range in size from the six hangars of the RAF Museum in Hendon to smaller, lesser-known sites with unique collections that bring alive a huge range of aviation history. One is even on the site of a working prison. Funded by Historic England, a trail logbook featuring a map, site summary and websites for the 17 sites on the trail is available from our member sites from August 2021 or you can view, download and print your own PDF format copy here
To celebrate the first of our series of regional trails, the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum has kindly offered to send a prize to those who collect stamps from any 12 sites. To claim your prize, make sure you get your logbook stamped or signed at each site and when you have collected enough to claim, drop in to the museum or email your name, address and a picture of your logbook to admin@mahn.org.uk
We strongly recommend checking the latest information and opening times when planning your visits – you can find contact information, addresses and website links to all of all the sites that feature on the trail, along with many others, on our regional map and directory.
MAHN members of 11 Group who are participating in this trail are listed below, click on their link to learn what you will see there: