This year marks the centenary of the town’s first aircraft factory founded by aviation pioneer Tommy Sopwith. A special celebration event, The Kingston Aviation Festival, will be held in Kingston Market Place in early June when a historic biplane, a Camel, will be a star attraction appearing in the town for the first time since 1918. A range of displays, scale models and paintings will be on hand, together with family activities including the opportunity to sit in the cockpits of other famous planes and fly a flight simulator. Joint project leaders Bill Downey and David Hassard said: “We are thrilled to have the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. It gives us the opportunity to share this amazing history with the people of Kingston and especially the young people who might be inspired by what their predecessors were able to achieve through vision, hard work and determination.”

The factory closed in 1992 and part of the HLF-funded project is to collect and record memories of former employees. This oral history archive will be used in presentations at the centenary exhibition and also on the dedicated website. Volunteers will be recruited to help run the Project that will also involve local schools, colleges, clubs and societies. The Project is working closely with the Brooklands Museum at Weybridge where the Camel and other exhibits are kept. Material is also being lent by the BAE Systems heritage archive. Sopwith Aviation evolved into Hawker Aircraft and this in turn became part of British Aerospace in 1977. For much of the last century the aviation industry was the largest employer in Kingston with a workforce which often exceeded 3,500.
    Sue Bowers, Head of HLF London said: “This is the story of a world-beating local industry, the thousands of men and women who were part of it and the outstanding military aircraft which have played a vital role at key points in the nation’s history.”