Duxford Air Museum

I have mentioned previously that as a family we are all huge fans of John Finnemore’s excellent radio sitcom; Cabin Pressure.

If you haven’t previously tried it, we all recommend that you start at the beginning and go from there. Not only is it good from the start, but it gets better too and finally culminates in brilliant. If you doubt our opinion on the matter, I would refer you to Pedros who can corroborate this opinion.

In the show, Duxford Air Museum is repeatedly referred to as the Captain’s go-to choice of venue for a first date. This combined with having driven past it on the M11 for almost 20 years, made me decide that we must pay a visit - particularly as we are now IWM members and therefore get in for nowt! 

It was absolutely brilliant! We couldn’t believe how many ‘planes they had squeezed into the hangars and it was not without some excitement that I barged the children out of the way and ran onto the Concorde they have there. There were too many planes to list, but the ones that caught our eyes the most were the B-17F Flying Fortress (Memphis Belle), the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” and the flippin’ gigantic and appropriately named; Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.

As we were on our way out, we thought for a moment that we were going to be treated to the sight of a Spitfire taking off as the stunning one pictured seemed to be making all the right noises, but eventually the engine stopped. What a noise though! 

My only regret is not allowing for more time there, but with it being the Thursday before the Easter weekend, I was keen for us to get back on the road home and was glad that we did as it was a pretty tiresome journey back up north.

I was glad that we had stopped though as I was feeling a little sad at having left my parent’s current home for - possibly - the last time and the children (particularly m’boy who had a few tears) were also sad at having definitely left for the last time. I took a photo of the front exterior for posterity and wondered if we will come back to it in years to come.

Nice to be home and knowing that we have my niece’s birthday to celebrate tomorrow.

Brilliant!