Eastchurch Aviation Museum is located within the Old Mill Village and celebrates the history of the RAF at Eastchurch. It is open Tuesdays to Saturdays between 10:00 and 15:00.

​

Below is a brief history of the Eastchurch site:

​

1909: Charles Rolls (as in Rolls-Royce) practising gliding.

 

1910: Francis McClean buys Stonepits Farm (farm house stood where bee house now stands) and rents to Royal Aero Club of GB for a shilling per year.  RAeC moves its flying field from Shellbeach to Eastchurch.

 

1911: Short Brothers factory established (the first airplane factory in the UK and maybe the world).  Many early aviation pioneers have hangars. Gordon Bennett Air Festival held, thousands of visitors.

 

1912: Naval Wing of RFC (Royal Flying Corps).

​

1914: RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service) flying school.

​

1918: One of the first RAF stations (following merger of RFC & RNAS).

​

1919-1939: Continuous RAF establishment

​

1940: One of the first RAF stations to be bombed in Battle Of Britain

​

1950: Home Office opens HMP Eastchurch Open Prison

 

1980s: HMP Eastchurch renamed HMP Standford Hill on the opening of HMP Swaleside & HMP Elmley

 

2015: Museum opens

 

2017:  Museum awarded a Red Wheel by Transport Trust of GB and an Award by the Archaeology Society of Kent.

​

Below is an aerial shot of the site in 1912:

​

​