The Orchard Spitfire restoration.

The Orchard Spitfire restoration.

The Polish Air Force Memorial Committee has taken on the restoration of the model Spitfire outside The Orchard pub in Ruislip, which has closed down. 

Jerzy Chudzicki, whose father and uncle were in the Polish Air Force during the war, has kindly and generously offered to complete the actual complex restoration free of charge. Jerzy owns a car restoration and preparation business AutoPrep in Watford and a graphics company and has the necessary expertise to carry out this delicate work. 

Jerzy was able to gather a team of enthusiastic Polish volunteers to help with the Spitfire’s removal. These included Radek Turon and his technical team from Divergent Design. Another colleague from neighbouring Orbital Fasteners provided a pickup truck to transport the Spitfire to the AutoPrep workshop. The Spitfire, which features considerable detail, has been neglected and is in desperate need of restoration. Separately the PAFMC is also taking on the renovation of the memorial’s inscribed York stone plinth.

The Orchard was a favourite venue of Polish Air Force personnel based at nearby RAF Northolt throughout the war. A scale model Spitfire was first installed in 1946, supported on two steel poles on a stone plinth in front of The Orchard. This original model was dismantled, refurbished and restored in around 1996, only to be stolen in 1997. It was subsequently replaced in 2007 with a new and current scale model Mk Vb Spitfire, made at Pinewood film studios. This was organised and arranged by local enthusiast Peter Burke who set up The Orchard Spitfire Memorial Fund to raise the necessary £20,000 needed for the replacement model Spitfire. This was painted in the colours of 303 Polish Squadron as the personal Spitfire of S/Ldr Jan Zumbach with the squadron code of RF-D and his Donald Duck motif, 303 squadron emblem and aerial victories on the fuselage.

The intricate and detailed restoration is expected to take several months and as it is a locally listed monument it is expected to be returned to The Orchard in due course.