In the early 1980s, the original air traffic control tower and adjacent buildings were derelict and overgrown. Every year, a service at the French Memorial in Elvington Village had attracted an increasing band of veterans, some of whom had married local girls and stayed in the area.
One memorable summer, a French film crew used the airfield to dramatise a novel by distinguished writer Jules Roy, about his experiences as an aircrew Bomb Aimer with the French squadrons here.
In 1983, inspired by local resident Rachel Semlyen, who had the idea for a memorial museum while walking her dog across the site, a band of devoted volunteers set to work to clear 40 years' of undergrowth and to restore and upgrade the buildings. The museum's first Open Day was on 11th August 1985. Always self-supporting, the museum was able to buy the land and buildings in the summer of 1993.
A wartime film made by the French authorities showed Elvington as it had been in 1944. The volunteer workers were thus able to set up an accurate replica, right down to the packet of Woodbine cigarettes on top of the 'ops' desk in the control tower.
The Yorkshire Air Museum opened to the public for the first time on 31st May 1986. In the years since, we have had a great and growing support from a wide range of interested parties and now have a membership numbering one thousand, worldwide, with a thriving Yorkshire Air Museum (Canada) Branch. |
