DO you remember in the good old days, when we were allowed to meet in each other's houses and go round in groups as large as we liked? Well about a year ago just a few months before lockdown started when we could do that I went out for a drive on a Sunday afternoon and found myself just a few yards from the River Crouch in South Fambridge.

This small Essex hamlet has a lovely old listed building called The Old Ferry House. It was whilst looking at this old house that an elderly gentleman approached me and began talking to me.

The man told me he was born in Fambridge and began to tell me with great pride about South Fambridge's Airfield, one of the first airfields in England and certainly in Essex. He told me the airfield was opened in February 1909 by Noel Pemberton Billing. The name rang a bell.

It was on the drive home that I recalled where I had heard the name before. Noel Pemberton Billing founded Supermarine Works, the company that designed and built the famous fighter aircraft the Spitfire Supermarine.

Noel Pemberton Billing was born on 31st January 1881 in Hampstead to Charles Eardley Billing and Annie Emilia Claridge who lived at 6 College Villas Road, Hampstead.

Noel was the youngest of six children and educated at High School Hampstead, Cumming's College Boulogne, Westcliff College, Ramsgate and Craven College, Highgate. His father, Charles Eardley Billing, was a stove maker and employed 9 people. By 1891 the family were living in Abbey Road, Hampstead. Yes The Abbey Road of Beatles fame. In 1894 at the age of 13 Noel stowed away on a ship bound for Delagoa Bay, now known as Maputo Bay.

This is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. From here he went to Durban where he performed a variety of mundane jobs before becoming a member of the Natal Mounted Police Force.

From 1899 to 1901 he fought in the South African War before returning to England in 1903. It was in the same year that he married Lilian Maud Schweitzer in Marylebone. She was the daughter of Theodore Schweitzer from Clifton, Bristol.

Sadly they had no children and Lilian died in 1923.

Noel Billing was always interested in aviation and from 1908 to 1910 edited the magazine Aerocraft so it was no surprise when in February 1909 he founded South Fambridge airfield.

Due to its close proximity to the River Crouch and the marshy ground it was not a suitable location and closed in November 1909. During this period however he did design and test three light monoplanes at South Fambridge. According to the 1911 census Billing he was living at 3 Essex Court, Temple, London and showed his profession as student of law.

He then went in to land speculation, writing, yacht broking and shipping. 1913 saw him having raised the necessary funds to found a yard at Southampton Water where he was interested in building flying boats hence the name Supermarine although initially the company was called Pemberton-Billing.

It was in this year he learned to fly.

In 1916 Noel Pemberton Billing was elected as an Independent Member of Parliament for Hertford and so sold the company to his factory manager and longtime associate Hubert Scott-Paine and it was he who renamed the company Supermarine Aviation Works. The company became famous for its Spitfire Supermarine. This British fighter aircraft, now a legend, was a single seater used by the Royal Air Force before, during and after World War II.

It was designed by R.J. Mitchell and with its Rolls Royce Merlin or Rolls Royce Griffon engine it had a top speed of 594 kph. More than 20,000 were manufactured and in 1939 one would have cost approximately £12,600.

At the beginning of World War II Billing submitted a design for a pilotless flying bomb to the Ministry of Defence but they were not interested.

Billing had remarried in 1937 at Chelsea and finally died on 11th November 1948 whilst on his yacht 'Commodore' moored at the Quay, Burnham on Crouch, Essex. He is buried at Burnham on Crouch Cemetery on the opposite bank not far from South Fambridge.

Nothing remains of that pioneering airstrip at South Fambridge. It is farm land now but the new housing estate in South Fambridge does have a road that bears the name Pemberton Field.

We are lucky here in Essex as we have Europe's largest surviving World War I aerodrome.

If you get the chance you should visit Stow Maries World War I airfield near Maldon.

It is definitely the best one in the country with its many surviving buildings maintained lovingly by its very helpful and knowledgeable band of volunteers who are always willing to help and impart information.

Sadly at the moment it is closed because of lockdown but when the restrictions are lifted I am sure you will enjoy visiting it.