Jean recently came across an old pound note that she has kept since she was a child. It is worn and creased now, but she still remembers exactly where it came from.
“My dad worked for Daedalus for 30 years,” she explains. “With the date 58, that makes me 11.”
Jean was given the note during one of the air days held at Daedalus in the late 1950s. At the time, these events were a big part of local life.
“Air day was something quite good, and you made a day of it,” she said. “You took a picnic.”
She remembers crowds coming to watch aircraft flying in, with planes and helicopters on display. For families in Lee-on-the-Solent, it was something exciting and out of the ordinary.
“There was only one telly channel,” Jean laughed. “So an air day was something special.”
Jean even recalls famous names being involved.
“I think Morecambe and Wise opened it one year,” she said.
Daedalus was very different then. It was still an active air base, long before the factories and commercial buildings that exist on the site today.
“There wasn’t all the development. It was just an air base,” she said.
Jean’s father worked as a gardener, looking after the grounds and the greenhouses on site.
“He did all the greenhouses and that sort of thing,” she explained. “They had to go in on Sundays and make sure, stoke the fire, so the greenhouse was warm.”
As an only child, Jean often went with him.
“I used to go with my dad on a Sunday when he had to stoke the fires,” she said. “Because I was an only child, I just went with him.”
Jean says she is not someone who usually keeps things.
“I’m not a keeper. I don’t like stuff. I throw it away,” she admitted. “But I just thought it was something.”
That is why the pound note still surprises her.
“I don’t know why I kept it,” she said. “But I just didn’t want it to get thrown in the bin.”
She recently brought it along to share after becoming involved in local history through her U3a group.
“I go to local history, and we’re doing something about Daedalus,” she said. “So, I fished it out from wherever I did.”
When she saw the call for local stories connected to Daedalus Waterfront, she felt it was worth bringing the note forward.
“I saw your advert, and I thought that’s a good idea,” she said. “To give it to you to put somewhere or show.”
For Jean, the note is not about money or value. It is simply a small reminder of what Daedalus used to be, and of the everyday memories tied to it.
“It was just where you used to go when you were kids for the day,” she said of Lee-on-the-Solent. “You’d ride your bike down to the beach and be there all day.”
Jean’s story reflects a time when Daedalus was part of the rhythm of local life, through work, family, and community events that people still remember decades later.
Thanks to Jean for sharing her story and this piece of important history with Daedalus Waterfront. We have done a little research of our own and have included some insights into these local events below…
Daedalus as a flying base
Daedalus began life in 1917 as a naval aviation station and was central to British naval flying for much of the 20th century, especially under the Royal Naval Air Station designation HMS Daedalus. It was active through both World Wars and the Cold War, training naval aircrew and engineers and operating various aircraft from seaplanes to fighters. The airfield remained in military use until it closed in 1996, after which it transitioned to civilian and mixed use, now known as Solent Airport Daedalus.
Air Days and public flying events
While formal “Air Days” like the ones Jean remembers aren’t listed as a continuous official series in published histories, there is solid evidence that the site hosted public aviation events throughout the latter 20th century. Archived community posts and local group records show HMS Daedalus Air Day was organised into at least the 1970s and 1980s. One example from local aviation groups mentions a HMS Daedalus Air Day event in 1986, which featured visiting historic aircraft like the North American Harvard.
These events typically combined flying displays with an open invitation to the public. For local families, that meant walking or cycling down to see aircraft flying overhead and on the ground, often with additional attractions and community atmosphere rather than a purely commercial air show setup.
Commemorative aviation events in recent years
Although the air station itself no longer runs weekly or annual Air Days, the legacy of public flying displays continues in modern commemorative events. For example, Daedalus D-Day 80 Airshow in 2024 marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings with flying displays and historical engagement, drawing on Daedalus’s significant wartime role.
Likewise, the Victory Festival & Air Display September 2025 celebrated the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ Day with a programme of vintage and modern aircraft flying, military vehicle parades, living history displays, music and family activity.
Why these events mattered locally
For local residents like Jean, Air Days were community occasions. They offered a chance to see aircraft up close, to be part of something at a place that was also a workplace for many local people, and to connect with aviation as part of everyday life. They weren’t necessarily large-scale commercial air shows; they were grounded in community participation, nostalgia, and pride in the airfield’s role in national service as well as local identity.
At Daedalus Waterfront we are committed to building community and legacy in the Lee-on-the-Solent.
