West Wittering Beach
For a brief period in the 1930s, West Wittering Beach served as an unlikely extension of a Derby factory floor. Sir Henry Royce, the engineering mechanic behind Rolls-Royce, spent his final, ailing years at a house in the village called ‘Elmstead,’ essentially forcing the company's design team to commute to the seaside to get his approval on prints.
Local lore insists that during his afternoon walks, Royce would use the tip of his walking stick to sketch engineering schematics directly into the wet sand—specifically components for the 'R' engine, the direct precursor to the Merlin unit that later powered the Spitfire. He died in the village in April 1933, leaving the final work to his team. It is a strange bit of history: the deafening roar of the Spitfire likely started life here in total silence, scratched into sand that didn’t even last the afternoon.
→ All photos Fujifilm X100F
