'Old' names for British airports

[paulo]

The ones I can remember... Ringway (Manchester), Speke (Liverpool), 'London Airport'... wasn't Gatwick called 'Croydon Airport' ?

Any idea where the 'non city' names came from? e.g. Ringway?

[PaperTiger]

Croydon was a separate airfield, located in er.. Croydon.
Most were named after the nearest village.
Aberdeen - Dyce
Edinburgh - Turnhouse
Newcastle - Woolsington
E.Midlands - Castle Donington (Derby - Burnaston before that)
Birmingham - Elmdon
Coventry - Baginton
Bristol - Lulsgate
Cardiff - Rhoose

can't remember any more

[Stan Evil]

A few more

Norwich - Horsham St Faith
Teesside - Middleton St George
Gloucestershire - Staverton
Wolverhampton Business Airport (you've got to be kidding!) - Halfpenny Green

[Jockflyer]

Glasgow - Hillington
Bournemouth - Hurn

[pulse1]

Swansea - Fairwood Common

[chiglet]

Leeds.. Yeadon
Glasgow, was.. Renfrew
Heathrow... Hounslow
Isle of Man.. Ronaldsway
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[spekesoftly]

Blackpool - Squires Gate

Glasgow - Abbotsinch

Belfast - Aldergrove

Inverness - Dalcross

Islay - Port Ellen

Oxford - Kidlington

Plymouth - Roborough

[Jockflyer]

OK, thats 3 old names for Glasgow, including mine.

If the Abbot could only muster 1 inch, then no wonder they changed the name!!

I'm happy to stand corrected, if anybody else can confirm which is right. Maybe they all were/are.

Answers on a postcard to.....:confused

[spekesoftly]

AFAIK, the 'old name' for the present Glasgow Airport is 'Abbotsinch'. Nearby 'Renfrew Airport' had been used for scheduled air services, but it lacked the space to cope with the increase in air travel in the 1950s. Services were therefore moved to Abbotsinch, which was renamed Glasgow Airport, and Renfrew eventually closed in 1966. I believe it is now the site of a retail park.

None of the above, of course, to be confused with Glasgow (Prestwick) Airport !!!

[chippy63]

and not forgetting
Southampton- Eastleigh

[Self Loading Freight]

When did Roborough get renamed? I used to live a couple of miles away when I was growing up (not that I have entirely grown up)...

R

[Scottie Dog]

And before the opening of Aldergrove, Belfast was Nuts Corner!

They had such fun in the old days......

Scottie Dog

[Eff Oh]

Abbotsinch was the correct old name for Glasgow International. I believe it still says ABBOTSINCH in the grass to the left of rwy 23. The site of Renfrew airport's runway, is now part of a large straight portion of the M8 which passes the David Lloyd centre. Hillington was never the name of any of the 2 airports. (As far as I am aware.) ;)
Incidently, Abbotsinch was an RAF base during WWII home to 602 (Glasgow) Squadron. You can still see some of the old buildings belonging to the base. They are now largely outwith the boundry of the existing airport,m on the western edge, but if you travel along the perimiter road towards Erskine, you will see them on your left.
Eff Oh :D

[Meeb]

Renfrew airport had a magnificent terminal building and modern (for its time) control tower. The Tesco supermarket at Renfrew now stands on the actual site of the terminal. The M8 when it was built in the late 60's cut through the old runway location, but there are hangers from Renfrew still visible in the Hillington area.

A visit to the supermarket is worth it to see the painting Tesco commisioned of the original terminal building, lovely painting and a superb building. Glasgow Airport also have scale models of both Renfrew & Abbotsinch.

[ETOPS]

Try these

Coventry - Baginton

Leeds/Bradford - Yeadon

Teeside - Middleton St. George

Newcastle - Woolsington

Barrow - Walney Island

Chester - Hawarden

Wolverhampton International - Halfpenny Green

Bristol - Lulsgate Bottom (Yes it was!)

I could go on but my anorak is getting a bit hot......

[spekesoftly]

Just to add a bit more to the history of Glasgow/Abbotsinch:-

RAF Abbotsinch 1933 - 1943

RNAS Abbotsinch (HMS Sanderling) 1943 - 1963

Glasgow Airport 1966 - to date

[SKYYACHT]

If memory serves me correctly, I believe Heathrow and Gatwick were named after their respective villages. Hounslow Air Park was a separate place, along with Heston Airpark, and Kenley Air Park, which later became RAF Kenley (Now the home of 615 Volunteer Gliding School). Chichester/Goodwood was previously RAF Westhampnet, and London Stansted is named for the local village, Stansted Mountfitchet.

Tailwinds

[Wycombe]

Blackbushe = RAF Hartfordbridge

(The geographical plateau on which the airfield stands is known as Hartfordbridge Flats).

[5711N0205W]

Humberside = Kirmington

[llamas]

I can tell that this has to be the place to ask these two questions:

1) Does Sherburn-in-Elmet airfield still exist, and if so can anyone provide some form of directions? Searching a bit hard from this side of the pond.

2) Is there yet any evidence of the airship station at Howden in Yorkshire?

Thank you muchly.

llater,

llamas

[Stan Evil]

Sherburn-in-Elmet

EGCJ

N5347.09 W 00113.02

Southeast of the vllage between the B1222 and the railway line.

Operator Sherburn Aero Club

Phone (0)1977 682674

[knobbygb]

sherburn aero club website (http://www.sherburn-aero-club.org.uk)

For a road map, put the postcode (LS25 6JE) in here...

streetmap (http://www.streetmap.co.uk)

...zoom out one step, and there it is.


also,

aerodrome info from the CAA (http://www.ais.org.uk/uk_aip/pdf/ad/302cj01.pdf)

might be worth a look.

[llamas]

Thank you, folks, I must have had a dyslexic moment when I typed in my search parameters.

Any ideas about Howden?

llater,

llamas

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

Renfrew's runway was quite short, just on 6000ft. if I remember correctly. One of the approaches was over the tall cranes of the Clydebank shipyards. It was a prime design requirement of the Vickers Vanguard that it could operate from this runway with a full load on the LHR in all conditions.

[chiglet]

Goodwoods ICAO code is dead easy to remember.
EGHR (Horse Racing) ;)
Coventry ... Bagington
Peterboghorror.. Sibson
Nottingham.. Tollerton
Northampton... Sywell
And the best one......
Manchester International.... BARTON:D
Well it was in the '30s:rolleyes:
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy

[Pom Pax]

Gatwick was purpose built in 50s on the site of Gatwick race course being adjacent to a main railway line and a proposed motorway.
Hounslow.....Hounslow Heath
Cambridge Marshall's
Nutts Corner was this the civil name for R.A.F. Aldergrove or a seperate airfield. We had parked the other way round I might have known all I could see out of my window was a drizzley Irish day and a hare stareing at me across the grass.

[Standard Noise]

Chiglet - small typo, it's Baginton. "Bagington" is just the West Midlands accent taking over.

Pom Pax - if you go to Aldergrove, it's much the same as Nutts, lots of drizzle and several bewildered hares!

[steamchicken]

As an exiled Yorkshireman, I might point out that LBA is only there (on a ridgeline, in Yorkshire = quite often WX'd) because Bradford Council thought the Leeds swine would get the benefit if it was built at Sherburn (near the A1 and now the M62 and the main railway). The joys of local politics! A quite new old name - RAF Manston, we're now expected to say London Manston....so how much is the taxi fare!

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

Nutts Corner was the much smaller civil airfield about two miles South-East of Aldergrove. In the early sixties, before "The Troubles" really started, just about the only active unit at R.A.F. Aldergrove was the Handley Page Hastings Met flight. The airfield's primary function was as a maintenance unit. The scandalous under use of this large airfield was finally recognised. They built the civil terminal facilities and Nutts Corner was closed once everything transferred.

[spekesoftly]

I believe there are one or more amusing anecdotes about pilots mistaking Nutts Corner for Aldergrove, or was it the other way round? - The details have faded .......

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

I think the most recent case of "mistaken identity" was a 748 landing at Langford Lodge, 3nm SW of Aldergrove. The approach plates carry a warning about it.

[Hen Ddraig]

Hawarden is still Hawarden it has never been Chester
The dreaded Wolverhampton Business Airport was Bobbington before it became Halfpenny Green.
Shotwick became Sealand, now a gliding site
Scopwick became Digby

[Arkroyal]

East Midlands - Castle Donington

Leicester - Stoughton

Wasn't Manchester called Ringway? Barton is still there and further north.

Gatwick goes much farther back than the fifties. In the thirties, that strange round building just behind Handbrake House (CAA HQ) was the terminal, called the 'beehive'

[Unwell_Raptor]

Last time I looked the old Control Tower of Heston Airport (as featured in the Peace in Our Time newsclip) was still there next to M4 Heston Services westbound.

[Pom Pax]

Arkroyal I stand corrected
"1930 saw the opening of the Gatwick Aerodrome nearby (the first airport in the UK to have its own railway station)." source Crawley OnLine
"The present station was opened by British Railways in 1958. It was built on the original Gatwick Racecourse, which it was intended to serve, when it was built in 1891."
"Gatwick Racecourse opened in 1891 and proved popular - the Grand National was even hosted there during the Great War. An airfield was opened nearby in the 1930s, and soon after, the circular `Beehive' terminal building was built - a radical design at the time. Gatwick Aerodrome was requisitioned by the R.A.F. during WW2, then returned to commercial use until it was closed in 1956 to be redeveloped as an alternative to Heathrow. was opened by H.M.The Queen in June 1958. "
However on the fifties construction and the closure of Gatwick racecourse I submit a .map of Gatwick Racecourse (http://www.theracingpages.freeserve.co.uk/racing/grandnational/tales/gatwick.html) overlain on the present site.
Heston
. But in 1929 Heston Airport was built, and arterial roads began to be widened and constructed. By 1937 the airport had been bought by the government and plans were in motion to demolish the whole of Cranford apart from the church, and build the country's principal airport. If the second world war hadn't intervened, jets might have been flying from London Cranford airport instead of London Heathrow!
Heston Airport is famous for a single event — it was there that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain landed after flying back from Germany and talks with Adolf Hitler in 1939, waving a piece of white paper and announcing that there would be "Peace in our Time".
During the second world war, RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes flew from Heston airport, followed by US Air Force bombers.
But after the war plans for enlarging the airport were transferred to Heathrow
Spiney Norman the bemused hare was at Aldergrove '58.

Wonderfull what few Yahoo searches and a bit of cut and paste can turn up

[Bigears]

You may be interested in this link.......
http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/06airfields/UK/uk.htm

[paulo]

Bigears -

What a great site! Fire up multimap and there's hours of fun to be had (well, if you like that kind of thing.)

Here's Thurleigh for example.

Not only is that one monster runway (about EGLL length), but the site says there were plans to extend it to five miles. Blimey.

Thurleigh (http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=europe&x=505000&y=260500&scale=25000&width=700&height=410)

[Bigears]

Paulo, Glad you found the site useful, especially as you started this thread. Unfortunately I can take absolutely no credit for the site - I'm not that clever :(
By co-incidence you have done me a favour- I've often flown over that airfield inbound to LHR, and wondered what airfield it was that had those cars parked on it- now I know! :)
What might have been- maybe that would have been 'the other' London airport :eek:
Cheers

[Boss Raptor]

Cambridge - Teversham ? or even just after WW2 seemed to be called 'Marshalls' (for obvious reasons) in all the briefing manuals...

[A Very Civil Pilot]

Apparently before Heathrow became so many square miles of concrete (and a bit like Gatwick and its railway, became the only building site with its own airport), one of the perks that came with the airport managers job, was the shooting rights over the whole airfield!

[Crotalus]

Belfast City ....Harbour...RNAS Sydenham .......

[Red Spitfire Driver]

To get this thread back to the south coast.

Southampton,
Really should be Eastleigh as it is not even in the Southampton Council Area !!
previously Atlantic Park, and also HMS Raven

Or how about Hamble, previously Hamble Aerodrome (North), as Hamble (South) was a seaplane alighting area.
Both aerodromes used the same hangars.

Cheers

[Seer]

<<To get this thread back to the south coast.>>

The thread title is "British Airports", so why the back ...? :rolleyes:

[jetfour]

Belfast - Balmoral (1920's)

London - Mornington Crescent - Oops! Sorry. Wrong Thread.

[Holdposition]

EGCC as Ringway any ideas why, apologies if I have missed the explanation.

[Code Blue]

EGCC Ringway

Initially owned by Fairey Aviation and opened in 1937 in an area locally known as Ringway. I haven't been able to find out what it was specifically named after as the local area was actually called Shadow Moss.

Made into the site of a new airport to cope with the large DC2 as Barton could not. Home of No 1 Parachute Training School during WWII.
Used also by AV Roe to test fly the Manchester which was a flop - 2 more engines made it into a completely different beast however!

There is a book called Early Ringway published in 1978 written by R J Webb which might shed some light but I haven't been able to find it!:eek:
Rgds

CB

[Ferryman]

Lydd Airport - originally Ferryfield - Bristol Frighteners, AAhhhh. . . . I think they tried Ashford Intl a while back (yuck!).

They certainly changed Lympne to Ashford - and then closed it . . . RIP.

Then there was the airport with 3 names, Gloucester/Staverton/Cheltenham, but not necessariliy in that order.

steamchicken, it's difficult keeping up with the rebranding at Manston, but last time I drove the Thanet Way I believe it may have been Kent International! At 52nm from central London I suppose it might qualify as London Manston - certainly for Easyjet :)

[Pom Pax]

Surely Lydd......Ferryfield......Lydd

[Airbanda]

Can I add Exeter (Clyst Honiton) to the list?

Last time I was at Bristol there was still one of those old village boundary signs giving distances to last/next place announcing the site as Lulsgate Bottom.

Isn't (or wasn't) it Gloucester/Cheltenham (Staverton) in the same sense as Leeds/Bradford (Yeadon).

and finally Hull:- these days it shares Humberside/Kirmington with North Lincs. What was the East Riding RAF base used by Air Anglia in 74/5 to offer a Hull /Jersey and possibly Amsterdam service?.


Airbanda- Proud to be an Anorak

[Airbanda]

A few more for the pot:

Carlisle (Crosby)

Campeltown (Macrihanish)

Newquay (St Mawgan)

Southend (Rochford)

and one kind of the other way round

Shoreham (Brighton, Hove and Worthing Municipal Airport)

[EGTE]

How about Cardiff? It was Rhoose and "Glamorgan" when I first visited in the seventies.

[Wycombe]

Airbanda,

Newquay still is St. Mawgan - and vice-versa, just depends on whether you are civ (Newquay) or mil (RAF St Mawgan).

On the radio, it's simply "Mawgan"