Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

[ZH875]

Originally Posted by 682al

How odd, ZH875's view of Hooton Park is the one I thought I'd linked to!

I must admit, it was my second attempt, it appears that if you goto a previous googlemap link, then do a search, the map changes, but the page URL does not, just use the 'Link to this page' button, and copy that URL, and the right page appears.

[LowNSlow]

682al, thanks for the location. That was the one I found but when I re-checked my link it had moved to somewhere West of Newcastle!!!

Looking at the calm fields it is hard to beleive that this is where my Dad flew from 36 times to cross the enemy coast and was the scene of the deaths of more than a few of his friends.

[Cubdriver06]

Cibor

Google Earth and the local USGS survey map both show an airport in North Hampton, New Hampshire (that's NOO Hampshire, in the US) called Cibor.

I fly out of Hampton airfield, yet I've never found anyone who can explain to me what Cibor was. Does anyone here know?

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Coming August 21: Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942

[norman atkinson]

Abandonned and Little Known Airfields

RAF Ouston became Albermarle Barracks.

Does anyone know anything about Air Ministry Book Production and Distribution Unit? It appears- or so the RAF Museum claims on something called a Form SD13.

Again, RAF Highgate, London. Has anyone information please?
The Museum denies its existence whilst I have been in all three.

Thank you

[ZH875]

SD usually refers to 'Secret Document', so SD13 will be classified, so unless it has been declassified, the contents will not be available.

[fauteuil volant]

Please forgive me engaging in a spot of necromancy, but having discovered this old thread it seemed to me to be the ideal place to ask if anyone has, or can direct me to sources of, information concerning the apparently shortlived Hastings (East Sussex) municipal aerodrome at Pebsham. Although it was planned as early as 1934, it does not appear to have opened until 1948 and one source refers to it as a "former aerodrome" by as soon as 1952. However, incongrously, I have found another reference, in 1957, which suggests that Hastings Borough Council were then planning to extend and develop the airfield. Today the site is, I understand, football pitches. Can anyone tell me more about this little known and long since abandoned airfield?

[pax britanica]

The area aroiund Heathrow was once home to several airfields-flat and near London so ideal of course. The mighty LHR itself is of course an outgrowth f one such developemnt the modest but grandly named Great West Aerodrome which I think belonged to Faireys.

Heston is still visible with listed buildings - Chamberlains Munich flight Peace in Our Time etc of course and some natty metal cutouts of a 1930s monplane on main road. Many years after it ceased to be an airfield due to the proximity of LHR twas a CAA office f some kin for quite some time in the 60s and 70s

Not sure where Hounslow Aerodrome was unless it was on the Heath but there is also close by Hanworth Airpark. Which I havent been to for years but kicked a football around many times n the 1970s. No sign of it then either but the area was still known as Hanworth Airpark. Last one is Langley near Slough which was a manufacturing site in WW2 and test airfield for things lke the Typhoon or Tempest I believe. Was a Ford van works for many years not sure if that is still there.
Given the decline in industry in UK must be several old airfields which became industrial sites before moving onto third generation use as housing estates.

Fascinating thread

PB

[scr1]

how about the first airfield for inverness now the longman industrial estate

[Saab Dastard]

pax britanica,

I have a particular interest in the old West London aerodromes (I'm in Twickenham), so I've dug out some links to other / old threads that you may find of interest:

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...n-airport.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...-hounslow.html
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...s-age-map.html

Hounslow aerodrome was indeed on Hounslow Heath, and Hanworth Aerodrome is still remarkably similar today!

SD

[chevvron]

As regards Pebsham; images on Flash Earth ...satellite and aerial imagery of the Earth in Flash seem to show the remains of a runway just east of 'Pebsham Lane'. I've lost the map I had which showed 'Siddeley Green' but I'm sure it was depicted north of Bexhill.

[fauteuil volant]

Chevvron, are you sure about Siddeley Green? Firstly I think that the spelling should be Sidley, which is a district of Bexhill, but secondly I can find no other reference to an aerodrome either of that name or generally in Bexhill or the surrounding area (other than, obviously, Hasting Pebsham). The only aerial activity in Bexhill, to which I can find reference, are the visits of Cobham's air circus, which were at Little Common, Bexhill, in 1933, 1934 and 1935. But if you can find the map again, and thereby shed more light on this issue, I'll be most grateful.

[flyingwing]

Stanton Harcourt

The Airfields Of Oxfordshire Stanton Harcourt

[chevvron]

Looking at a map(not the original) I agree the spelling should be Sidley. The map in question was owned by my older brother, who obtained it when he went to school camp at Bexhill in the mid/late 50s; it showed an 'aircraft' symbol with 'Sidley Green' printed next to it (could have been an Esso Road Map and is long gone). Maybe, considering the scale of the map, it could actually have depicted Pebsham; the two sites look to be less than 2 miles apart.

[fauteuil volant]

Many thanks, Chevvron. It looks like a case of another one bites the dust!

[The Real Slim Shady]

Several years ago, must be 1989-ish, Scroggs and another QFI from YUAS did a a grand tour of disused airfields in Yorkshire / Lincolnshire in the Dusk 'til Dawn fly-in.

Scroggs may have some great info on that day and the airfields they visited.

[chevvron]

Bramcote (Warwickshire?) is only recognisable as the hangars still exist; the airfield seems to have been totally destroyed by the pongos now in residence.

[fauteuil volant]

Another possible candidate is Camber Aerodrome, near Rye, in East Sussex. I say possible because I have not established whether there was a grass field there or the flying was off the sands. There seems to have been aerial activity there before WW2. A Mr Ogilvie is recorded as keeping a Short Wright biplane, a Voisin type aeroplane and a full size glider there in 1910. Zenith Airways were operating at least one, but possibly four, three seat Avro 504Ns from there in 1935/36. I offer it as an abandoned airfield candidate because in 1935 "the Manager, Camber Aerodrome, Rye" was advertising in Flight for a general engineer. Does anyone know whether there was an airfield, in the accepted sense, at Camber and, if so, does anyone know anything more about it? Suffice to say modern aerial views of the site reveal no evidence of former aviation activity.

[JAR]

Not sure if this has been posted before or is of any use, but it is a good site:


UK Airfield Catalogue

[DennisK]

Pebsham & Camber

My log book shows I flew out of Pebsham on 29th May 2000 having completed a flying display there on Enstrom G-SHRK. A Cessna 172 landed there the same day. We may have been the last ever movements.

I always thought Camber was a seaplane base alongside the sands.

In the mid 1950s, I completed a USA air traffic GCA out of Grove, Oxfordshire in a Canberra B2. Others I still see from the air. About 50 yards of hard runway at Christchurch, the open space and perimeter track of the RLG south of Goodwood. the original Westhampnett? And there's precious left of the long E/W runways at Greenham Common (USAF) or Wisley. (VC10s)

There's the north/south strip on Hayling Island once used by a Cub belonging to Bill Warner. (Warner holiday camps) Spelthorne in Beds, (virtually invisible except by seasonal crop marks) There's another RLG immediately SE of Five Oaks in Sussex which I still use for forced landings and before I go on for too long, Peter Cadbury's east/west and North/South runways near Ascot. Smeatharpe in Devon close to Dunkeswell and the A/D where the Army Beagles (correct name?) used to land about 4 nm SE of Blackbushe. I think the wonderful AVM Don Bennett had something to with it around the early 1970s.

Dennis Kenyon.

[DennisK]

Airfield

Oh and before I forget .. surely the best AND oldest 'lost' airfield is the Sevenoaks Aerodrome where the Sevenoaks Aeroplane Company, or something near had three WW1 hangars on the South East perimeter of the field are still standing. I think they have a preservation order on them. I landed a heli there around 1998 and the signwriting of the Sevenoaks name was just discernable on the hangar roof. Now cow sheds!

Dennis Kenyon.