Growing up only a few miles from east mids airport and having wasted most of my formative years in the seventies and eighties kicking around the place. I always wondered what the old RAF Castle Donington looked like. I’m aware it used to have two runways but does anyone have any photos of what the place used to look like
CD actually had three runways. Traces of them beneath the grass and a few dispersal hard-standings are visible on Google Earth. Wartime photos seem to be non-existent or at least I've never seen one.
Nearest I've managed to get to any photos is a book called "East Midlands Airport in Wartime" by Geoff Wilkes which recounts his time at RAF CD. Very interesting book but unfortunately no photos of the old airfield as such.
As Atcham Towers says there were 3 runways: roughly W/E, NE/SW and NW/SE. The W/E runway forms what is now part of 27/09 although I believe it was completely dug out and started again from scratch. Parts of the old peri-track on the south side now forms part of the internal road system. I vaguely remember reading that the NE/SW runway was abandoned before the end of the war.
Dispersal was all around the airfield but mainly along the line of the old Diseworth to Kegworth road which now constitutes the internal road (ish) from the Thistle Hotel to round about the Royal Mail facility. There were also dispersal areas near the 'new' fuel farm, to the S/W of the 09 runway and to the north of the W/E runway. Traces of the latter can still be seen if you walk around on the Airport Trail.
The old main entrance and guard house were by what was the back entrance entrance into the airport (off Charnock Crossroads) until about 10/15 years ago (near the maintenance hangars). The airfield technical area was situated around here too along with a T2 type hangar. One or two of the old RAF building still exist tucked in amongst the present day hangars. There was also a B1 type hangar on the E of the airfield amongst the dispersal.
The Domestic Site was to the west of the airfield close to where the DHL buildings are now and the Bomb Stores are to the north of the airfield and east of the now closed road down to Lockington. This area is known locally as 'the dumps'.
There was no ATC tower on the airfield. This sevice was provided from a hut on wheels which was towed to whichever runway was in use at the time.
I've got a copy of the record site plan for the airfield which isn't very clear but I'll try and answer any specific questions.anyone may have.
There is a picture of the building of EMA in BG Cramp's British Midland Airways book ...
Slightly larger this time ...
Also just remembered that EMA retained a grass NE/SW (ish) runway until the 70s/80s until some offices (Orion Airways?) were built at one end. I don't think this was along the track of the original NE/SW runway though ... ?
Last edited by jh5speed; 7th Mar 2010 at 16:01.
Reason: better picture + extra comment
You couldn't make the picture a bit bigger could you.
Thanks for idea of looking at google earth in better detail I always wonderd why the sierra taxiway was at an oblique angle yet the others are perpendicular and its because its part of the old NE/SW runway
There was also a book published by the airport to commemorate it's 40th birthday which has some good aerial photos of the wartime airfield. I have a copy somewhere and, if I can find it, I'll try and get the photos up on here.
With regards to the post war grass strip, it was certainly still there when I first started flying from EMA in about 1979 but I can't remember ever using it. It ceased to be when the Orion offices were built as stated above. There was also a signals square in existence at this time situated in front of the old ATC tower.
Hello Mickey,
To add to the jigsaw pieces of information .In the 1981 edition of Action Stations 2 by Bruce Barrymore Halfpenny , on page 61 ,there is an oblique aerial shot showing the grass runway and many of the wartime hangers and infrastructure relative to the new 27/09 and terminal.
The date of the photo is not shown but was certainly a lot earlier than 1981 which was when I first operated commercially from CD and I found the detail of the photo quite interesting.
The book was published by Patrick Stephens. ISBN 0-85059-484-7.
These books are still in circulation second hand as they are regarded as something of a historical reference manual .
