chevvron
Sadly the boat was missed in 1957 when RAF Halton was due to start its concrete runways - the Sandy’s Report that same year cancelled it. This is what may have been:
Finally, on Halton a very small handful of locals proper kicked off about the arrival of 2 piston powered glider tugs to operate from the airfield. Which always made me chuckle as 10 years earlier the RAF Engineering Apprentices were conducting engine ground runs on 3x Vulcan bombers flown in for their use - yes, landed they on the grass as well as a Comet airliner!
The last hard military runway to be built in the UK was at RAFC Cranwell that was finished by 1959 for the arrival of the Vampire, Jet Provost and Meteor. Prior to that it was grass which made it a strange choice to operate our first prototype jet the Golster E28/39 during World War 2 from a grass airstrip.