A Wisley Airfield History
I recently acquired a programme for the R.Ae.S (Weybridge) Flying Display held at Wisley on 5 June 1966. The programme contains an article on the history of Wisley. It is reproduced below in full.
Wisley and all that
(with apologies to the 1956 Garden Party Programme)
Wisley – on the Portsmouth Road, one of the great roads of the county whose name conjures up romantic flights of historical fancy and which today, at Wisley, divides such strange neighbours. On the one side the famous gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, where is practised the ancient art of cultivating gardens and where new varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables are tried out. On the other side, Wisley Aerodrome where the 20th Century art of aviation is practised and where new types of aircraft from the British Aircraft Corporation are tested.
Ancient and modern, and the sites of both have their roots deep in English History.
Wisley Aerodrome is not, as one might think, in the parish of Wisley; perversely it is in the parish of Ockham. Both Parishes are mentioned in the Doomsday Book and, for the purposes of Ship Money, were assessed together – in the XIVth century at
£2 18s. 10d. and in 1636 at £13 3s. 4d.
Possibly Wisley – Wislei in the XIth century and Wyseleye in the XIIIth – still maintains its position as the second smallest parish in the hundred of Woking; even in 1938 Wisley had only three “private” and 12 “commercial” residents. The number of commercials in Ockham is not recorded.
Hyde Farm, on which Wisley Aerodrome is built, is properly in Ockham (or Occam?) and at the time of the Doomsday Book the manor held by Richard de Tonbridge and then, for several generations, by the Clares. Economists, having absorbed the figures on Wisley may like to know that when Gilbert de Clare died in 1296 an “inquisition” showed that he owned a fishery worth two shillings (although there had been two in the Doomsday Book worth 10d.) and two water mills worth 40 shillings.
More than 600 years later, near Wisley Pond, a farmhouse known as Hyde Farm, fronted by a large ornamental pond, was situated roughly in the centre of a series of large open fields traversed by Hyde Lane and several footpaths. No one would ever have thought that behind the dense woods, just 100 yards or so from one of the busiest roads in the kingdom, was land which was practically a natural aerodrome. Yet it was found, just when it was needed, by the late Captain “Mutt” Summers, for many years Chief Test Pilot of Vickers-Armstrongs, who force landed on it not long before the war.
When in 1942 Vickers-Armstrongs needed a larger airfield than Brooklands for the Weybridge works Captain Summers remembered his earlier “find” and the Wisley site was surveyed. It was found that a runway of some 2,300 yards could be obtained by clearing a few hedges and trees and filling in ditches and a pond. At the extreme end the ground fell away rapidly and, as there was no other ground as high for perhaps five miles, it would be like taking off from an aircraft carrier.
Three farms were involved in the negotiations, two of which Hyde Farm & Gules Hill Farm, were several hundred years old and had been occupied by the same families for several generations. The farmers were helpful and an amicable arrangement was made by which parts of the ground could continue to be used for sheep grazing. The farms – and sometimes the sheep – are still there, almost surrounding the aerodrome.
The site was acquired and work began in 1943. Grass was sown on the runway but that summer was an exceptionally dry one and to ensure a proper growth an automatic watering system was installed which is fed by a large diameter water main – laid all the way from Ripley.
The ornamental pond, which was sited where the present runway crosses the road which leads to the Air Traffic Control building, was filled in and the farm house, Hyde Farm, had to be demolished, but an old cottage nearby was converted to become the Air Traffic Control Building. This cottage still adds individuality and rural charm to the Wisley scene although honesty compels us to state that the original reason for retaining it was the utilitarian one of camouflage.
The latest air traffic control equipment is installed in the converted farmhouse which serves as Wisley “Tower”, and highly qualified controllers are maintained between Wisley, London Airport and Farnborough to co-ordinate air traffic movements. With the latest radar system, Wisley has been able on occasion to assist the London Airport controllers in tracking flights into & out of Heathrow.
Wisley
Runway: 6,690 x 225Ft asphalt
One grass runway
Decca MR 100 Surveillance Radar. CR/DF. CAD/F. UHF and VHF/RT
Decca Approach Radar 424.
Sodium runway lighting, Thom VASI approach lighting.
One casualty was the little hamlet of Elm Corner, consisting of a few houses only, on the North side of the Aerodrome. Hidden away and almost unknown, even to the residents of nearby Weybridge, this little hamlet, which is also part of the Ockham estate, had for years been linked with Ockham by the footpaths which crossed the fields. Since the coming of the aerodrome Elm Corner is more cut off than ever, its only access to Ockham being a longer and more round-about road. But if the footpaths have gone, Hyde Lane still remains: it is the little turning on the left immediately before the gates of the aerodrome.
Flight sheds were built while the grass runway was being cultivated and in 1944 Wisley was in full use and during the rest of the War much experimental flying was done from it, including work with various new bombs. In 1944 two V-1s fell in the field but only put it out of action for a couple of days.
Since the War new buildings and offices have been added from time to time and in 1952 the grass runway was converted to a hard one, the then relatively new process of stabilisation with cement being used. In fact, the work done on the runway at Wisley is regarded in the paving industry as one of the outstanding uses of this system of construction. The most recent additions to the buildings are the new fight sheds which are mainly used for the VC10.
Among the aircraft whose prototypes have made their maiden flights at Wisley are the Viking, Varsity, Valetta, Viscount 630, Viscount 700 and Valiant B.1 and B.2. The Viscount, that outstanding aeroplane which has itself made aviation history, has done most of its development flying Wisley.
The Vanguard, VC10 and Super VC10 have made their first landings at Wisley after taking off from the local B.A.C. airfield at Weybridge. All the civil aircraft since the Viscount, and now the BAC 1-11, have done most of their development flying from Wisley.
A complete organisation of pilots, flight observers and technicians is established at Wisley to cover all aspects of the flight testing of new prototype and production aircraft. This is of a most comprehensive character, having to satisfy not only the stringent requirements of British aviation authority but also those of the comparative national bodies of foreign customers, including America.