Emergency landing ground...

[52049er]

I'll be very impressed if anyone can find out details of this one...

Apparently, Catterlen (a hamlet near Penrith, Cumbria) had an emergency landing strip during the war. I've only found one reference to this online - can anyone give me any more information about it?

Thanks in advance!

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[aviate1138]

52049er
An extract from a Home Guard, Jonty Stalker.
"All rural areas, as well as the towns and cities, had their Home-Guard. Skelton, near Penrith was no different, except for the fact that on the doorstep was the biggest short-wave transmitting station in the world! Built to broadcast the BBC into occupied Europe, it went on air in 1943.

Down towards Catterlen at Kelbarrow Farm stood a top-secret satellite landing ground to cater for the overspill aircraft from No1 OTU at Silloth, twenty-five miles away.

Jonty Stalker recalls:

"I was in the Skelton Home-Guard. I joined on the day it started."

Our duties were to guard the BBC Transmitting Station, and the Satellite Landing Ground at Kelbarrow." [Farm]
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Intrigued I had a dig around......

Down South is Great Sampford an ELG/Satellite for Debden - flown near it many times and it has that 'look' about it. The reason I start here is to try and find similarities in a really obscure site up near Skelton.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture37-1.jpg


This is North of Kelbarrow Farm.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture36-1.jpg

Now I found this just South of Catterlen
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture35.jpg

It could of course be under the M6! Nothing concrete but a start anyway

The BBC Transmitter complex at Skelton is huge now and all the wartime stuff has been removed.

I am sure someone will have actual eyewitness news but my curiosity and a spare moment got the better of me! :rolleyes:

[gibbo568]

A visit to 'Bones Aviation Page' will lead to a very useful resource. On the pages can be found a link to a Google earth file which list many UK airfields, old and modern, with a brief description of many.
In the Penrith area are Plumpton, Hornby Hall and Hutton in the Forest.
Hutton is about a mile away from Catterlen, but I can't make anything of an airfield in that area, unless that is the airfield just to the north-west, as shown in aviate1138's fist picture.

[Atcham Tower]

The Catterlen site is almost certainly the Satellite Landing Gound at Hornby Hall (No 9 SLG). It opened in March 1941 for aircraft dispersal from No 22 Maintenance Unit at Silloth. Wellingtons, Blenheims, Bothas and Hudsons were amongst the types stored here. The adjacent woodlands were used as natural camouflage for the parked aircraft. Hurricanes were stored at a later date and the site closed in July 1941. A Robin hangar converted into a barn and a few other buildings are still there.

As for ELGs; there seem to have been quite a few but I have never found a list in the archives, nor were they marked on aeronautical maps. Not a great deal of use then! One of the few identified and confirmed by local research was known as Haroldston West, about 6 miles west of Haverfordwest.

[Atcham Tower]

Sorry, I have just committed some duff gen to print! I should have read the posts more carefully. What I should have said was that it is almost definitely Hutton-in-the Forest (No 8 SLG) again parented by No 22 MU, Silloth. It opened June 41 and closed in Aug 45. Similar aircraft to those at Hornby were stored.

[52049er]

You guys...:ok:

Great stuff. Knew you wouldn't let me down. Am heading up there in a couple of weeks to visit old family friends so will have a sniff around (maybe the local would be a good place to start....)

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