Raf Silloth as it is now, from the air

[NutLoose]

Excellent film, excellent music and poignant ending

:D:D:D:D

See

http://vimeo.com/109029160

[India Four Two]

Nice find, NutLoose.

The "excellent music" is one of my all-time favourites: "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Vaughan Williams. This particular version is performed by The New Queen's Hall Orchestra.

[Peter-RB]

Indeed magical and brilliant music to accompany such a sad short film, I seem to remember my old Dad mentioning Silloth before he went to North Africa, was it a training area?.. for prior to that I am sure he was in N Ireland.

[goudie]

Hmmm. I'd never heard of the place but interesting history here.

I assume the film was made using a drone...clever stuff!


Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: United Kingdom, England, Cumbria (http://www.ronaldv.nl/abandoned/airfields/gb/england/cumbria.html)

[JW411]

Silloth was built in 1939 as an MU (Maintenance Unit). Fairly quickly it also housed a Coastal Command OCU. In fact, so many Lockheed Hudsons were lost in the vicinity that the Solway Firth became known as Hudson Bay!
In the 1950s Silloth was covered in Dakotas and Yorks and I can well remember them arriving at Prestwick looking pretty decrepit only to be transformed by Scottish Aviation. Eight of the Yorks were refurbished for use by Scottish Airlines who had a trooping contract. Sadly, five of them crashed and two of those involved loss of life.

[joy ride]

I have only heard of the name Silloth and know nothing about it, but with that music I needed no other encouragement! Great video, thanks for posting.

The music was also used to great effect in the storm scene in the film "Master and Commander". In fact the music in M&C is almost as brilliant as Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon". My orchestra once played "Fantasia" but R V-W forgot to add timpani so I had no part, dammit!

I have the Battle of Britain DVD which I can watch either with the original all-RV-W soundtrack or the release version with mostly Ron Goodwin's score apart from the stunning RV-W dogfight sequence, and I have to admit that I prefer the release version!

[goudie]

apart from the stunning RV-W dogfight sequence,
That gave me the shivers when I first saw the film and heard it, and it still does. No other music could fit those ariel ballets so well

[joy ride]

^ The only other music which might fit is a similar sounding section of Benjamin Britten's superb "Symphonia di Requiem", but you are right, it is a classic section of "shivers down the spine" music and action!

[Fareastdriver]

Without knocking the video, a quick look at Silloth's history doesn't have a lot of Lancasters involved.

[joy ride]

Agreed, I looked on Wiki and there is no mention of Lancs or Lockheeds (Hudsons?)

[west lakes]

Sadly at ground level it looks in really poor condition with roadways breaking up and buildings in very poor state.

Of all the WW2 MU's and training fields in the area there is some life at some of them

Anthorn is a NATO VLF site
Great Orton was the site of the Foot & Mouth burials and is now a nature reserve and a wind farm
Kingmoor (Carlisle) is an industrial/commercial estate
Crosby on Eden is, well Carlisle Airport (though this was a training field)
and
Kirkbride is an industrial estate and an operation airfield for light aircraft. Though at certain times both the RAF & Dutch Airforce use it for training

[SpringHeeledJack]

A family member comes from Silloth and couldn't wait to leave on becoming an adult and hasn't been back since save for 3 days a year despite having family there. On the video the surrounding area doesn't look too bad at all, although without the blue sky it could well be grim. I didn't realise that there was an (ex) airfield there, but for quick access out into the Irish Sea they couldn't have chosen better.

The music was lovely and added to the slow tracking shots towards and away from points of interest.


SHJ

[west lakes]

Kirkbride with Silloth & the Solway Firth in the distance

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/300817_2161832839483_1806752570_n.jpg?oh=009e0c8c75d24bf5f87 57419cd1943c7&oe=55164206&__gda__=1426024141_1be28a85f06de617621f98ad8ed77e36

[Lynxman]

Some scenes from the film The Dambusters were filmed at Silloth.

[bean]

The original music for the Battle of Britain film was composed by Sir William Walton, not Vaughn=Williams

[India Four Two]

The music was also used to great effect in the storm scene in the film "Master and Commander". In fact the music in M&C is almost as brilliant as Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon".

joy ride,

I agree with you. All the music in M&C is fantastic, as is the film, which I often watch again.

[joy ride]

Bean: You are of course completely right, doh, Senior moment! Both fine composers, but (apart from the Dogfight) Goodwin did a better job! he also wrote "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" and many other great film scores.

IFT, if you like M&C I seriously recommend "Barry Lyndon". Two of the finest historical drama films, meticulously authentic in every detail. Both also have leading actors who I do not normally like, but who suit the parts well!

[India Four Two]

joy ride,

If you haven't done so, I recommend the whole series of Jack Aubrey books, in chronological order of course. ;)

I must have seen Barry Lyndon, but it would be such a long time ago, that I can't remember anything about it. However, I working my way through all of Stanley Kubrick's films, so I'll have to get hold of it.

[Exnomad]

When flying from 3ANS at Bishop's court in 1953, aways asked fora radio beareing from Silloth, the radio operator there had a very sexy voice.

[Proplinerman]

There's a small museum there, which I visited a few years ago. No aircraft then (I think there might be one or two there now), but there was this old heavy aircraft recovery truck, which I thought was rather nice:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/48975048@N06/14114450818/in/photolist-nvffuj-hsUfSG


And a Centurion tank-and if you look closely at the photo, you'll see that I committed the cardinal sin of allowing a shadow of me taking the photo, to show in the image:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/48975048@N06/10806133044/in/photolist-nvffuj-hsUfSG/