An Airfield that never was?

[Flap40]

Whilst looking at an old map the other day I found an 'Old Airfield' marked in an area that I was unaware of there ever having been any flying before.

The map can be found at View: OS Seventh Series, Sheet 62, Edinburgh - Ordnance Survey One-inch to the mile maps of Great Britain, Seventh Series, 1952-1961 (http://maps.nls.uk/view/91553715) and the field can be found marked at NT385682just to the south east of Cousland. As well as the old airfield there is another place marked as 'Airfield' approximately 500m to the South. This is the appropriately named Airfield Farm.

A google search does not bring up any history of this field other than the local community's opposition to turning it into an opencast coal mine.

On the host site for those maps I have checked older editions and it was still marked as 'Old Airfield' in 1926 but was marked as "Airfield' in 1904. Strangely, it was the same on the 1898 (http://maps.nls.uk/view/74488700) map and it is even marked on the 1857 map.

Was this an old Ballooning station? Perhaps but I think not. If you look closer at the 1898 map you will see marked an 'Old Windmill' adjacent to the word 'Airfield'. The Airfield in this case I think is referring to the building immediately to the east. It seems that over time the Farm has been rebuilt further to the south east and the 1904 maps have both farms marked with the same name. On the 1926 map the NW farm was marked as Old Airfield.

So, if there never was an airfield here, how did the farm get its name???????

[India Four Two]

Flap40,

It's probably not much help, but I had a look at the UKAirfields.kmz overlay on Google Earth and there is no airfield marked at Cousland. The closest one is Macmerry/Penston, about 5 nm NE.

[DaveReidUK]

So, if there never was an airfield here, how did the farm get its name???????I suspect the reason is lost in the mists of time. But it might be significant that "air" is a word in Gaelic, with several meanings but the most appropriate one here might be the preposition meaning "on " or "upon".

So "airfield" might simply be (the farm) "on the field".

[FantomZorbin]

Looking at the map, Airfield Farm appears to be at the bottom of significantly sloping ground, not too good for a runway but it does 'level' out at Cousland itself.
A quick look at the CWGC site for cemeteries in the area does not seem to indicate many aircrew graves either.

[enicalyth]

Airfield no... In the Lothians dialect and particularly more and more towards Stenton and East Lothian there is a remnant of "field" becoming pronounced as "fiedel". This habit was common in 19th century dialect in other parts of Lowland Scotland. The local name "Fordel" however persists. So the proper name "field" was spoken as "fiedel" in the broad tongue and the locality became anglicised into "Fordel".

Cheers

[Flap40]

So as i suspected, The use of the word 'airfield' have nothing to do with aviation in this case.

As an aside, that 1960's map that I linked to is quite unusual in using a scale of 1:63360 (1 inch to the mile) but the the grid overlay is in 1km squares. The wonders of creeping decimalisation!

[Allan Lupton]

Quote
that 1960's map that I linked to is quite unusual in using a scale of 1:63360 (1 inch to the mile) but the the grid overlay is in 1km squares.

Nothing unusual about that, as any of us agéd ex-rallymen know!
The Ordnance Survey used 1":1mile until the change to the 1:50,000 scale in 1976 (I think).
Military users needed a way to define a position on the map and at some stage the WO Cassini Grid was introduced, which was a grid of kilometres. That was still in use when some maps I have were printed in 1942.

That seems to have been refined into the National Grid by the time my 1947 maps were printed and of course it's still in use

[Heathrow Harry]

don't get started on the National Grid - it was an abor**** thought up by one guy........


But the 1: 50,000 was known as the "One Inch" (to the mile) for years............

the 1:25000 was originally 2 and half (none of this metric rubbish with decimal points) Inches to the Mile

I think they switched as they moved to computer databases and drawing

[DaveReidUK]

Nothing wrong with the National Grid - if you ask you OS nicely they will send you a 20-page document with all the maths you need to convert between NG and WGS84. :O

[diginagain]

Nothing wrong with the National Grid - if you ask you OS nicely they will send you a 20-page document with all the maths you need to convert between NG and WGS84.

Or use this... (http://www.fieldenmaps.info/cconv/cconv_gb.html)

[Capot]

But the 1: 50,000 was known as the "One Inch" (to the mile) for years............ Not in my experience; the "1-inch map" was and remains a 1:63360 map, and the 1:50000 map was and is a "fifty-thou" map.

But I accept that anyone who is unaware that the two are different might use the wrong name.

[Wander00]

I am with Capot on this one.

[Basil]

Yup, our old RAF 1" maps were 1:63360 and the subsequent 1" maps I actually paid for are 1:50000.

When I was in the MN, our mid Atlantic charts were 1:72000 because they referred to nautical miles.
and if you believe that, you'll believe anything

[AnAussieNut]

Found a little bit more about the history of the farm but unfortunately nothing about an airfield.

Oxenfoord Mains House and Boundary Walls - Dalkeith - Midlothian - Scotland | British Listed Buildings (http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-772-oxenfoord-mains-house-and-boundary-walls-cr)

Cheers From Downunder
Paul

[Rosevidney1]

I thought the kilometre grid idea came from the French army in WW1 as a means to improve artillery results, and was then adopted by all nations.

[Lon More]

In an 1812 book, published in Dalkeith "Poems, Chiefly in the Scots Dialect" Thomas Mannie Scott of Airfield is mentioned as one of the subscribers so nothing to do with airfield as we know it.

You could try contacting Dalkeith Council for info.

[Flybiker7000]

Isn't it possible that the metric grid is a NATO standard :-/

[Flap40]

The OS grid became metric as a result of the Davidson report in 1938.

NATO was formed in April 1949.