Name this Cornwall airfield please — Perranporth?

[zkarj]

Hello people.

I am trying to figure out which abandoned airfield I visited in Cornwall in December 1986. My brother and I were driving around Cornwall for a day and we tried to find an airfield which I remember as being Perranporth, but looking at it now I don't think it can have been. We were heading north and visited the town of Perranporth I think right after, so it was close, and I believe south of Perranporth town. The location of Perranporth airfield fits with this memory.

What I can recall is this. Going from a map we had driven coastward from a main road looking for it and discovered it only when we realised we were essentially on the runway! It was in very poor repair, with grass growing through the rough concrete, but clearly a runway. Looking on a contemporary map it seems like this cannot have been Perranporth unless it was subsequently massively overhauled, and I can find no mention of this online.

I can see a disused field between Portreath and Porthtowan, but looking at satellite imagery it seems in way too good a state of repair compared to what I remember. If I have the direction wrong, we did reach RAF St. Mawgan and I think that was the furthest north we got before returning to Plymouth.

This is all going from a 34 year old memory so I may well have key facts wrong, but would appreciate any info from anyone who's familiar with this area from that era.

[rog747]

Does this help?
https://www.perranporthairfield.com/contact.html

[treadigraph]

Sounds like St Eval, north east of Newquay and St Mawgan. I think there is a road along part of a runway...

[Flap40]

Did you maybe get as far as Davidstow?

[zkarj]

One further clue is the road we found ourselves on was very sketchy and we intersected a runway.

St Eval is looking more likely based on location (we definitely circumnavigated St. Mawgan).

Davidstow does look more like the right "state of repair" from what I remember. It was so rough that we had to convince ourselves at first that it was indeed a runway, based on the breadth of (broken) concrete. We could only really see the extent of it once we were on it.

I'm not sure if we got that far north, though. I need to have a chat with my brother sometime to see if he remembers any more pertinent details.

[Yellow Sun]

In the 1980s St Eval had a prominent HF aerial array on the old airfield site.

YS

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

Aerial Views Of U.K. Airfields - St Eval Cornwall (http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/StEval.html)

http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/DavidstowMoor.html

[Phileas Fogg]

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1364x726/st_eval_d64f35571972243786c096b7acf54d66861c228c.jpg

[ShyTorque]

The description makes it sound very much like Davidstow.

[fedex727]

St. Eval at that time would have been easily recognisable due to the HF aerials mentioned by a previous poster, plus it had a large R.A.F. maried quarters patch and families facilities adjacent to the airfield. (I lived on the patch till 1980) .Some small commercial businesses may also have been operating around the perimeter by then. Good luck with your search.

[Phileas Fogg]

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1364x726/dm1_77c65dc346cdc0d4f3cdfeadae5712e9458b05f0.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1364x726/dm2_1a90f626ff008aa281586c64aff52d321b57ee23.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1364x726/dm3_5bebcbdc777fe2ed646a6b489928dda71bc3b22f.jpg

[zkarj]

Phileas Fogg that second picture of Davidstow looks the part. I do not recall anything prominent in the vicinity, just that we found the runway only when we were on it.

I'm still fighting my memory that it was near Perranporth, but other stuff I have researched from our trip has also proven my memory to be patchy.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. It seems the weight of evidence is indeed on Davidstow. And... I have just found a further corroboration we went that far up. I remember very clearly we saw a road sign for the wonderfully named town of Crapstone, which makes me suspect our route was A395, A30, A388, B3362, A386.

[Phileas Fogg]

Phileas Fogg that second picture of Davidstow looks the part. I do not recall anything prominent in the vicinity, just that we found the runway only when we were on it.

I'm still fighting my memory that it was near Perranporth, but other stuff I have researched from our trip has also proven my memory to be patchy.

Thanks everyone for weighing in. It seems the weight of evidence is indeed on Davidstow. And... I have just found a further corroboration we went that far up. I remember very clearly we saw a road sign for the wonderfully named town of Crapstone, which makes me suspect our route was A395, A30, A388, B3362, A386.

Well it wouldn't have been the airfield near Portreath as that, to this day, remains an active RAF establishment and you might just have remembered the golf ball and be glowing in the dark by now!

[Lordflasheart]

...
No one's mentioned RNAS St Merryn yet. HMS Vulture and latterly HMS Curlew.

Aaah - Crapstone = Harrowbeer

LFH

...

[POBJOY]

Sounds like Perranporth to me, as it was possible to drive on to the main runway off the very broken track that lead to Cligga Head. This was the end that housed the Gliding Club and also the location of a post war hangar. The ends of the runway were a bit tatty, but a couple of hundred yard on, the tarmac was very good and indeed was suitable for licensing in the 90's. There was no fence across the end of runway 23 as the Gliding Club at the time had to tow their machines onto the airfield via this location.
At some time a simple car tyres (wired together) structure used to be dragged across the runway end to prevent people driving onto the site, but frequently this was open if gliding was in operation. Years later a huge pair of gates were erected to secure the airfield as part of the licensing requirement.
Most people thought the Perranporth runways were bad because they only saw the very ends, but in fact 85% of the runways were fine as the airfield had a been 'serviced' in the 50's to allow commercial flying. The watch office (control tower) at the St Agnes end was reactivated in the 90's having been used as a cow shed for decades. Despite a huge battle with the local authority at the time who tried to impose restrictions of movements, a public enquiry threw this out,and the airfield is still active plus has a new hangar to protect the machines based there. TREADS if you are reading this you can post the image of the Spitfire replica (flying out of Perranporrth on test) complete with makings of a squadron based there in the war.

[treadigraph]

Here you go Pobjoy!

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1000x735/spit_3abbc2e8c1dc6bee1d316125e625d8993bf865e0.jpg

[POBJOY]

Jurca M10 replica Perranporth Spitfire flying from its original base on test. Built locally (all wood) 300 HP continental.
Flys as good as it looks, and the wheels go up and down.
Kenley next stop !!!! Well done TREADS.

[zkarj]

Sounds like Perranporth to me, as it was possible to drive on to the main runway off the very broken track that lead to Cligga Head. This was the end that housed the Gliding Club and also the location of a post war hangar. The ends of the runway were a bit tatty, but a couple of hundred yard on, the tarmac was very good and indeed was suitable for licensing in the 90's. There was no fence across the end of runway 23 as the Gliding Club at the time had to tow their machines onto the airfield via this location.
Now that's very interesting! My memory was indeed of a very rough track that took us to the runway. I also recall it being not far off the public road and this fits too. Looking at modern satellite imagery, would what you describe be the end of the unmarked "runway"?

The only bit that doesn't fit is the general state of repair today (as per Apple and Google Maps) suggests it has been improved since we were there as the only bit that looks suitably in disrepair to match what I remember would be the threshold of 27.

[Shackman]

Beginning to sound as though you may have taken the old Trebelzue gate access towards St Mawgan, which initially took you on to the old Trebelzue Airfield (which became St Mawgan when the new runway was built c1943). It was also the short cut to 'The Falcon' in St Mawgan village!

[Yellow Sun]

Beginning to sound as though you may have taken the old Trebelzue gate access towards St Mawgan, which initially took you on to the old Trebelzue Airfield (which became St Mawgan when the new runway was built c1943). It was also the short cut to 'The Falcon' in St Mawgan village!

Very unlikely as this would have taken them towards the USNAWF and they would have been stopped long before then.

YS🇺🇸☀️

[POBJOY]

Now that's very interesting! My memory was indeed of a very rough track that took us to the runway. I also recall it being not far off the public road and this fits too. Looking at modern satellite imagery, would what you describe be the end of the unmarked "runway"?

The only bit that doesn't fit is the general state of repair today (as per Apple and Google Maps) suggests it has been improved since we were there as the only bit that looks suitably in disrepair to match what I remember would be the threshold of 27.
It all fits the 'Perranporth' jigsaw in so much that you could actually access the runways quite easily. As alluded the runway ends were quite broken and one of the reasons was that's were the gliders were winch launched ( or auto towed) from, and the steel cables and connectors chipped the runway ends until the cable lifted off. Once you progressed 100 yards or so into the runway the surface was very good. There is no other substantial airfield near there where access was easily available.
In fact there were two entrances that both started with a very untidy track one at the Cligga Head end and the other at the St Agnes side .The St Agnes side had been the main entrance and that's were the Camp,guardroom, and small tower were located. When the Korean war started RAF St Mawgan had to stop civilian commercial flights, and so Perranporth was given a quick tidy up which is why some of the tarmac leading to the tower was quite intact. As a matter of fact when the CAA Licensing visited Perranporth in the 90's. they considered the runways quite good with only light patching and side vegetation clearance required. This was all done with volunteer labour and a four wheel drive Zetor tractor that also cut 3 grass runways. In fact the CAA Lic and RFF staff were very helpful, as opposed to the local Carrick Council who spent thousands of pounds trying to stop it. A public enquiry sorted that out with them having to pay all enquiry costs, and the airfield had no restriction placed on it. After removal of years of cow dung and general rubbish the control tower was given a concrete skim over the exposed brickwork and a set of double glazed single pane windows fitted (cost only by local enthusiast) A genuine war time anemometer finished it off, donated by Staverton airport when they had a refurbishment, and a former taxi (Pye) radio 119.75 gave us a superb comms system for many years. IN fact the whole exercise was a great example of volunteers and self help, and even the Landrover fire truck was a self help conversion utilising a powerful Godiva pump off the PTO, with all the crews (unpaid) being trained by ourselves.

[zkarj]

It all fits the 'Perranporth' jigsaw in so much that you could actually access the runways quite easily.
Thanks POBJOY. I'm convinced now that it was Perranporth, by a combination of that's what I remembered it to be, plus your contemporary description fitting my memory also.

I've been scanning photos from the trip, which were few because I had only just (days before) inherited my first SLR from my brother. (I shudder to think how many photos I would take if we repeated the trip today!) All I have from that day is a few from the now defunct Cornwall Aero Park (which was closed for the winter), and a distant shot of a line of Nimrods at St. Mawgan. We did have a neat experience near St. Mawgan which I wish I could have captured on film. We were still trying to locate the base and the weather was pretty misty. We were driving along a straight bit of road when suddenly out of the mist up ahead loomed a Nimrod at what looked like a couple of hundred feet! It was quite obviously on approach and at that point we knew we were close! :)

[Phileas Fogg]

Thanks POBJOY. I'm convinced now that it was Perranporth, by a combination of that's what I remembered it to be, plus your contemporary description fitting my memory also.

I've been scanning photos from the trip, which were few because I had only just (days before) inherited my first SLR from my brother. (I shudder to think how many photos I would take if we repeated the trip today!) All I have from that day is a few from the now defunct Cornwall Aero Park (which was closed for the winter), and a distant shot of a line of Nimrods at St. Mawgan. We did have a neat experience near St. Mawgan which I wish I could have captured on film. We were still trying to locate the base and the weather was pretty misty. We were driving along a straight bit of road when suddenly out of the mist up ahead loomed a Nimrod at what looked like a couple of hundred feet! It was quite obviously on approach and at that point we knew we were close! :)

A classic of St Mawgan is the day when they were having a practice emergency for a Nimrod come back with it's bomb bay on fire, some flares had ignited inside it's bomb bay thus a practice emergency became a real emergency.

[wub]

A classic of St Mawgan is the day when they were having a practice emergency for a Nimrod come back with it's bomb bay on fire, some flares had ignited inside it's bomb bay thus a practice emergency became a real emergency.

Then there was the time a 7 Sqn Canberra suffered a rudder top hinge failure and the nav ejected and landed near St Columb, while the aircraft landed safely.

[Phileas Fogg]

MRCA ... Fighter / Bomber / Reconnaissance


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x689/nimrod_2237cda53626cd51dac893ccc9b038583f2675e9.jpg

[Yellow Sun]

A classic of St Mawgan is the day when they were having a practice emergency for a Nimrod come back with it's bomb bay on fire, some flares had ignited inside it's bomb bay thus a practice emergency became a real emergency.

There was no “practice emergency”, the aircraft departed as an exercise Search and Rescue sortie and the flare ignited in the bomb bay shortly after departure from RW 31.

The radio and intercom transcript can be found on the internet.

YS

[chevvron]

www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk/forum/cornwall-airfields

[POBJOY]

There was no “practice emergency”, the aircraft departed as an exercise Search and Rescue sortie and the flare ignited in the bomb bay shortly after departure from RW 31.

The radio and intercom transcript can be found on the internet.

Now we have sorted Perranporth YS has reminded us about the above 'real emergency' at St Mawgan. As an example of (dealing with the unexpected) the actual crew response to this event was quite incredible, as the 'emergency' was a rapidly changing scenario, and indeed the transcript is well worth the effort to track down. A classic lesson in CRM.

[old,not bold]

The radio and intercom transcript can be found on the internet.


Here you go..... (https://zroadster.org/threads/xv257-mr2-nimrod-fire-1984.21510/)

[POBJOY]

The radio and intercom transcript can be found on the internet.


Here you go..... (https://zroadster.org/threads/xv257-mr2-nimrod-fire-1984.21510/)
Thanks for that O not Bold, i had seen it some years back and marvelled at the way it was handled, especially with the rapidly changing scenario.
Wonder if it had ever been a simulator exercise. Certainly made the case for 'multi crew' .