West London Airfields (Heston, Hanworth, and Hounslow)
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Sth Bucks UK
Age: 60
Posts: 927
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The odd shaped tarmac is indeed where the hangar was located, but the tarmac is the REMAINS of a playground that was erected after the hangar was demolished, but the climbing frame, swings and roundabouts were subsequently removed due to H&S
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Worcester
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
There's a new playground there now.... if you click on the
birds' eye (as opposed to map) view on that link you can see the new soft play site slightly to the west.
Ho hum....oh to have a deserted airfield to play in....
birds' eye (as opposed to map) view on that link you can see the new soft play site slightly to the west.
Ho hum....oh to have a deserted airfield to play in....
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Middlesex
Posts: 102
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Auster was likely to have been AOP9 XN435 which, according to my records, was with the Hestton CCF at the Speedbird Club from around August 1973. It was allocated the registration G-BGBU 8.11.78. The registration was cancelled in 1990 by the CAA but the frame may still be stored somewhere.
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: UK
Age: 52
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Auster AOP9
Holyflyer - Glad I could help ... and to think I lived in Heston up to 1972. I must have left shortly before the Auster arrived. When I went to look for it at a later date I was looking in the wrong place - the TA site at the junction of Vicarage Farm Road and New Heston Road/North Hyde Lane!
You don't have or know of any photos of XN435 with the CCF do you?
You don't have or know of any photos of XN435 with the CCF do you?
When i was twenty something and living in London I worked occasionally for a friend who had a service station at the Ace of Spades on the GW Road. That led to running one myself in Hanworth for a year (or maybe it was Hansworth, is there such a place?). Many years later looking at my mother's marriage certificate I noticed that her address was in Heston (She never mentioned living there.) She was marrying a test Pilot, Mike Graves, in 1946 and that may well have been the reason for the address. (The first address I remember was in Derby, as he later worked for Rolls Royce.)
Although I was keen on flying, and had already worked as a clerk at Westlands for a year (in Yeovil) I had no idea I was living and working amongst all that History. Now, of course, I am far too far away to enjoy more than armchair investigation and History presented on Pprune.
Although I was keen on flying, and had already worked as a clerk at Westlands for a year (in Yeovil) I had no idea I was living and working amongst all that History. Now, of course, I am far too far away to enjoy more than armchair investigation and History presented on Pprune.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Heston
As a small child in the late 1950s, early 60s I occasionally wandered off with friends to play in the wild, overgrown, spaces of Heston Airfield. There were the remains of an elevated AA gun emplacement (on what seemed like a massive hill to me then but which was probably all of about 10 feet above the surrounding land) on the north side roughly where the western end of the Convent Way Estate is now. In those days access to the old airfield was through alleyways between the houses in Wentworth Road. Much of the area to the south east (about where Heston M4 Services now are) was given over to gravel extraction by the Ham River Gravel Co.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Worcester
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1945 Mustang that crashed after clipping the Grange Farmhouse
There is an interesting thread developing regarding the Mustang that crashed after clipping the Grange Farmhouse whilst trying to make an emergency landing at Heston in 1945.... see
http://forum.armyairforces.com/tm.aspx?m=137761
and
http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/ind...rom-the-crash/
http://forum.armyairforces.com/tm.aspx?m=137761
and
http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/ind...rom-the-crash/
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Heston
Following those links the following website is a goldmine of information on Heston if you read on through it: http://www.commercemarketplace.com/h.../woodason.html
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Heston
Surprising (to me anyway) how many Heston fans there still are considering how long ago it closed and that it is, near enough, unrecognisable now. Too far for me to visit easily nowadays but this thread and http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...incidents.html have really stirred a long forgotten but latent interest for me. Great stuff.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Is it really 4 years? Doesn't seem like it!
Well Doc, I suppose the dogs must be walked somewhere - Hanworth / Hounslow / Heston is as good a place as any.
SD
Well Doc, I suppose the dogs must be walked somewhere - Hanworth / Hounslow / Heston is as good a place as any.
SD
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Worcester
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Really??
Where abouts? Can you post a Google Earth picture with an arrow or something?
I always thought that Hounslow Areodrome would make a good (if unusual ) subject for a Time Team Special!!
Once again good to see this thread continues to get some attention!!
Any new pictures or memories graetfully recieved (especially regarding the Gaston Riggs Mustang crash at Heston!!)
Keep 'em comming....
Where abouts? Can you post a Google Earth picture with an arrow or something?
I always thought that Hounslow Areodrome would make a good (if unusual ) subject for a Time Team Special!!
Once again good to see this thread continues to get some attention!!
Any new pictures or memories graetfully recieved (especially regarding the Gaston Riggs Mustang crash at Heston!!)
Keep 'em comming....
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: UK
Age: 52
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It is very interesting to learn that tangible evidence of the Hounslow iHeath aerodrome stills exists. I thought there was only the plaque on the Staines Road that commemorated the site.
Airfield Information Exchange - The Public Forums of The Airfield Research Group (ARG) • View topic - Hounslow Heath
Airfield Information Exchange - The Public Forums of The Airfield Research Group (ARG) • View topic - Hounslow Heath
"Trust Me"
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Egham, UK
Posts: 424
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
And still it goes on!!
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=hounslow+heath&countryCode=GB#map=51.46023,-0.38846|17|32&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:51.46037:-0.38846:17|hounslow%20heath|
CUT AND PASTE LINK -sorry, tried to embed it but failed!!
The concrete drive is visible in aerial pictures from the 1920's. The scrap yard to the left of the red ring is predominantly where the hangers were (in 1919). The rest of the hangers appear to be where the car park is now, on the north-east corner of the site.
Anybody up for another West London airfields revisited??? DOG.400 now joined by B1TCH.400....
Can but recommend:
'Coming in to Land' by Tim Sherwood.
A Short History of Hounslow, Hanworth and Heston Aerodromes 1911-1946.
Heritage Publications.
ISBN 1899144307. £11.99.
Avlble from Hounslow Library.
Regards
DOC
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=hounslow+heath&countryCode=GB#map=51.46023,-0.38846|17|32&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:51.46037:-0.38846:17|hounslow%20heath|
CUT AND PASTE LINK -sorry, tried to embed it but failed!!
The concrete drive is visible in aerial pictures from the 1920's. The scrap yard to the left of the red ring is predominantly where the hangers were (in 1919). The rest of the hangers appear to be where the car park is now, on the north-east corner of the site.
Anybody up for another West London airfields revisited??? DOG.400 now joined by B1TCH.400....
Can but recommend:
'Coming in to Land' by Tim Sherwood.
A Short History of Hounslow, Hanworth and Heston Aerodromes 1911-1946.
Heritage Publications.
ISBN 1899144307. £11.99.
Avlble from Hounslow Library.
Regards
DOC
I've been following this thread for years. Anyone else interested in a tour now the summer is here ? Sounds good. Several of us PPRuNers did a comparable thing at Croydon last year (there's a thread about it somewhere here).
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: LHR
Posts: 88
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Having grown up in Bedfont, gone to senior school in Hounslow and spent many a spare summer day cycling around Hanworth Air Park I would be very interested is tagging along on a walk if one were to be arranged.
I remember the old hangers off of Browells lane which were occupied at the time by EMI, Once EMI moved out these hangers became an indoor go Kart track., from memory this track was quoted as being the biggest indoor track in the country, I used to be the postman to this track and due to the office being the opposite end from the hangar doors I used to drive the track in the Royal mail van .and it was absolutly huge inside!!! Does anyone know if the trams and train stock were produced on this site? Sadly these hangers were demolished to make way for a cinema complex, though there is today some sort of statue on the former site.
Also, buried in amongst the trees on Hanworth airpark is a pillbox or similar, it is located in the far South East corner of the Air Park, looking at Google earth it is on the crossroads of the Hounslow rd and Uxbridge rd (where the Horse and Groom and Hanworth library are located) does anyone know in which era this was erected?
I remember the old hangers off of Browells lane which were occupied at the time by EMI, Once EMI moved out these hangers became an indoor go Kart track., from memory this track was quoted as being the biggest indoor track in the country, I used to be the postman to this track and due to the office being the opposite end from the hangar doors I used to drive the track in the Royal mail van .and it was absolutly huge inside!!! Does anyone know if the trams and train stock were produced on this site? Sadly these hangers were demolished to make way for a cinema complex, though there is today some sort of statue on the former site.
Also, buried in amongst the trees on Hanworth airpark is a pillbox or similar, it is located in the far South East corner of the Air Park, looking at Google earth it is on the crossroads of the Hounslow rd and Uxbridge rd (where the Horse and Groom and Hanworth library are located) does anyone know in which era this was erected?
It was certainly somewhere round here. The rolling stock factory was known as "Feltham", and the owner was Union Construction Company, which was owned by and a front for the London Underground organisation, who were statutorily prevented from manufacturing themselves. The Feltham factory produced Underground train cars, trams (the "Feltham" type), and trolleybuses. It only operated in the 1920s and early 1930s. It wasn't connected to either Underground or tramway, and the output was all pulled out by steam traction engines on trailers. A bit like an aircraft factory without a runway, of which there have been a fair number as well.
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: LHR
Posts: 88
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Don't seem to remember any of the London Underground trains I travelled on as a youth bearing the Feltham name plate but do recall all the older former London Underground stock used on the Isle of Wight had the Feltham branding, so perhaps they were withdrwn from London before my time !