Vanished airfields

[Pypard]

Originally Posted by Blackfriar

Weston-super-mare was once, before the war, home to the busiest air route in the world with DH Rapides shuttling back and forwards to Cardiff. The pubs were shut on Sundays in Wales! It became a shadow factory for Bristol with Beaufighter production, (87 a month at the peak!) then post war helicopter production, first Bristol then Westland. A volunteer gliding school also operated for many years. Now a housing estate. The runway is now the main through route called “The Runway” and the roads have aviation names, like Slingsby Rd, Glider Ave, as well as some more obscure ( to non aviation folk) Leonides Avenue, Mamba Grove, Astazou Drive, Miles Row and Nimbus Way.

I was there a couple of years ago and witnessed a powered hang-glider parachute thingy flying from the field next to the Helicopter Museum. So hopefully not yet a vanished airfield!

[jensdad]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

That's got to be Leavesden - the hangars were at the top of a steep bank above the A41. Eagle Aviation usually had several King Airs on the ramp... when I was 15 I walked from Borehamwood station to Elstree, then Leavesden and ended up at Watford station!

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mXSiE5Nr55gCfHks7

Thanks treadigraph, that definitely looks like it. We were heading from Newcastle to somewhere near Windsor (pre-M25) so it looks like exactly the right area. Thanks also to DHfan for the suggestion. I looked at Denham and it's in the right area but the embankment didn't fit.

[Saab Dastard]

I've walked around what used to be the "three Hs" - Heston, Hounslow Heath and Hanworth Air Park - They are all within a few miles of where I live. The last of those is still substantially as it was when it closed in the '40s.
Brooklands isn't that far away from me either - although technically it's not actually closed, but aircraft movements are very few and far between. The old Wisley aerodrome at Ockham common is another great place for a walk, which I do frequently - a bit of a drive to get there though. It's not exactly vanished, but it's been closed since 1972.

SD

[Airbanda]

Sheffield City anyone?

The aviation blogger Noel Phillips has recently uploaded a You Tube video on the place:

You Tube

A piece of modern day industrial archaeology.