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Miles monoplane landing at Heston Airport
I am researching an event which I witnessed at Heston Airport sometime around 1955/6 or 1959/60 but did not record at the time and remains unanswered. Having been born at Heston and lived there until 1964 , I gained an interest in aviation at the age of twelve, and have recently gained a historical collection of books, magazine pictures etc of the Airport's history.
One evening, possibly in the late autumn just as dusk was starting to fall, I observed a single engined monoplane circling Heston very low and it was apparent that the pilot was intending to land on the old airfield. This was a surprise since at that time a large part of the airfield had been dug up for gravel pits and the Airport had been officially closed since 1947. I jumped onto my bicycle and rode to where I was able to gain access to the airfield where I saw a Miles Hawk Trainer (believed to be G-ADWT ) parked on the last remaining strip of grass next to my old Berkeley Junior School's playing field. By that time there was no sign of the pilot or anyone to query why this aircraft had landed there, the engine was switched off, so I resolved to go back home to fetch my box camera. On returning however, it was already getting quite dark and the aircraft was being manhandled much further away into a distant hangar owned by Heston Aircraft and the doors closed. Unfortunately I have never been able to find out the reason for this impromptu landing, bearing in mind that busy Heathrow traffic was less than a mile away from Heston and the circumstance of this unscheduled arrival. |
I left Berkeley Junior in 1959 but lived a distance south so would probably not have noticed a light aircraft in the evening (although the Rotodyne going into Fairey's was a common site from home) and can't recall it.
I am searching for details of car sprints held on a remaining strip of Heston Airfield perimeter track, bordering the school playingfield and the gravel pits, around 1959! |
That's interesting.... I have been collecting and researching Heston Airport history for years .... but I don't have much post closure stuff, but I'll have a look.
Do you know roughly where on the Airfield the sprints took place? |
The Vintage Sports Car Club used to hold driving tests and sprints at Heston in the 1950s. They might be able to help with your research. You'll find their homepage via google.
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Miles Monoplane landing at Heston Airport
The sports cars used to assemble on the apron in front of the hangars where the old aircraft fuel pump used to be on the eastern side of the control tower. There was still much of the old perimeter track left in the 1960's up to Berkeley School's playing field near to where I saw the Miles Hawk Trainer and finishing westwards to where Heston Aircraft used to have their design offices and production facilities near to Cranford. I learnt to drive myself on this peri-track and the sprints used by various auto-clubs, such as Triumph and Morgan, etc used the same. Regarding the Hawk Trainer however, I am still trying to contact the current pilots of G-ADWT to see if they have any record of this event in the aircraft's log book, if it indeed goes back this far.
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Miles monoplane landing at Heston Airport
Does anybody know the name of the company that extracted gravel from the field at that time?
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Heston
Does anybody know the name of the company that extracted gravel from the field at that time? |
Could that be 'St Ives Sand and Gravel' a name that seemed to be everywhere at the time ! (dark green vehicles) ? Keith.
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As in St Ives in the (old) county of Huntingdonshire?
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Amazing to find some recollection of motorsport at Heston. Yes, what I saw was on a section of peri track that ended near the top of the school playing field. It was a section that involved a U turn where the track ended and runing back towards the start.
On an even more bizarre note I assited in the removal of fish from the last remaing section of water before landfill and the M4 Services destroyed it. The fish were caught by a team of anglers from the Bath Road Piscatorial Society and transported to a gravel pit in Colnbrook/Poyle in water-filled metal drums in the back of a van. Sorry to get this thread off topic - I now see there is a separate thread for general Heston/Hounslow/Hanworth matters. |
Miles Monoplane landing at Heston Airport
The Ham River Gravel Company - I remember their unusual half cab AEC tip trucks being a common sight in the area. I think they were bought out by another company somewhere around 1960 - something Sand and Gravel rings a bell. |
Heston
Might this have been Henry Streeter Sand & Ballast? Brown logo, Dodge tippers I believe. I seem to remember grey or green trucks with orange lettering. Ham River trucks were (I think) grey with dark green (or was it black) lettering - this is seriously straining my memory files - may need a defrag! Whilst on this trivial pursuit I do recall that the Ham River Gravel Company was named after the village of Ham on the River Thames and not any 'Ham River'. Strange what the memory absorbs and tucks away waiting for a prompt. |
Heston
Following some links on another thread - http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...-hounslow.html I found a fascinating site which may have the answer to the original query. It includes the entry:
Another Miles fixed wing plane is known to have slipped into Heston at dusk autumn 1956, this time without permission, the pilot had apparently lost his way. After a night in the hangars an aerial departure was allowed. |
"Ham" does sound familiar to me too as the name on the gravel trucks.
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Miles monoplane lands at Heston Airport
The brief reference to the above found on the Woodason website was put in by an Air Britain member who used to live in the same road as myself at Heston but came home too late that day to see the aircraft. His report is based on mine although he thinks that the most likely year was 1955 when he first started logging aircraft details, this has still to be verified. I have currently a possible lead of someone who used to work at Heston Aircraft whom I intend contacting, to try and resolve the long unanswered question, " why did this Hawk Trainer land so late in the twilight hours and was there a purpose for the visit ?"
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The M4 motorway now passes across the old Heston site, and Heston services is pretty much midpoint on the old airfield. The motorway opened in March 1965.
Across the Heston site the carriageways are in a cutting (you go up to the service area, and back down again on leaving, quite notably eastbound). Given that it took typically 3 years in those days to do the construction work and longer to do the land deals I would guess that mineral extraction in 1959-60 was being done immediately before the land was taken for the road, and was coordinated with the proposed carriageway earthworks. There is still gravel extraction on the south side of the motorway between the two Heathrow junctions 3 and 4, which has been going n lackadasically for many years. The proposed new Heathrow north side runway will be there so it seems somewhat strange to be digging the ground out, it will presumably all have to go back. |
Miles plane...Heston after closure ...gravel extraction
Hallo Lawrence.. I've purchased and checked Air Pictorials from Autumn 1955 and 1956 for mention of the Miles at Heston without any luck so far....I haven't got Dec 1955 or 1956 which would cover reports from October of those years....could be in the airfield reports, or 'Journal of a Roving Spotter' or the letters pages.... I think it was heading for Croydon in the fading light or the pilot said he thought it was Croydon (possibly humorously) but where I got these notions from I'm not sure
Re gravel ...I'd love to see a pic of those strange Ham River sand and Gravel Trucks....by 1968 a co. called Hall and Ham River were taken over by Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) a multinational with interests in many Thames Valley land deals (I think Thorpe park was one of theirs) Another Heston thread I came across searching for 'Heston Airport Bar' was the presence of the USAF 3903 Radar Bomb Scoring Unit.... SAC the USN and the RAF did simulated runs in the area at altitude ....Don Decker the airman who posted the message thought he remembered barges moving the gravel in the pits....I can only remember the temporary rail system serving the eastern pit fed by the Ruston Bucyrus crane... the gravel was processed then transported in the Ham River Co. lorries down New Hyde Lane and Vicarage farm Rd...maybe the barges were used on the western pit near the old Heston Aircraft hangar Re Steve Remington Collectair pages, I sent him rather a lot of maps :) but was able to correct him on the size of Heston airfield....I in turn found that the house I thought had been destroyed in Gaston Riggs fatal Mustang crash was the wrong one(there was also a derelict house corner of New Heston Rd and Vicarage Farm Rd opposite Bens newsagent and Dr Lloyds surgery until about 1954)...I was able to photograph the correct site (the M4!! ) early last year. I am puzzled by the ATC cadets account.... their is also a similar account by a young girl I think on one of the BBC's People at War web projects I think.... has anybody attempted to list all the crashes at Heston in WWII? Regards to all on Pprune...I like what i've seen so far and I intend to contribute to the Heathrow thread soon....Mick |
Heston gravel
Re WHBM post , posted while I wrote the previous, as I recall the Eastern gravel pit was dug on a rolling basis from North Hyde Lane westwards from about 1952 and filled continuously from the N. Hyde Lane side so the pit was never more than about 100yards E-W but maybe 300-400 yards N-S ,the temporary rail track which ran N-S by the crane was moved periodically... they basically dug out the gravel from the whole eastern extension to Heston Airport of 1938. When the M4 was built they had to dig up part of the filled land for the cutting.... I'm unsure of what happened with the western pit(as I remember quite large and not immediately backfilled) which was north of the line of the M4 I think.... I believe methane emissions from the filled pits were a problem with housing to the north west of the airfield( near Convent way), or was that the filled in canal spur or docks that used to be there?.... Mick
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I remember Ham River trucks dripping water all down Vicarage Farm Road - were they the darkish grey half-cab ex-military ones, perchance?
At some point during the fifties there were also large numbers of 'Limmer & Trinidad Lake Asphalt' trucks on the same road, but I can't remember whether or not they were hauling gravel. Oh, for those simple days again! |
Heston
Re gravel ...I'd love to see a pic of those strange Ham River sand and Gravel Trucks....by 1968 a co. called Hall and Ham River were taken over by Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) a multinational with interests in many Thames Valley land deals (I think Thorpe park was one of theirs) The AEC half cabs were not ex military but bought new - my uncle worked at AEC and there was an article about them in a staff magazine he gave me. |
Hello A30yoyo... great to see and hear more Heston memories and correspondence!!
Another Heston thread I came across searching for 'Heston Airport Bar' was the presence of the USAF 3903 Radar Bomb Scoring Unit.... SAC the USN and the RAF did simulated runs in the area at altitude .... their is also a similar account by a young girl I think on one of the BBC's People at War web projects I think.... has anybody attempted to list all the crashes at Heston in WWII? have recently discovered that I started plane spotting at a younger age than I had remembered. About two years ago (2003) I saw an article in a local paper by an aviation artist who had retired from British Airways. He had painted a picture of a Boeing B.17 Flying Fortress bomber. I think it was given that name because it carried so many guns for self-defence. When he put some of his paintings in a Art Show someone asked him, “Did you see the B.17 that crashed at Heston during WWII”. He had not seen it but put a letter in the paper asking for anyone who had seen it to contact him. I was plane spotting at Heston that day, aged almost twelve. It was 6th September 1943, two days before my twelfth birthday. Heston was the Fairey Aviation Company flight test airfield at that time. Most of the aircraft parts were made in a factory at Hayes and assembled at Heston. .The airfield was the largest in West London and it was from there that Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to talk to Adolf Hitler in 1939. Fighter aircraft for Royal Navy aircraft carriers were made at Heston and these had only one engine. On this particular day I heard a large aircraft with four engines sounding very rough approaching the airfield. I noticed that some of the engines had stopped and the other two did not sound very good and the aircraft was obviously in trouble. It was going to land whether it crashed or not as the engines did not sound as though they were going to run for much longer. The B.17 was just a little above the ground when it went out of sight behind the hangar and I heard a loud thud and just hoped that the crew had escaped. The aircraft was aiming for Heston but landed in a field just outside Heston airfield. An article by one of the crew members says, “During a raid on Stuttgart we were hit by flak (anti-aircraft shells) and attacked by FW 190 fighters after bombs away, losing both starboard engines. Lt Kney (Captain) ordered “lighten the ship” and we ditched all removeable items. Reaching the English Channel we adopted crash positions in the radio room. The aircraft seemed to be doing OK so Lt Kney opted to attempt a forced landing at RAF Heston. Upon our approach we lost the third engine, overshooting the runway we lost the fourth engine. We made a gear down landing on waste ground ( the rear gunner says a wheatfield) and came to an abrupt stop,when we hit an anti-glider stake, which embedded itself into our port wing root”. Local householders came out with tea, sandwiches and cakes, saying , “Well done Yanks” I have since met only two people who saw the crash. One was a Foreman at British Airways and the other I met on a coach when members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers visited RAF St Athan. I wrote to Mr Peter Caines and he kindly sent me some most interesting information. He was able to tell me that the crew had all survived the crash without any injuries. The aircraft had been salvaged and repaired and flew again but was shot down during a raid on Schweinfurt in Germany on 14th October 1943. The crew were very fortunate once again as they all survived as prisoners of war and returned to America when the war ended. Peter Caines also sent me a photo of the crew, two pictures of the aircraft, which was named “Big Moose”, and an article written by the rear gunner and published in a magazine. I was very pleased to know, after 60 years, that the crew had all survived. rgds Colin |
Amazing to find some recollection of motorsport at Heston. Yes, what I saw was on a section of peri track that ended near the top of the school playing field. It was a section that involved a U turn where the track ended and ruining back towards the start. see The Airfields Of Greater London Heston and zoom into where the M4 passes under North Hyde Lane... |
233SQN,I was wondering that as well.
It looks out of place there. If anyone has some pictures of the track layout this could really help us 'young-ons' out. |
Hopefully this can help a little, There's some nice ariel shots of Heston, Hendon and Heathrow at this link :-
Science and Society Picture Library - Search |
I can't find a "quote" button on this forum and I can't manipulate the aerial photo. So, apart from me being rubbish at using this forum....
Do you mean the straight bit of road leading east from the M4 eastbound Heston Services to North Hyde Lane (north of the slip road back on to the M4 from the service area)? That is the "service" road into the Service Area. No doubt it's got a locked gate now but 30 years ago I routinely used it to get off the M4 eastbound at Heston. There was (is?) an equivalent road in the westbound services that exits at the western end and doubles back, eventually out to Cranford Lane. I used to get on to the M4 westbound that way.... (No, I deny it....) The bit of peri track used for sprints was yards from the north west corner of the Berkley School playing field. It now seems to have become a cul de sac of houses from that aerial photo. It wasn't a U shaped bend, it was a bit of track that ended at the gravel pits/landfill, so cars turned 180 round a cone and went back down the same bit of track towards the airport buildings (by then occupied by the MoA). Just to avoid any potential for confusion, a "sprint" is cars running singly against the clock, not racing each other on the same piece of track, so a car can do its run and finish (or in this case return to the start/finish)before the next car starts its run. |
The WWII perimeter track is in dotted lines on the map I sent to Collectair...the section parallel to The Vale was dug out in the mid fifties so I think it is correct car trials could only be done as far as the kink by the Berkeley School playing field....I can only personally remember the slow speed manouevering competitions which took place in front of the hangars on the wider tarmac (sorry the map didn't attach)try the link
Heston Airport on Flickr - Photo Sharing! |
It would have been from the direction of the airport buildings, round that long looping bend on your map and turning back 180 at a point level with the north side of the school field, about the base of the "T" in Heston, where the gravel pit/landfill began at that time. IIRC there was a large earth bank at the end of the track between it and the water of the gravel pit (which was rather convenient to stop cars taking an early bath but was just top soil from when the pit was dug out rather than a deliberate safety barrier)
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Heston Canal
I am puzzled by the canal spur that shows on the old maps and which has been mentioned in these forums.
Was it ever actually fully built and connected to the Grand Junction (Union) Canal (is 'built' the right word for a canal - 'navigated' maybe)? I was brought up in the area in the fifties and sixties and can't figure out how the spur could have linked up to the main part of the canal where it is shown as there was no bridge that I recall (or even room for one I don't think) on Wentworth Road near North Hyde Lane that it could have passed under. Also its course on the map shows it passing through what is an open grassy space in North Hyde Lane (in front of a row of houses set back from the road - still there on the current aerial pic) before its right angled turn (on the map) into the aerodrome (about where I can recall an old nissen type wartime shed or something having been for many years - used by a small engineering company I seem to recall). A family friend lived in one of those houses and I don't recall any mention of a canal spur - though I suppose the question never came up. I have a vague recollection that there may have been a depression which may have been the part filled in (or uncompleted) course of the canal behind and parallel to the houses in Wentworth Road (about where Convent Way was built). I also think there was a minor widening of the canal at about the point where it shows the spur joining the main canal near the North Hyde Lane canal bridge (almost opposite the Old Oak Tree pub) as if a start had been made on a junction but it didn't seem to go anywhere, or have anywhere to go, as far as I can recall. I do remember, as a child, idly wondering why the widening was there. |
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I have a vague recollection that there may have been a depression which may have been the part filled in (or uncompleted) course of the canal behind and parallel to the houses in Wentworth Road (about where Convent Way was built). The picture was taken in 1964 during the construction of the M4 http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...ear/img048.jpg[/IMG] |
Heston Canal
I have been quizzing my mother who is still alive and kicking at 96 - and who has a very good memory of the period - and she is quite certain there was no canal spur to the aerodrome at any time (on the route shown on the OS map at least) from about 1938 onwards when she moved into the area.
Friends of hers (one of whom worked for Heston Aircraft) lived in a house in North Hyde Lane near Wentworth Road, in front of which, the canal spur is shown passing on the map, and she can never recall anything other than the current open space being there. So, if the canal spur ever existed it must have been from before that time and filled in when new housing was built around North Hyde Road and Wentworth Road. The canal's purpose seems a little unclear to me unless it dated from the 1920s BEFORE the aerodrome was built when a lot of the land in the area was clay brickfields. It seems logical that barges may have hauled bricks to the growing London suburbs of that time but I can't picture why an aerodrome would need a canal. Anyway, it seems the 1947 OS map may be in error - possibly, I imagine, because the aerodrome was still under military control and accurate civilian mapping was discouraged (or the surveying was just not very thorough in the immediate post war period and old info was used). Out of interest her main memory of the aerodrome was from the war years when the loud, nearby, anti-aircraft guns there gave plenty of ongoing and scary background noise during air raids which, in particular, terrified her dog and didn't do much for the nerves of the humans either! I am pretty sure my late father (ex RAF) once mentioned that Hurricanes operated from Heston for part of the war and, I might be wrong, but I think he suggested that some of Northolt's Polish Air Force contingent spent some of the war there - or at least were frequent visitors. |
Miles monoplane landing at Heston
Last week I managed to visit the owner of the Miles Hawk Trainer G-ADWT which according to my records most probably was the aircraft which landed at
Heston. He graciously showed me all the aircraft records and historical photos pertaining to the Hawk over a number of years, but unfortunately the old logbook from previous pilots, which might have detailed the landing there was missing when he purchased DWT. So it rather looks that after all these years unless someone who used to work for Heston Aircraft, the M.T.C.A. (Southern Divn.) or Fairey Aviation are still alive and not too decrepid, has the answer, this will remain a mystery. One possibility however may be the fact that various aircraft flew into Heston earlier to have Fairey metal propellers fitted when the airfield was still open, for instance Prince Bira, a famous racing driver from Siam (now Thailand) had his new Miles Gemini fitted with these sometime in the 40's, and I can remember a red Gemini taking off from Heston around 1952/3 which may well have had the same installation by Fairey's. |
mles monoplane landing at Heston Airport
Since 1951 when I first became interested in aviation, I have seen a total of
9 aircraft using HestonAirport since the official closure in 1947. Although it appears likely that the movements records for this airfield have not survived, at least I can account for the following aircraft in addition to the Miles Hawk Trainer on these pages. In cronological date order, these were: 09 June 1951- 5 aircraft from the Airways Aero Association, Denham for the BOAC Sports Festival (see separate pages) G-ACIT DH Dragon, Auster Aiglet, reg. unknown, G-ALOX DH Tiger Moth and 2 Miles Hawk Trainers, including G-AKKV (see: www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1018874) ca. 1952/53 Swiss Messerschmidt ME108 Taifun, HB-DUB (a fast ship !) ca. 1953/54 red/silver Miles Gemini, reg unidentified, taking off over Cranford end (possibly after having Fairey Metal propellors fitted) 1955/56 Miles Hawk Trainer, believed to be G-ADWT May/59 Westland Widgeon, G-ANLW which collected 3 MTCA officials at Heston enroute from Yeovil to the new Battersea Heliport in order to make the first landing there prior to its official opening. 04/03/63 Bristol 171 G-AMWH British European Airways Sept 1964 Augusta Bell Ranger helicopter, G-ASNV (see www.ab-pic.co.uk/photo/11115128/ Other helicopters may well have included the Fairey Gyrodyne and possibly the Rotordyne since the Company had their premises here and at Hayes. My final report is taken from Tim Sherwood's excellent book "Coming Into Land" which details the history of Heston, Hanworth, Hounslow and the original Heathrow (Great Western) airfields and is purchaseable from Hounslow Library. This mentions the departure of a Board of Trade helicopter from HestonAirport to Sevenoaks on the 06 June 1978 after the CAA had vacated their offices there. :) |
The canal's purpose seems a little unclear to me I would suggest that the canal branch was originally built to move bricks out of this area to central London it was then back filled with general household refuse. This was a common practice and dated from the 1900's. There is a similar site adjacent to the canal at West Drayton. |
I came across this fascinating site when exploring Heston, Hanworth and Hounslow aerodromes.
At the bottom of the page there are maps and further information about the canal extension. SD |
Miles aircraft landing at Heston Airport
The ever elusive mystery landing at dusk of the Miles Hawk Major (most likely
G-ADWT in 1955) may possibly be solved in part. Although the current owner of this aircraft was unable to find any record of a landing at Heston in his aircraft logbook, it would appear that the owner at this time being Cartwright-Hamilton Aviation,based at Croydon were a subsidary company of Fairey Aviation. This being so then the reason for this impromptu visit could have been a liason meeting with Fairey Aviation either that evening or following day, since the aircraft was towed into Hestair's hangar and the doors shut for the night. Cartwight Hamilton were aviation consultants and dealing with aircraft brokerage and spares to commercial operators and private owners. The period 1955/6 and the fact that it was probably in the autumn/winter between November and February when the sun set times most meet the criteria from when I remember seeing the aircraft land. Also another possibilty could have been the pilot running out of VFR and setting down due to that, or even airline traffic at LHR meaning that a short 16 mile dash to Croydon across the LHR approach could have meant ATC problems-even assuming that he had some means of radio communication. All of course is debatable. None of the other Miles aircraft G-ADMW or HKY, ( CYO crashed late 1954) seem to fit the solution quite as well as DWT. Lawrence Hole |
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