Long Gone UK Airstrips
 

Hi

I am trying to trace the exact locations of 3 Airstrips reported in The Aeroplane Directory 1937.

CANON BRIDGE HEREFORDSHIRE
Possibly used by the aviator Davis 1920's/1930's

DOLBELIDR ST ASAPH CLYWD
Used by Gipsy Moth G-ADFC owned by R K L S Mainwaring

TRYSULL NOW WEST MIDLANDS
Used by J B Hall & L W Hamp

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards Martin Burney

Don't have any info on any of the three, sorry.

Did that CDROM I sent you ever arrive? Not heard anything from you since.

Canon Bridge is a small village on the River Wye in Hereford. There is no sign of an old airfield on the OS 50 thou, and having lived in the area some years ago I'm not aware of any airfield having been there. However, there was an airfield at Madley which is only a couple of miles to the SW. It is now covered by a satellite tracking station and a chicken farm.

That could well be it. I've noticed that many old airfields bear the name of ' a nearby village' and not necessarily the one right next to it.

At the risk of teaching you all how to suck eggs...

The name of RAF fields comes from the postal address of the Officers Mess. You can see this particularly well in East Anglia.

Right, St Asaph. It's another generalisation again. The airstrip was at a big country house called "Dolbelydr" (the spelling was Anglicised - so no surprise you couldn't find it!) The house is now owned by the Landmark Trust (http://www.landmarktrust.co.uk/dolbelydr.html) which has started to renovate it (it's originally a 16th Century building and it is the home of the Welsh Language (well, if you believe the website!).

Like most of these big old houses (think Woburn Abbey) there's always a spare bit of land for an aircraft.

I can't immediately find it on the map, but it's got to be on this map: http://www.multimap.co.uk/map/browse...multimap.y=175

Hope that helps!

Dai.

It would appear not. A google search on RAF Madley shows that it wasn't built until 1939/40.