RAF Luton
I posted this some years ago on another thread.
But helicopters - thats just plain ridiculous
Not many people realise just how long there has been an airfield at Luton.
About 10 years ago, not long before I retired, they were digging up part of the apron to rectify some cracking and subsidence. About 15 inches down they hit Roman mosaic. Work had to stop, and the archeologists were called in.
It turned out that almost exactly below the modern stand four there was a T shape of yellow tesserae, together with an IV and, to the left of the head of the T the word STOP in Latin. ( Can't remember the exact Latin )
Makes sense for them to have put an airfield there. Handy for Verulamium ( now St Albans ), Durocobrivis ( Dunstable ), easy access from Watling Street, and from the older Icknield Way.
Also, of course being on top of a hill, easy to defend when the tribes got a bit stroppy.
About 10 years ago, not long before I retired, they were digging up part of the apron to rectify some cracking and subsidence. About 15 inches down they hit Roman mosaic. Work had to stop, and the archeologists were called in.
It turned out that almost exactly below the modern stand four there was a T shape of yellow tesserae, together with an IV and, to the left of the head of the T the word STOP in Latin. ( Can't remember the exact Latin )
Makes sense for them to have put an airfield there. Handy for Verulamium ( now St Albans ), Durocobrivis ( Dunstable ), easy access from Watling Street, and from the older Icknield Way.
Also, of course being on top of a hill, easy to defend when the tribes got a bit stroppy.
I thought it was an emergency dispersal strip for Jaguars, to use the curvature of the earth for take off.
The Romans even had the foresight to 'bend' Ermine Street around RW 23 at Scampton.
It was also a very clever thought, to build that bridge in Gainsborough to stop the U-Boats getting down the Trent to shell the Lincolnshire airfields in WW2.
It was also a very clever thought, to build that bridge in Gainsborough to stop the U-Boats getting down the Trent to shell the Lincolnshire airfields in WW2.
