Brough Airfield
 

Came across some information on Brough Airfield last week - apparently where the Hawk's where built.

Is there any activity there anymore?

It was in use at least up until the middle of last year, principally for flying out newly-built Hawks to Warton, until production was run down.

Then a couple of months ago planning permission was granted to build housing and a new school on part of the airfield, so presumably any further Hawk production would be roaded out, as has been done in the past.

It was only used for that purpose most recently, they had been roading them out for years before. I tend to believe that the reason they reopened the runway for delivery flights was in part to cover up the managed decline of the factory production. Hawk production is to move to Salmesbury, the factory will be closed in the next few years.

Prior to 2008, the runway had not really been used since the Warton J31 shuttle flights ended in 1992. I think Humberside Police Flying Club had a C150 based there for some time (since moved elsewhere), and the Blackburn B2 used to be based in one of the hangars making the occasional flight.

The nail in the coffin for Brough was the building of a chimney at Cappa Pass on the approach in the late 60's. The airfield instantly lost its licence for civillian flights, Autair went elsewhere and the runway was never extended past its short 3400ft. I think Hawker Siddeley were the only tennants happy to allow civillian movements at Brough anyway, and BAe didnt tend to like the idea of any resident flying club being on site in later years.

BAe Systems claim that if any new tennant of the site need to use the runway (some unnamed interested parties have been interested in the airfield as part of the package) then the runway will be retained and the site not built on. I find that hard to believe though, and East Riding Council didn't help matters by granting outline planning permission to build a retail park and link road on the runway.

A shame really, as anyone who knows the area will know how accessible the site is may agree that had the local councils not lacked vision decades ago, Brough would have made an excellent airport for Hull.

I'm fairly certain that I can remember looking at an Air Anglia timetable in the 1970s which had Humberside (to London?) flights split between Brough and Kirmington.
On the theme of Brough, am I right in thinking that Holme-upon-Spalding Moor had some connection with the factory? Does the airfield still exist?

BKS
 

do you mean Humber Airways ??

They used to fly 2 Islanders from Brought to Leavesden think yjeu had about 4 flight each weekday

The A/C were met at Leavesden by a Mini Bus which took you to Watford Junction to connect with trains/Underground

I think it was run by the INFAMOUS Aurther Ramsden

and the Ops Manager was John Clutterbrook


Think the above infor is correct

Regards

HOSM closed some years ago and last time I looked at satellite photos of the area, you could barely make out the site of the airfield although some hangars were visible.
Last I heard it was used for maintenance of Buccaners or Phantoms.

I believe Air Anglia used Leconfield before Humberside Airport opened, as did Humber Airways after Brough lost its licence.

As for Holme on Spalding Moor, just to add to what Chevron has already posted. HoSM was closed in December 1983, the runways were quickly removed, I believe to use for hardcore in various local road schemes in the late 80's. All that is left of the main runway is a narrow farm track along the full length of the former runway. I believe the tower was also pulled down soon after closure. The rest of the site survives in good condition (including two T2 hangers, now joined together, and one J-type) and is now an industrial estate.

I believe Brough was home to a PC-9 for a number of years, however not sure when it was moved to Warton? The Jetstream corporate shuttle flights ended sometime in 1992, and the radar was transfered to Humberside Airport in 1994 I believe. With the exception of the families days until the mid 90's, the airfield hadn't really been used until the recent decision to fly Hawks out on delivery flights, but these have now ended too.

Does anyone know how come that the Local Planning Authority allowed construction of the above chimney, particularly as it presented an obstacle which rendered the Brough declared distances to be useless as far as airline operations were concerned?

This deprived the residents of Hull and East Riding of their local airport and, I believe, precipitated the development of Kirmington which eventually became Humberside. I do believe that Autair operated HP7s to Luton on a scheduled service from Brough?

H49

Also Jersey amongst others. I have seen archived industry press arcticles from the time suggesting Hull (Brough) was their best performing airport in terms of sales.

I'm not exactly sure why it was given the go-ahead, however I believe that there was hope of Leconfield being made available full time. Afterall that airfield already had a 7500ft runway so no need for a costly extension. I believe that plan backfired after approval was given to build Cappa Pass, as the MOD severely restricted civillian passenger movements at Leconfield to just weekends and out of hours operations. I believe this was due to an increased use of the bombing and gunnery range at Cowden.

With the plan to build the Humber Bridge in operation during the 70's, and the formation of Humberside County Council, I dont think it was such a bad idea to concentrate on Kirmington. On paper its quite well located for East Yorkshire and a large part of Lincolnshire, plus the Humber Bridge tolls have been cut by 50%, it just needs those flights back that it had a few years ago, and those passengers will return.

Thanks for the replies to my questions. It looks like I may have mixed up the Leconfield operation with Brough.

With Cappa Pass imminent, am I right in thinking that Hull Council looked at the possibility of some form of 'reinforced' grass runway? I'm guessing that nothing came of this. I have a plan of the airfield dating from 1985, which in addition to the tarmac runway shows a short grass strip, 17/35. Would this have also been the alignment used in the council's plans?

One advantage that both Brough and Leconfield could have offered over Kirmington was the proximity of railway lines, though I imagine that in the 1970s such infrastructure was probably not considered very important.

I seem to remember that when the main runway was being repaved in the late 1960´s or early 1070´s the company Dove (G-ARBE) used a reinforced grass runway to allow operations to other HSA factories to continue.

The Capper Pass chimney was a major mistake. Not only did it stop the use of Brough but it proved to be a health problem for local residents. Also, had the runway been extended, it would have put Brough in to a much better position to take on extra work with test flying from the Brough runway when British Aerospace was created in the 1970´s. When I worked at Brough in the days of the Buccaneer contracts, there were over 5,000 people emplyed at Brough. It is now coming down to a couple of hundred.

Pug and others!

Thank you for the most interesting information about Brough and its rather sad demise. If only we had some coordinated joined up thinking on transport policy in this country!

H49, the Government were seemingly indifferent to airports outside of London during the motorway building period. The best ideas, namely an airport for Yorkshire at Pontefract, and one at Burtonwood, were completely ignored.

A shame really.

Brough Taxiway ?

My first and only use of the Brough airfield? was to deliver a Beverly all the way from Edmonton in Canada. On short final I felt sure that what I was about to land on was a taxiway without a runway - short and narrow and most inadequate. Used a lot of reverse thrust during the roll out and soon found that No2 prop was refusing to come out of reverse. Was pleased to hand over the monster to the factory for rejuvination after its winterisation trials in northern Canada.

Interesting story. I once saw a hawk land there, and sit at the very end of the runway for some time whilst a fire crew checked out what I believe were the brakes. I cant imagine how difficult it must have been to get a Beverley into there!

Brough airfield - a blast from the past :)
 

For a glimpse of the 1968 Autair timetable that included flights to and from Brough (it's in as "HULL - Brough") go to a series of jpg images at
Index of /ttimages/complete/ou68 ;)

Brough Airfield - new aerial image (excellent :)
 

Just found a new (and very good !) aerial shot of the airfield ... possibly taken in 2012 ?

The new embankment curving around the extremely pondy SE corner of the airfield is conspicuous (and land beyond that is to be sacrificed to the estuary as the waters rise... :)

The photo (by Stephen Blee) can be found at
Photos: - Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

OAP John

Last Buccaneer about to leave Brough ?
 

I hear a rumour that the last Buccaneer to leave the Brough airfield site will do so tomorrow (Sunday Aug 18th) by road, to be taken to a museum.

BEYOND that, I have nothing: no timings, no verification, no details.

If true, I hope that someone gets a photo or 3 of this and uploads them somewhere accessible... that someone would have been me but my camera was nicked while I was at the NEC last weekend :-/

OAP John

Details here :- BBC News - Brough motorists warned of Buccaneer aircraft move

Last Buccaneer about to leave Brough ?
 

Ah ... thank-you for that, BigEric !!

So the road outside the airfield is closed to traffic from 0600 to 0800 tomorrow, and the aircraft is going to the Yorkshire Air Museum.

That's all good and at least it will be viewable from a closer distance there :)

Many thanks !