No31 Bombing and Gunnery School, Picton Ontario

sad…..very sad….

It is great to see that there is still places like Picton left in Canada. Here in Nova Scotia the wartime building have been disappearing at an alarming rate. The majority of the hangars at the various wartime airfileds are now gone. To my knowledge only Greenwood, Shearwater and Debert are the only airfields left with WW II hangars intact (although highly Modified). This past summer seen the Hangar at the former No. 17 EFTS at Stanley, Nova Scotia was torn down (see attached photos).

Still learning about posting photos, sorry about the size.

Johnreid I have took quite a few photos of the interrior of the Hangar at Stanley before it was torn down. If you are intrested send me a PM with your email I will scan them and send them to you.

This photo taken in 1944

May 2005

September 2005, taken at the annual fly-in

JohnReid, here if it helps is a picture I took last year inside one of the old hangars at Brandon . . .

unfortnately it is not covered that well on google earth

I’ve just been playing with Google Earth & looked up Picton which I assume is the airfield near the town, unfortunately the resolution is not very high for this part of Canada.

MIke.. want to join a letter writing campaign?

Lets see if we can get something done with picton

Cheers Mike,

I’ll get on it first thing in the morning. We have to make sure he sees ‘Bomber Boys’. I think it replays starting tomorrow night, Nov 11.

Chris

Chris & Peter,

Daryl Kramp is the MP for the riding of Prince Edward-Hastings.

http://www.darylkramp.ca/

Regards,

Peter,
Can you give me his or her name ? I live in B.C. I’ll be glad to send him or her an e-mail !!

Chris
http://www.10697sqn.com/

Local mp?

Peter,

I agree. Where do we start ? Local MP or MLA. There is a probable election in February !!

Chris

cjames it would make a neat setting for a museum…

I just finished watching the fourth and final episode of ‘Bomber Boys’ on the History Channel. What a wonderful, moving production !! Another chapter has been filled for me explaining what the young bomber crews went through from the start. Frantic Films must truly be congratulated on a job well done.

Most of the film was produced at Picton and it was wonderful to see the old original buildings still intact. I think it would be a shame to see at least some of Picton not turned into a historic site. BCATP must not be forgotten.

Chris

Bomber boys on History channel

Sorry about resurectting this thread from the archives, but watching the series Bomber boys on History channel this week has made me curious about Picton.
What should be done with the place? Is it too late to restore soem or all of the base to a living memorial to all trainee aircrew?
Your thoughts?

Hi John,

I am sure there are some available. If not I will grab a digital camera and take some for you. It is very nearly in my backyard.

Hi Glen, do you know if there are any pics available of the hangars especially the interior.In my diorama type model building I have built 3 hangars so far and I would love to constuct one in scale for history sake before they are destroyed.Cheers! John.

There are several entrances to the location and you can access the site to scout around. As indicated, there are several businesses on site and the Air Cadets. They all need access. You can check it all out, but interesting as it may seem, it does get old quick. A bunch of old wood shingles H huts, some big old hangars and the flight line… Of course, living beside it all my life I have probably lost the sense of adventure and excitement of it. In another way, it is interesting to see and when driving by I often wonder of how many people and who progressed through the base.

Thanks for the replies.

Sounds like such “encouraging” news. But I think your point is well made, Glen, that the buildings were never meant to last this long. Reminds me of the so-called temporary buildings that were concstructed in Ottawa to accomodate the growing public service during the war. Most were still in use until the 1970s, and there is still one in use, tucked away near the Supreme Court Building. So much for temporary!!

Do you know if it is possible to wander the Picton site and take photos of the old buildings, or is such snooping rather frowned upon? Sounded from what my father said from his visit last week that the site isn’t really accessible. Or was he just at the wrong entrance? The web site that Peter provided has some great pictures, but they are just a tease. Sounds like it would be a very interesting site to explore in person.

I did notice in researching this further that the BCATP Museum in Brandon Manitoba also has a number of original buildings on site, and it is a National Historic Site. At least some buildings from that important part of our history will be preserved. But it looks from the pictures like the Picton site better preserves the original feel of the site.

Thanks again for the info. I’ll pass all this along to my father when he is back in town.

Charles

p.s. I still think they should have saved one of the hangers from RCAF Rockcliffe here in Ottawa. I really miss those, even if the museum (CAM) collection is safer in the new building(s). Really miss the smell of those old hangers too!!

Yes, the old Airbase is about 1 minute from where I live and the Air Cadets with their gliders and tugs fly right over my townhouse all through the day , everyday, all summer. (Good thing I love planes!).

The base is about 50 kms from Trenton and about 35 kms from Mountainview. It is all about 240 KM east of Toronto.

The site is privately owned but numerous businesses are renting buildings on the site. The Air Cadets also have one of the buildings and this is where I spent 5 years of my youth.

There was some talk of a production company buying it, and some wild rumours going around, but to the best of knowledge it is still in the hands of the MacFarlands, a wealthy local family.

The problem with doing anything with the buildings is that they really were built to shoddy standards and were never meant to last this long. The military is famous for building a structure, planning on getting 10-20 years out of it, so build it accordingly, and then here were 50+ or so years later trying to do things with them. At the main base in CFB Trenton we have some buildings close to 75 years old and once they break this milestone one cannot simply do work on it anymore as it is a historical type of thing now. This poses a major problem and several buildings are slated to be destroyed prior to them hitting this 75 year mark. SOme of the buildings are over 75 years and now we are stuck with these anceint sub-standard H block stone buildings that are just not effective for what we need any longer.

The Picton base really is an oldy and the buildings are really getting run down. I don’t think anyone could do much of anything with any if the buildings at this point and if the land ever does get sold again I am sure it will mark the demise of all the structures.

Historical site here in Canada does not always equal preservation.We are having a hard time even preserving the hangars at the birthplace of the RCAF,Camp Borden.Cheers! John.