Best preserved UK airfield

RE: Best preserved UK airfield

IMO Biggin Hill.
It just has this aura about it that screams Hurricane / Spitfire.
Still retains some E type revetments and of course the Airshow.

RE: Best preserved UK airfield

I agree about Upavon, which has managed to retain its grass. An airfield steeped in history from the earliest days of military flying.

Crail in Scotland is supposed to be the best surviving FAA station. it was opened in 1918, I believe, and still has 4 runways intact, where so many have been ripped up for hardcore elsewhere.

And how about North Weald? Still retains its original hangars, albeit for warehousing and some of the dispersal pans survive. The Squadron clubhouse is a Nissen Hut and there are plenty of interesting aircraft based there – from a Spitfire, DC3s and Catalinas to Yaks (11s, 50s and 52s), Bulldogs, Jet Provosts, L39s plus the usual spam cans. A nice place to spend a summer’s afternoon – especially if the Aerostars are doing a stream take off!

Kemble is also impressive and complete – although only a maintenance unit for most of its operational life, it was the home of the Red Arrows.

I fly out of Stapleford. The wartime peri track is still there, but in a poor state. Some of it on the eastern side is now outside the modern airfield’s boundaries, but visible from the air. Because we now have two designated runways – 04/22 and 10/28, the rest of the grass has been ploughed up for cultivation. A few of the old buildings survive at the south western corner and are used as pig pens! One of the old shelters is open as a museum on Sundays during the summer. Although Johnnie Johnson learned to fly there in the RAFVR and it was used as a satellite station to North Weald and Tempsford, it doesn’t quite have the ambience of North Weald.

RE: Best preserved UK airfield

Good question! But I think this is a difficult one to quantify.

The two which really do stand out for me (and this is just my opinion) are Duxford and East Kirkby. My reasoning behind this is that a number of the period buildings at both have been preserved in as close to original condition as possible, and that both locations still have an operational ‘feel’ to them. Both have seen changes since they relinquished their original operational status, but (controversial statement coming up) I don’t feel that either has been modernised to the extent that the nostalgic element has been swallowed up. Does that make sense?

What I’m trying to say is that both places still exude an aura of history; see what I mean when I said this is difficult to quantify! There is just an air about both places, maybe it’s just that whenever I visit either one, I come away feeling very grateful for the sacrifices made by young men whose last living contacts with the ground were there. Preservation is more than just what the eye can see, it’s about memories too.

RE: Best preserved UK airfield

Stapleford Tawney was pretty good and original (complete with grass strip!). Upavon is good and still compares well with my Grandfather’s 1940 aerial snaps. Hullavington is good too and is a conservation area methinx

Tony