Airfields of Gloucestershire

Made a flying visit to Little Rissington yesterday and flew over a number of airfields on the way there and would like to learn more about them and their history.

First photo is of Chedworth and the others of course of Little Rissington.

Can’t say much of the history (although I know it) but have many a yarn pretty much growing up on that airfield in the late 70’s/80’s (our old Scout Hut was the Station S.A.A. Armoury) 😀

Martin,this might be what you are looking for.
http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/product.php?productid=33992&cat=0&page=1
or this one.
http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/search.php?mode=search&page=1

For more information on the de Havilland twins, please have a look at:

http://www.devonair.net/

Best wishes,

Martin

Nice pics T6, whats the story with the Devons/Doves.
Popped into western Super Mare the other day, definately worth a ground visit, the site manager there was very helpful and allowed excellent access. Hard to imagine now, Britannias, Gannets, and countless Westland types flying from there.

Resmoroh,

Thanks for the information regarding Little Rissington. One of the hangars that we went into was used by the Americans as the hospital and which is now used to store the Freelance airframes and the majority of the Doves and Devons.

Its always nice to learn something about the places that you visit and the chance to go here on Sunday was too good an opportunity to miss. I’ve been into all of the G-VFWE airfields…..Keevil, Hullavington, Kemble and Abingdon and now have Little Rissington too.

Here are a few more from the weekend including a few of Weston-Super-Mare on the way home.

Best wishes to all,

Martin

And further to my last, the AWS (or MOWOS as it was known in those days) is at 51 51 38.31N 01 41 34.43W for those of you who infest Google Earth
Resmoroh

Martin, Hi,
A few things about Little Rissington that may not appear in the ‘usual’ airfield summaries/histories.
1 It was the location of one of the very earliest Met Office Automatic Weather Stations (I put it in!).
2 At one stage one of the hangars housed a complete airtransportable US Field Hospital. I was told it could either be used in situ, or taken to bits and flown elsewhere.
3 I was told that one of the hangars was used for the filming of the TV series “Blake’s Seven” (shows my age!!).
4 It was, at one stage, the base barracks for some elements of the Royal Irish Rangers. A significant percentage of the accommodation did not defy their attentions.
All the above came to me via the local Property Services Agency bloke and the ‘Key Wallah’ in the Guardroom. Make what you will of them!
HTH
Resmoroh

You can’t beat the Cornish airfields though, even if there is less of em!

Thank you very much indeed. Will register with them tonight and post the photos above and others I took on Sunday.

Its always interesting to learn about places that you fly over and although we have a few old airfields down in Devon and Cornwall, the further North and East you go, the more airfields of course come into view. A couple that were seen on the way up, don’t appear on the latest charts – will have to try and remember where they were.

Best wishes,

Martin

I know I sound like a stuck record, but try the AIX Airfield Information Exchange http://airfieldinformationexchange.freeforums.org/, your pictures and info will be much appreciated and your questions probably answered.
You can still get the action stations series, Gloucestshire appears in the South West edition I believe. Action Stations are definately a good way to finding out which airfields are where and their histories, but you will soon want to learn more!