Horsa Gliders Into Homes

>>Lets not forget the Mk1 Blenheim nose, formerly a caravan, currently being fitted out on the aircraft at DX.<<

It was actually a car, not a caravan!

Cholsey Horsa rescue pictures

Ian, can you post some of the pics please??

Roger smith.

The only scans I have today are the pics that got into Fly Past, which I have put into an album called Cholsey Horsa. There are many more but the task will take time which I’m short of right now. By all means chivvy me: you should be able to email direct to me if I set up my profile correctly.

Some nice stuff..ever visit Vic Smiths scrapyard in Dorset where a lot of the Tarrant Rushton stuff was taken when the base closed ?

This is a Tarrant Rushton Hamilcar prang (March 44).
[ATTACH]194462[/ATTACH]
And these are some parts dug up there, a mix of Mk I and Mk II Horsa and a Hamilcar, maybe even the one above.
[ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH]194465[/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
Having now identified and labelled some 200 such chunks I’m getting good at identifying Horsa and Hamilcar remians.;)

Yes, I’d very much like to see them too, Ian!

Sounds like Horsas are your thing – If you search for “Sampford”, sooner or later you will find some pictures of them landing, and possibly even a link to one bending a lorry rather badly!

Adrian

Ian, can you post some of the pics please??

Roger smith.

Just to fan the flames (so to speak), Tarrant Rushton in Dorset was the scene of intensive training with Hamilcars and Horsas in the pre D-Day period(and also later in the spring of 45) and there were a large number of accidents both on and off the airfield.

http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/dorset/dorcrash.html

Seems to me that the surrounding area should have been a good hunting ground for relics.

This one surfaces here occasionally, but it’s always good to see again!

I don’t know about still surviving, but one was retrieved from a garden at Cholsey in Oxfordshire about ten years ago. They’d be pretty hard to spot by now, as people will have slowly extended the dwelling round the Horsa…

Adrian

I may be duplicating this response but…
I was slightly involved in the recovery of the Cholsey Horsa and can perhaps assist. I took numerous pics and wrote the article that was printed in Fly Past.

There was a thread on surviving ASR craft a few months ago, an interesting subject which seemed to dissapear into oblivion.
Conversion into a houseboat/ chalet/ caravan/house doesn’t neccessarily mean complete destruction as the old buses have proved, it was an eye opener to watch that programme and see what can be done and what is still waiting to be found.
There is an RAF rescue launch, converted into a houseboat near Southend, which still contains it’s original diesels, I gather that a bit of mechanical sorting and it’s ready to go.
A few years ago a couple put up their house for sale in Wales, it’s core consisted of an almost intact Midland Railway carriage containing perfectly preserved carpets and seat material that even the National Railway Museum had no record of.
Lets not forget the Mk1 Blenheim nose, formerly a caravan, currently being fitted out on the aircraft at DX.
We may think that every thing to be discovered has already been so, but I doubt it, I’m sure that there are large sections of Horsas still in peoples gardens.
When I go off to my meetings in Dunmow, I pass a house virtually in the middle of Braintree. It is a very large neglected Edwardian house occupied by an old lady.The house and gardens are enormous, there is an old Morris Traveller abandoned outside the garage and a superb vintage caravan dumped at the side of the house. I’m sure that there are probably untold treasures to be found there, Horsas in the orchard, who would know, and how could anyone stoop to bother an old lady to find out.
Further out on the old road to Dunmow there’s a rusting old lorry in a wood, look at it carefully and you can see it’s an old WW2 Bedford, worthy of preservation before it’s too late.
These are just examples of artifacts actually visible in a busy area, I’m sure there must be untold treasures out of public view, their origin and history unknown.

http://www.bmpt.org.uk/boats/S130/index6.htm

is the famous houseboat but whilst looking for her I see she has been sold to Kevin Wheatcroft of Panther Tank fame (well he has loads of vehicles but thats the one he’s famous for!)

http://www.rovcom.co.uk/s130_ww2_schnellboot_lift.htm

indeed as these links show, never say never!

http://www.bmpt.org.uk/boats/index.htm

PBY
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search113.htm

the superb Cosmic Muffin!
http://www.planeboats.com/

And of course my favourite exhibit at Hendon

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/collections/aircraft/supermarine-southampton.cfm

enjoyed that – hope you did too!

TT

Of houses at Shoreham, I’ve lost count of the number of ASR launches, MTBs, seaplane tenders etc that have been converted into houses on the flats!

Ah yes, the houseboats on the mudflats. I’d overlooked those. It would be easy to say the same of them – that they have been changed so much, by being converted from working vessels into domestic dwellings, that they are unlikely to be of interest to the restorers – but then I would be ignoring the precedent of the flying boat hulls, that were converted to houseboats and caravans, which in their re-converted forms now grace some of the most prestigious of the UK aviation museums!

Of houses at Shoreham, I’ve lost count of the number of ASR launches, MTBs, seaplane tenders etc that have been converted into houses on the flats! A great place for a wander! There’s even a blockhouse from the Mulberry Harbour there!

If you havent been – go! Used to be a splendid diversion after the aerojumble, the airport archive and the late lamented D-Day museum!

TT

.
I’m sure a few of these airframes must survive, as Adrian says, people build houses round such things.
I was watching ‘Bygones’ on Anglia TV on Sunday, one of the subjects was a chap in Bedfordshire who restored old buses, and I mean old, early 20th century. Many of these were and still are, found in the core of houses and the same thing applies to old Victorian railway carriages that surface from time to time.

It really depends upon how they were intended to be used and how they were used. If the answer is – a bit like a pre-fab, then most of them are likely to have gone the way of all flesh. However if they formed the basis of a house – rather than a house in itself – then some may still be around but you would need to be eagle eyed to spot them. Also they are likely to be so changed that they are unlikely to be worthy of the attentions of aeronautical restorers (and you would probably have to buy and dismantle the whole house to get at the original airframe – hardly a cost effective approach, even in the present housing market slump!).

The analogy with railway carriages is a good one. It was always a good game for me, when I was young, to walk around the roads of Shoreham Beach (aka Bungalow Town), West Sussex, to spot the houses which had been built from a nucleus of a railway carriage (which was the origin of most of the original houses there – dragged across the Adur at low tide on carriages pulled by horses, before the roads to Shoreham Beach had been built). Even now you can see the railway carriages around which some of the older houses have developed. But I won’t go on about this because I am on an historic aviation forum!

Nice caravan if your’e a Hobbitt!!!
It’s a while since I’ve seen inside a Horsa at Middle Wallop, I’d forgotten how small they were, it must have been back breaking trying to climb inside one of those things with all your kit.
I’m sure a few of these airframes must survive, as Adrian says, people build houses round such things.
I was watching ‘Bygones’ on Anglia TV on Sunday, one of the subjects was a chap in Bedfordshire who restored old buses, and I mean old, early 20th century. Many of these were and still are, found in the core of houses and the same thing applies to old Victorian railway carriages that surface from time to time.
Presumably transport difficulties would mean that any Horsa conversions would be near assembly sites, does anyone have a list of these, I know that many Horsas were flown off in this area, does that mean I’ll have to go round scrutinising everyones back garden, I could get arrested.
On the subject of summerhouses etc, there’s a very old trolleybus in the back of a garden at Happisburgh, for those of you who know East Anglia, it ain’t very far from the edge of that cliff, which is vanishing rather too quickly.

This one surfaces here occasionally, but it’s always good to see again!

I don’t know about still surviving, but one was retrieved from a garden at Cholsey in Oxfordshire about ten years ago. They’d be pretty hard to spot by now, as people will have slowly extended the dwelling round the Horsa…

Adrian

Well, that’s a Horsa of a different color.
😉