Church Fenton is closing…. interesting post about the Spit pens

RAF Church Fenton has closed – last flying was 16th/17th December.

The blast pens are sort of still there although they were reduced in size many years ago (rumoured to be as a result of damage by rabbits!), the brickwork was also removed if I remember correctly.

There are currently two housing projects about to be, or have already been, given the go-ahead although neither are on the airfield itself.

YUAS hosted a ball to mark the closure, no formal parade took place (despite being ‘advertised’) and there were no official flypasts or anything of a ceremonial nature (although one of the privately owned JP’s performed a low pass before leaving for Linton and a Red Arrows schemed Hawk and a Tornado ‘beat-up’ the runway).

One gets the impression the RAF are somewhat relieved to have wiped Church Fenton from the soles of their shoes at long last… 🙁

Runway 34 looking at Google, and there are two distinct groups of pens as per the link from National Heritage. The other group is along the southern perimeter track and still fairly visible on the ariel view. Fascinating and rare to have survived!

Wow, google RAF Church Fenton then look at the loop off the end of runway 34, there all still there, indeed you can see what looks like a wartime runway shadows.

Davski is the person to ask about this. I think I can see some on Google Earth but I dont really know about these things to be honest.