Halton 1954 to 1957

Not many left now but here are another six. The first four were taken during a BoB display on 17/09/55. I did not log very many that day but included were
Vampire T11 XD583 Provost T1 WV501 Valiant WP221 Meteor T7 WL346
Canberra B2 WK140 Balliol T1 WG131 Hastings C2 WD495
Shacleton MR1s VP261, WB821, WB823 and MR2 WG553 G-AOBU JP T1
G-AOZU Dragon Rapide

1 Provost T1 WV442 coded X
2 Mosquito 6865M ???
3 Meteor F8 7264M ex WA765 coded V
4 Chipmunk T10 WB552
5 Supermarine 535 VV119 on 09/03/56 with ‘Percy’ Hoyle in the cockpit
6 Whirlwind HAR2 7415M or XK989 with me. This was after it had ditched in the sea and been recovered to Halton. taken in 1957.

I do not seem to have logged the Mosquitos that were at Halton at that time. If anyone has a list of them it would be much appreciated.

Glyn

Mark,

RF114 was a cancelled Lincoln not a Spitfire. I suspect that it arrived after I left at the end of July 1957. Do you know what the M number was? That will help to trace it and when it arrived.

Glyn

Oh yes, it is RW386 which is currently ‘going through the process’ at Historic Flying at Duxford as we post. See the December Flypast.

Looking at a few notes in my files I now see it arrived at Halton in all silver finish as 6944M some time in 1957 and was painted with the spurious RAF serial and camouflage for the 1958 BoB display. They probably did not know its true RAF identity.

It was previously at Honington.

You must have just missed it.

Mark

Mark,

RF114 was a cancelled Lincoln not a Spitfire. I suspect that it arrived after I left at the end of July 1957. Do you know what the M number was? That will help to trace it and when it arrived.

Glyn

Mark,

I cannot even recall a Spitfire being there. Where was it domiciled? I certainly did not log it. But then I realise I did not log any of the Mosquitos!!!

Glyn

It was in the main hangar. It was painted as ‘RF114’/4D-Z. I managed to poke my camera lens through the small gap at the end of the locked doors. This would be 1958/9

Arthur Pearcy managed to get a great shot of it in silver with the ‘M’ serial outside in September 1957.

Mark

Mark,

I cannot even recall a Spitfire being there. Where was it domiciled? I certainly did not log it. But then I realise I did not log any of the Mosquitos!!!

Glyn

Glyn,

Are we going to see the Spitfire RW386/6944M, possibly in silver when you were there?

Mark

Both the P.1052 and the 510 left Halton before I did. I too saw them at Cardington probably whilst attending the RAF X-Country championship.

VX272 is now stored in Cobham Hall Yeovilton.

Glyn

I can confirm that the spitfire and the hawker have been gone 21 years from raf cardington. Anyone know where it is now?

Circa 1957 the Hawker 1052 and the Supermarine 510 must have moved, as I saw them on the gate at RAF Cardington, along with Spitfire LA255, shortly after this time.

Mark

I am not sure whether my eyes were bad then or not but perhaps as a few are only of half the aircraft perhaps they were.

Glyn

Looks like a viewfinder mirror was on the squint to me – my Agfa has nice big viewfinders, but the front pops off in a way that would really creaamcracker your composition (and the shutter is broken anyway). So I think it’s an Agfafault rather than an eyeballfault. Feel better now? 😀

Adrian

Here are one or two more for you. I do not have that many but what I have you may see.

1 Hawker P.1052 VX272 on 14/03/55.
2 A view of yours truly by the cockpit on 14/03/55. What a sweet litte boy!
3 Hawker P.1067 with Philip (Percy) Hoyle standing by it on 17/11/54. If anyone has any information about Percy I would be most interested to hear.
4 Hawker P.1067 inside the New Workshops.
5 Anson T22 7016M ex VS600 on the airfield on 17/09/55 for air display.
6 Also on display on 17/09/55 the Cheetah X engine I stripped and put back together. Oh what a clever boy!

The first three were all taken behind the New Workshops.

The Lincoln was still there when I left in July 1957 but it does not appear in the photo in Halton 1985 by Mark12 taken in 1958. so unless it had been moved it had gone by then.

Glyn

Lovely photographs, bringing back lots of memories. Many thanks – I also ask, any more?

Fascinating pictures- I wonder if that is the Lincoln which caught fire and burnt out.

Any more??

Good to see photos from that era, Glyn. Dare I say “Keep ’em coming”?

For the record, the Lincoln spent its entire working life, as RF451, with 90 Sqdn at Wyton. It appears to have arrived at Halton during 1951 and was still being recorded there in December 1956.

Allan

thank you for the photos. it is always interresting to see photos like that. sadly when i served as a cadet we did not ever go anywhere exiting like that.

My first post should have said my first visit to Halton was in July 1953 not 54. The reason was the same.

Glyn