Larkhill & Upavon

Nick, Hi!
I’m sure our paths have crossed somewhere, sometime, in the Met O. Yes, Lyffe is right, it is the very same ‘Arry Wilkinson – and correctly described!! I came across him when we were on the same Watch in CFO Bracknell. Don’t know what his RAF Svc history was – but he definitely showed signs of Fighter Pilot’s Twitch!
Rgds
Peter Davies

Nick,

I’ve spoken to John Barthram (he was the Senior Forecaster in those days) and he tells me the forecaster who was the Spitfire pilot was Harry Wilkinson. He rarely spoke of his time in the RAF, which explains my lack of knowledge, but he was discussing downdraughts with John one day and during the conversation told him about the day he was returning at low level towards Dover from a sortie with two other Spitfires. They were ahead of him and as they approached the cliffs he saw them just disappear into the sea. He was far enough behind to take avoiding action, but it turned out they had flown into a downdraught from the cliffs.

I repeat the anecdote as told and have no reason to disbelieve it.

(This all seems a long way from the original thread.)

Brian

Thanks for that Brian – clearly some real charactors in the Met. Office in those days…
From what I remember being told, the aforementioned pilot was a chain smoker who also enjoyed the odd beer whilst on duty! As I said, real charactors…

Thanks for following this up.

All the best

Nick

Nick,

I’ve spoken to John Barthram (he was the Senior Forecaster in those days) and he tells me the forecaster who was the Spitfire pilot was Harry Wilkinson. He rarely spoke of his time in the RAF, which explains my lack of knowledge, but he was discussing downdraughts with John one day and during the conversation told him about the day he was returning at low level towards Dover from a sortie with two other Spitfires. They were ahead of him and as they approached the cliffs he saw them just disappear into the sea. He was far enough behind to take avoiding action, but it turned out they had flown into a downdraught from the cliffs.

I repeat the anecdote as told and have no reason to disbelieve it.

(This all seems a long way from the original thread.)

Brian

Upavon

My memories of Upavon are from the early 1960’s with the Moonrakers Gliding club when the airfield was home to Ansons,Devons and Single Pioneers. Also the Boscombe Down Beverly flying around having large objects ejected from it and being filmed by a Shackleton 3 fitted with a rear camera turret.

Another memory was meeting Lt Col Louis Strange (of falling out of a Martinsyde fame and saving himself by holding on to the Lewis gun when inverted).

He had just happened to be passing and stopped his 1930 fabric bodied Riley car on the public road and walked across the grass to the launch point (no fences then) for a chat.

John

I think you will find they are identical, the difference arises because of the sun’s angle at the time of each shot. The shadow to the left of the one with an apparently flat white shows distinct ridges.

Brian

Here is what I can see of Larkhill, it is the White roofed hangars on Wood Road, SE corner of the Larkhill settlement,

Sadly it seems the hangers have now been replaced. Compare Google Earth to MS Virtual Earth, the latter seems to be more up to date.

Not that I recall Nick, but two of them, ‘Tiny’ Mentz and John Barthram (both still with us) were Met Air Observers with the Met Squadrons (517 518, etc). John lives near me in Devizes.

The lean-to that housed the met office is clearly visible on the airfield side of the middle hanger of Philip’s photos.

The stand of trees on the other side of the road was there in 1912.

Brian

I was told by one of the older forecasters I worked with, that another forecaster who worked at Upavon in the 60’s/70’s was a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain – was there any truth in that?

Best regards

Nick Bassett

I’ve uploaded a few photos of Upavon airfield taken last year, quality not too good through the canopy. You can see aircraft of both the Wyvern club ( right side of the launch point ) and 622 VGS.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/philip.morten/Upavon

It’s a small world Nick – and I’ll go along with 5 km. When I first arrived, in the summer of 1966, the met office was housed in what was effectively a lean-to on the south side of the hanger. We weren’t too busy in those days and on fine summer’s evenings would put the telephone on the window-sill (just in case someone was rude enough to disturb our reverie) and sit outside in the sunshine watching the sea-breeze front come up the Avon valley.

And, yes, I too can remember Hercs landing at Upavon.

Happy days.

Brian

Hmm..interesting.

I too used to be a ‘Metman’ at Netheravon and Upavon was one of our key vis. points – 5km if my memory serves me correctly!

I remember seeing Hercs land there (Upavon) on more than one occasion.

Nick B

Interesting thread. As Aeronut notes, the present Upavon airfield is the site of the old South Airfield. The North Airfield stretched northeast from the extreme top right of the photo sent by Chris. The original hangers for South Airfield were in exactly the same orientation as the ones in the photo. The sheds of the North Airfield were aligned parallel to the white track extending north from the A342 and through the two brick buildings just to the west of that. I have two photos of Upavon, one dated 1912 and the other 1913 that show the two sites and hangers if you are interested.

“Wings over Wiltshire” by Rod Priddle (ALD Design and Print, ISBN 1901587347) has a (relatively) recent photo of the Larkhill sheds on page 169.

Peter has rather promoted me, I was certainly a forecaster at Upavon (1966-75) but not a Senior Forecaster at that time. It shames me to say it but I knew little of the camp’s history whilst working there, but my knowledge has increased considerably in recent years.

Brian

Upavon was and as far as I know still is the home of the Army Gliding Association’s Wyvern Gliding Club. A very friendly and welcoming band of brothers and sisters they were when I flew with them.

Yes, you’re right, still there.

http://www.army.mod.uk/sportandadventure/clubs/army_gliding_association/courses.htm

Aeronut,
Willis & Hollis give the foundation date of the airstrip south of the A342 as 1912 – fairly early I think you will agree!. There’s about 50 ft difference from one end of the strip to the other. The Hercs do indeed use the strip for practice circuits & bumps (been there, done it!). North of the A342 (the current camp and golf course) has a great deal more up/down than the strip south of the A342. Taking into account the fact that take-off/landing rolls in 19-canteen required much less real-estate than now I would still go for south of the A342 as being the ‘original’ Upavon. When Lyffe is back on the circuit I will quizz him (he was there as a Senior Forecaster for some time!). Given what we know at the moment – and if I was a betting man (which I ain’t) – I would go for south of the A342. But stranger things have come out of this (and other) boards.
Rgds
Peter Davies

Upavon was and as far as I know still is the home of the Army Gliding Association’s Wyvern Gliding Club. A very friendly and welcoming band of brothers and sisters they were when I flew with them.

I think you’ll find the concept of runways is a little advanced for Larkhill although its hard to believe there was ever a flying ground there since they let the trees grow.
By the way Upavon is still occasionally used by Hercules and isn’t the airfeild we see today the South Airfield there was also at one point another on the North side.

Larkhill & Upavon

Many thanks for your help.

I can now see the runway at Upavon, difficult to imagine it was once the home of Central Flying School.

As for Larkhill, but for the White Roofed Hangers you kindly pointed out I would not have had a chance , where were the runways in relation to the hangers please?

When I first became interested in aviation the connection with Larkhill was the fact that Lt Parkes RFC was the first person to get into a spin and recover, knowing what he had done such as to be able to pass on his knowledge to future pilots, which is why I believe the proper name for the spin is “Parke’s Dive”

and still listed on my current 1/2 mil aviation chart last time I looked, which was about 10 seconds ago 🙂

Here is Upavon, still a working airfield
SE of Upavon Village, south of A342

Still used by Cadets for gliding as it was 13 years ago when I was a wee space cadet! :p

Here is Upavon, still a working airfield
SE of Upavon Village, south of A342