North Weald 'demise'

Millemium dome,scottish parliment building,dare i say ,,concorde? TSR2, blue water/streak,etc etc, all these were projects started,and eventually proved to have had money thrown at them with only concorde possibly successful in a small way, had that financial prowess been put into preserving these airfields it would have proved a much better inveatment not to mention the jobs the scheme would have created mostly long term ,plus numerous preservation groups/ societies to administer said airfields, the ones who didnt come home deserve this.

erm…. yup, the scottish parliment building did cost rather a lot of money, but to say it isn’t a success and will not be as beneficial as perserving a few airfields is a bit short sighted. Perhaps that is not what you meant, but it is certainly the way I have taken it…

The money to preserve airfields would be an infinite black hole, and who would you be preserving them for? I applaud the sentiment that you are remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country, but to preserve everything is a definite non-starter, with cost implications which would easily outstrip the embarrassing £400m our parliment building cost… And who would truly benefit from preserved airfields?

As much as it pains me to say it, maybe development of airfields is inevitable. It may affect us more as WWII is still within living memory, and the military operation of some of these airfields is perhaps still within recent memory (i.e Coltishall), but how will future generations react? Will they see it as relevant as we do? Perhaps there are some airfields better candidates for perservation, but maybe some are going to have to succumb to the inevitable, in particular those near major population centres. I am not saying this is right, or I agree with it, only taking a realistic approach…

Would it be an idea as a condition of planning permission to force developers to at least make a memorial for bases where people lost their life in conflict?

Regards,
Scotty

all disused world war two airfields in britain should have been preserved

Well, maybe not all. Why?…Well for one thing many of these airfields were built for the duration only, and the land requisitioned under the Emergency powers Act of 1939. The original landowners did rightly want their land back after the war. So we see the reason why they have practically disappeared as visible airfields, and have returned to agriculture from whence they came.

I do agree that it would have taken great foresight, to have preserved in entirety, examples of airfields, be they Fighter stations, night fighter stations or Bomber airfields. With grass and hard runways, examples of expansion period airfields such as Bicester and Bassingbourne spring to mind. And a ‘Class A’ bomber airfield somewhere, as used by the Eighth and Ninth USAAF, would seem an ideal candidate for the ‘hostilities only’ airfields as built by the once great British Civil engineering companys, or the Engineering(Aviation) Battalions raised in the USA to build airfields here during the war.

It would also have taken great foresight to have saved one (at least) of every aircraft type in operation during the Second World War, but we have had that discussion several times before. Unfortunately no one had that foresight, unfortunately no one thought to save the airfields either. We just have to work harder to preserve what little we have now, before it crumbles away.

While this country has gone ‘green belt’ crazy about building on former airfields,it is not only here. Other countries also seem to have the same problem. but for us, it seems heritage counts as nothing any more.

Greed and profiteering from the acquisition of agricultural land, turned into development land, will rule the roost. Developers only have the £ note sign in their minds when looking at land. They will not see a place where the cream of youth took off daily, sometimes never to return. They will not see the empty buildings that echoed with their laughter and tears.
The following poem was read out at Hunsdon airfield on memorial day by the fellow who wrote it, I think it sums up how some of us feel about future development on former airfields…

Hunsdon Airfield

The brooks that rise about hunsdon
run lively, full and free,
I wish that you knew them as we do,
envisage what we see,
The deer in the early morning,
Fox and Badger at night,
Duck winging in at sunset,
Geese lifting off at first light.

Pike and Rudd with silver roach,
Give pleasure to such as we,
In ponds and lakes fed by the brooks,
fringe edged with reed and tree,
To net a fish, fulfill a dream,
Then gently to release,
For others to enjoy the same,
Tranquility and peace.

Moorhen,coot and water vole
make ripples at the edge,
Rustling through the rushes,
Purple loosestrife and the sedge.
If you are sitting still enough
The kingfisher displays
The iridescence of his breast,
much similar to the Jays.

I wish you might feel as we do
When you plan and design
to cover fields with asphalt
Diverting rain down lines,
Of surface water conduits
Depriving brook and stream
to become dried up stagnant sludge drains
Thats progress? and what it means?

Young men once lifted to the skies,
some never to return,
To fly home to Hunsdon
Our gratitude to earn.
The freedom of this precious land
with young blood was bought
Financial gain and profit
Brings their sacrifice…….to nought!.

Lewis Morrison
January 2005

Sadly, it is politically incorrect to teach children of our past, for we might upset our European neighbours!

I

airfields demise

all disused world war two airfields in britain should have been preserved(as should every aircraft type) each base made its honourable contribution with aircraft ,crews, ground staff,they were small townships for their brief period of exsistence, and men ,women came served and often died as has been recorded many times and by better people than me, basically these once proud bases are mainly now just rubble or littered with small work units,(where there was unity/ regimentation, now chaos reigns)some are gone with housing/trading estate replacments.(or motorways) it sounds totally absurd to suggest preserving every base, financially its complete suicide,where would the money be found?lets see,, Millemium dome,scottish parliment building,dare i say ,,concorde? TSR2, blue water/streak,etc etc, all these were projects started,and eventually proved to have had money thrown at them with only concorde possibly successful in a small way, had that financial prowess been put into preserving these airfields it would have proved a much better inveatment not to mention the jobs the scheme would have created mostly long term ,plus numerous preservation groups/ societies to administer said airfields, the ones who didnt come home deserve this.:cool: 😎 😎 😎

I have no idea about landlords and tenants. What I do know of are the development plans. They may well be unattainable, but questions are being asked of the London TMA coping with its planned movement rate.

The airfield will, or has been sold.

Without our landlord telling us tennants :rolleyes:

Demise! Are you joking!

The airfield will, or has been sold. New owners want to re-create a Farnborough Biz Jet operation here. Money is available and facilities would be in place before the 2012 Olympics.

Serious money here, with serious intentions.

Now as to access to Controlled Airspace and the fact that a 10nm final is overhead Stansted. Could be the first approved Global Positioning approach in the UK (tear drop onto either runway).

This one was recently covered on this forum, North weald has been confirmed apparently to remain open and operational though there has been and will continue to be a series of developements around the airfield outskirts these can be seen from the A40, as accomodation for several army units is built as they are to be relocated to North Weald, this has been accompanied by the demolition of one of the hangars and other sundry buildings though reports the the officers mess building was to be among these seems to be a little vauge.

I think u might be confusing RAF Northolt with North Weald. The M11 runs near the airfield not the A40 😀 Bex

http://www.multimap.com/maps/#t=l&map=51.7,0.16667|14|4&loc=GB:51.7:0.16667:14|north%20weald|North%20Weald,%20County%20of%20Essex

This one was recently covered on this forum, North weald has been confirmed apparently to remain open and operational though there has been and will continue to be a series of developements around the airfield outskirts these can be seen from the A40, as accomodation for several army units is built as they are to be relocated to North Weald, this has been accompanied by the demolition of one of the hangars and other sundry buildings though reports the the officers mess building was to be among these seems to be a little vauge.

just take a look at hornchurch. You wouldn’t have known there was a historic airfield there! Havering council are a disgrace. There are no munuments of note anywhere, the only thing of note is the good intent pub, and that’s it. I bet if you asked any kids in the area what hornchurch used to be, i could tell you you would be lucky if 1% knew it used to be an airfield.

but hey, its only history…….:rolleyes: