RAF Wethersfield

I can’t believe they did that, presumably Stansted air traffic control were warned. Wish I’d been taking the dogs for a walk on the Spains Hall footpath, nobody I know in the village here noticed anything but then they all hate aircraft apart from the Sucklings, they get annoyed when I refuse to sign any anti Stansted campaigns. When I moved here nearly 20 years ago I thought it was inevitable that Stansted would expand and always accepted it, ok, I’m into aviation, but people move here then start complaining, would they have done this if F-15’s were now based at Wethersfield. Anyway, apart from some hair raising incidents with Il-76’s in the past which even I complained about, we get few low overflights here except for the occasional Spitfire, which seems acceptable.
The other day I took the dogs for a walk through the field where the Havoc crashed. As the field had just been ploughed, the depression was clearly visible. The ground was very dry so I had a bit of a poke around and found nothing, but the dogs went mental and started digging frantically in the ground which is unusual for them, they obviously knew something that I couldn’t sense.

And i bet the people who moan about Stansted don’t mind flying from there when they go on holiday.

I can’t believe they did that, presumably Stansted air traffic control were warned.

Sorry it took me a while to get back on this one.

Yes, I expect Stansted were informed, but technically there is no reason why they would need to be.

The base of the Stansted CTA is at 1500 feet over the old Wethersfield drome, so Fat Alberts, squawking Mode C (Which gives the controllers an altitude readout on their screen) at about 500 feet or less would be well out of the way of controlled traffic.

Regards,

Moggy

According to my folks, a Hercules came in over Gt Sampford and crossed BENEATH something coming in to Stansted. I don’t know how high the normal route in to Stansted is there (and it’s about half that when Federal Express come in – they must be heavier!), or what the vertical seperation was but I can see why Fat Alberts doing that are scaring people. Scared 7 bells out of Mum – would like to have seen it myself!

Adrian

I can’t believe they did that, presumably Stansted air traffic control were warned. Wish I’d been taking the dogs for a walk on the Spains Hall footpath, nobody I know in the village here noticed anything but then they all hate aircraft apart from the Sucklings, they get annoyed when I refuse to sign any anti Stansted campaigns. When I moved here nearly 20 years ago I thought it was inevitable that Stansted would expand and always accepted it, ok, I’m into aviation, but people move here then start complaining, would they have done this if F-15’s were now based at Wethersfield. Anyway, apart from some hair raising incidents with Il-76’s in the past which even I complained about, we get few low overflights here except for the occasional Spitfire, which seems acceptable.
The other day I took the dogs for a walk through the field where the Havoc crashed. As the field had just been ploughed, the depression was clearly visible. The ground was very dry so I had a bit of a poke around and found nothing, but the dogs went mental and started digging frantically in the ground which is unusual for them, they obviously knew something that I couldn’t sense.

According to my folks, a Hercules came in over Gt Sampford and crossed BENEATH something coming in to Stansted. I don’t know how high the normal route in to Stansted is there (and it’s about half that when Federal Express come in – they must be heavier!), or what the vertical seperation was but I can see why Fat Alberts doing that are scaring people. Scared 7 bells out of Mum – would like to have seen it myself!

Adrian

Interesting.

Wethersfield became active again this week.

5 x C130 on a tactical landing exercise.

Moggy

Moggy
I thought that you may find this article that was published in yesterday’s Braintree and Witham Times very amusing.

JETS SPARK HI-JACK FEARS

Scared residents in Wethersfield have been reporting huge, low flying, jet fighters to the police.
There were fears that they were hijacked planes or a terrorist threat, but police have confirmed that they are part of the M o D’s vital training exercises being carried out last week at their headquarters near Braintree.
A huge C-17 jet transporter and 5 Hercules aircraft have been used in this one-off training programme by the 16th Air Assault Brigade from the Colchester Garrison.
The troops have also been using simulated small arms fire and flares.
The planes, which are the first to land at the headquarters since the US Airforce left the base in 1990 and it was given to the MoD, have come from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and RAF Lyneham in Wilts.
One resident from High Street Green saw one of the planes flying above his house at 8:30pm on Tuesday Sept 13th.
He said:”I thought it was a huge 4 engined plane. It was a beast, it really was a monster.”
Another resident of Potter Street in Sible Hedingham is convinced the aircraft were flying dangerously low.
She said:”I was afraid they were going to take my chimneys off they were so low.”
The MoD apologise to anyone being disturbed by the noise.

A mile away and I didn’t hear a thing !!!!!
I wonder if they dropped the troops off home by landing on the A12.

I don’t know anything about the store at Raydon but I do remember that the 10th TRW who parented Wethersfield for a time around this period operated a hangar at Ridgewell which was given up shortly after. I remember having a snoop around there and seeing a large number of F-4 drop tanks in storage outside.

Probably couldn’t get them inside, one T2 was full to the ceiling with drop tanks of all descriptions and the other was indeed home to green godesses, this was circa 1978/9.

Sorry for lack of response, but had a heavy day going to London to see Allison Krauss and Union Station aka ‘The Soggy Bottom Boys’, almost thwarted by a massive power cut at the Hammersmith Apollo, but concert eventually went ahead and was as brilliant as I thought it would be.
Adrian
These bits may have been used as fill under the roadway passing bays so probably remain in situ. By coincidence have found out a couple of hours ago from the structural engineer that the big barn remains unsold and the developer wants to split it into 2 units, tried this one before and not acceptable to the planners, waiting for the phone call!
Tcatco
Thanks for the info, remember the 2 hangars at Ridgewell, how did you get in? Rumour had it that they were used for storing Green Goddesses.
Still some fantastic buildings surviving there, including the old concert hall with cloakroom prices stuck on the wall.
Were you living in High Garrett when the 2 F-111’s flew exceedingly low along the Halstead Road heading east, and the night the bus got snowed in at the pub, I helped organize digging out the trapped cars. Did you know John Boatwright at the slaughterhouse and the elephant incident.
Lived at Cherry Tree Cottage, Sunnyfields Road from 1978 to 1987 and bust a gut and bank account restoring it to it’s former glory and more. Came back on the market recently by a chicken farm, place had been wrecked and was in a disgusting condition, complete with abandoned car in what used to be a restored 19th century cottage garden, but at least very cheap, after all that work it makes you wonder about the state of the human race.

Most impressive reply, thank you, however what exactly was Exercise Flintlock, was it a cover for flying in Sidewinders as Moggy suggested, or just a normal exercise.
Did you manage to get any pictures in the end, there seemed to be about a dozen a/c came in at the time, must have looked interesting coming over the Atlantic.
The event happened in the evening, must have been warm for me to be sitting outside The Henny Swan, but I think it was April/May, probably on a saturday or sunday, there was also a good sunset that evening which made the whole event very surreal, very upset that I didn’t have my trusty Canon with me, and don’t know why I didn’t go home via the airfield as I lived at High Garrett at the time, probably went over the next day and saw nothing as usual.
I was also told at the time by someone who lived near there, that US equipment supplied to the British for use in the Falklands war was being stored at Raydon airfield in Suffolk.

Exercise Flintlock was a NATO wide Special Forces exercise and used to generate all kinds of odds and sods at all the usual ‘covert’ places, Wethersfield, Sculthorpe, para dropping at Watton etc. Correcting my last the 7th SOS were actually based at Frankfurt at the time AFAIR but the parent wing at Hurlburt often deployed ‘unusual’ MC-130s from the States to join the exercise.

I don’t believe any of this activity related to the movement of US arms for the Falklands campaign, most of that traffic was centred on Brize, Mildenhall and Greenham Common AFAIR.

I don’t know anything about the store at Raydon but I do remember that the 10th TRW who parented Wethersfield for a time around this period operated a hangar at Ridgewell which was given up shortly after. I remember having a snoop around there and seeing a large number of F-4 drop tanks in storage outside.

Strange you should live in High Garrett because so did I, in Grove Field!

I do have some photos somewhere but have been unsuccessful in my search, so far.

Pete,

Two (lousy) photos – all I have. I wondered at the time whether they were Hurricane debris – I’ve kicked myself on a regular basis ever since even though Mum would probably have thrown it out…

By the way, that isn’t a wheel hub or anything, it’s the afroementioned tractor belt pulley.

Adrian

The SKE C-130s where part of Exercise Flintlock ’82. I remember it well because I drove along the road from Halstead towards Sible Hedingham and saw them low-level on finals. I went to take a few pictures over the fence and some Americans in civvies from the OSI office on the south side, tried to arrest me! They were from the 7th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, FL and did carry markings but very small ones. It is one of those times I regret never collecting numbers because I would be able to recall exactly which aircraft were involved.

Most impressive reply, thank you, however what exactly was Exercise Flintlock, was it a cover for flying in Sidewinders as Moggy suggested, or just a normal exercise.
Did you manage to get any pictures in the end, there seemed to be about a dozen a/c came in at the time, must have looked interesting coming over the Atlantic.
The event happened in the evening, must have been warm for me to be sitting outside The Henny Swan, but I think it was April/May, probably on a saturday or sunday, there was also a good sunset that evening which made the whole event very surreal, very upset that I didn’t have my trusty Canon with me, and don’t know why I didn’t go home via the airfield as I lived at High Garrett at the time, probably went over the next day and saw nothing as usual.
I was also told at the time by someone who lived near there, that US equipment supplied to the British for use in the Falklands war was being stored at Raydon airfield in Suffolk.

There was an odd bit that was obviously one rib from the rear of a flying surface sticking out of a concrete block, and some odd tangled bits that seemed to be part of a control linkage. As you went past the pond going to the farmyard entrance with the barns on the left, they were in some other junk (including a standard Fordson belt pulley wheel) on the edge of the ditch, and the rib was in the end of the ditch I think.

I MAY have a photo – I’ll try to unearth it in the next day or two…

Adrian

(at least one Gray farmed Parsonage, and as the rest were carpenters in the village for centuries there is a good chance that they put up some of those outbuildings. Hence my nosiness!)

Hope you wore a hard hat, could these bits have had anything to do with the hurricane crashes we discussed in a previous thread.
You may be interested to know that when all the various permissions were being obtained for Parsonage Farm, the Essex Fire Officer insisted that the lane was too narrow for fire engine access and subsequently the developer had not only to provide passing places on the lane, but put sprinklers in the barns, so if any of your fathers neighbours up there have a fire, don’t expect the Wethersfield Brigade to come to their rescue, not!

Wethersfield is where it all began for me, my Dad taking me to the Open Days in the early/middle 1960, so I hold the place in some affection. I’ve got a few of the pics he took at the time, but if anyone can post some pics I’d be really pleased to see them.

I still bore my Dad with my pics, but he can’t be bothered to come with me any more as he’s put off by the queueing in and out, and unfortunately can’t really cope with being on his feet for the day.

CM

The SKE C-130s where part of Exercise Flintlock ’82. I remember it well because I drove along the road from Halstead towards Sible Hedingham and saw them low-level on finals. I went to take a few pictures over the fence and some Americans in civvies from the OSI office on the south side, tried to arrest me! They were from the 7th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, FL and did carry markings but very small ones. It is one of those times I regret never collecting numbers because I would be able to recall exactly which aircraft were involved.

There was an odd bit that was obviously one rib from the rear of a flying surface sticking out of a concrete block, and some odd tangled bits that seemed to be part of a control linkage. As you went past the pond going to the farmyard entrance with the barns on the left, they were in some other junk (including a standard Fordson belt pulley wheel) on the edge of the ditch, and the rib was in the end of the ditch I think.

I MAY have a photo – I’ll try to unearth it in the next day or two…

Adrian

(at least one Gray farmed Parsonage, and as the rest were carpenters in the village for centuries there is a good chance that they put up some of those outbuildings. Hence my nosiness!)

Not sure whether any of the stencils can be seen any more for flowerpots, but if they can I might take you up!

Did you ever visit Parsonage Barns while they were being worked on? I walked up there once while they were skeletal and on the side of the verge were a couple of random bits of what were obviously aircraft debris. Stupidly I never picked them up because I had nowhere to put them, and my folks have got quite enough of my junk already…

Adrian

Bugger, went up there quite a few times and never spotted anything, where and what were they? Was probably too worried at the time to ensure that the buildings worked.
Several years ago we did a big barn conversion next to the old church at Greenstead-Juxta-Ongar.
The old barns were full of all sorts of rubbish including deer carcases and a set of brand new self sealing B-17 fuel tanks.
My boss at the time carefully removed these and tried to give them away to any interested parties including Duxford, who weren’t interested.
They were then transported to various sites, finally ending up at a barn conversion near Barnston.
One day, a very keen employee had a big clear up and burnt the tanks on a massive bonfire, despite the fact that I was in the site hut at the time, I never found out until it was too late, he was not employed for much longer. The remains are now under the garden.

Not sure whether any of the stencils can be seen any more for flowerpots, but if they can I might take you up!

Did you ever visit Parsonage Barns while they were being worked on? I walked up there once while they were skeletal and on the side of the verge were a couple of random bits of what were obviously aircraft debris. Stupidly I never picked them up because I had nowhere to put them, and my folks have got quite enough of my junk already…

Adrian

Well spotted, Pete! How do you do it?

Sounds like your VE Day party was about the time that we had a lot of Lynx near Cornish Hall End (Rivetts, the next house up on the same side as Shore Hall – the one with the trees lining the drive). Admittedly I had the attic bedroom for reasons of teenage siblings but all the same it’s quite a thrill to see a Lynx outside close enough to see the pilot silhouetted in the green glow from the instruments BELOW you!

Adrian

It’s called ‘architects eye for the interesting and unusual’
The convoy came on quite a devious route from Wattisham via Haverhill and Steeple Bumpstead, I had a panic stricken phone call from some friends in Steeple wondering what the hell was going off, good old Pete, supposed to know all things military, some of the vehicles looked pretty ancient, of course I videod the whole exercise, lots of headlights and noise.
I managed to obtain the convoy marker posts which now reside in the garage, having spotted them being put up I knew something was afoot. Next time you go over to Sampford, let us know and we can have a pint in your wierd pub and I can view the fabled packing case shed at close hand.
Incidentally, with regard to the VE-Day party, I wrote off to quite a few organizations to try and get flybys for the event, had some brilliant replies, especially from the RAF, the Sally B passing over followed by the BBMF seemed quite a coincidence, the spam burgers were also very popular.

Well spotted, Pete! How do you do it?

Sounds like your VE Day party was about the time that we had a lot of Lynx near Cornish Hall End (Rivetts, the next house up on the same side as Shore Hall – the one with the trees lining the drive). Admittedly I had the attic bedroom for reasons of teenage siblings but all the same it’s quite a thrill to see a Lynx outside close enough to see the pilot silhouetted in the green glow from the instruments BELOW you!

Adrian

Apparently they were operating at night a couple of days ago.

Moggy

Should have waited for the reply, just spent half an hour splashing through cow muck and mud to get to the north crash gate where I recieved the attentions of an over friendly terrier.
Weather worse than DX on sunday, most of airfield obscured by mist, nothing moving out there, taxiways look in good order though, but then again it is used for gliding.
Didn’t hear anything the other night, could be something to do with my surround sound, on the other hand was up late as my son turned up at midnight with his girlfriend and was out the front for a while.
The a/c probably approached and took off from the eastern end of the runway in order to avoid the Stansted landing pattern which would mean I wouldn’t have heard them.
10 years ago I lived in a cottage virtually backing on to the quick alert hangers to the north of the airfield, following my mega VE Day party we were treated to a tactical exercise by the 4th AAC.
This lasted nearly a week and started in the early hours of the morning with a convoy of vehicles coming past the house that seemed to go on forever, the next day I was at work but my neighbour told me that Chinooks had been lifting gear over the house.
The whole area was full of troops and Lynx helicopters, all very exciting stuff.
The highlight of the event happened on the saturday morning. For the VE-Day party we put a huge mural on the gable of the house consisting of a front view of a Lancaster flying through a giant V, I was woken by the sound of Lynx helicopters, went outside and a line of 4 were hovering low over my fence pointing at the mural, when I got outside, each helicopter bowed in salute and peeled off, I was quite touched, except my son slept through it all and missed it.
Whereabouts in Sampford do your parents live Adrian, is it the bungalow on the right hand side coming from Finchingfield just before the turn off to the barns ( which I drew up by the way ), it looks to have some interesting sheds, does he charge admission.

Interesting, can practically see the place from where I’m sitting and have been working at home all week but seen and heard nothing,

Apparently they were operating at night a couple of days ago.

Moggy