Ramsgate Airport

Ramsgate, September 1959. Joyride.

Prentice now at Newark Air Museum.

Mark

PBY-5A, have you been to the RAF Manston History Museum? There are a number of pictures of Ramsgate Airport and some details about the place on the walls, including a piece about how the new roads were named after aircraft that actually never went anywhere near the airfield.

Sad but at least it has been reborn in one sense by the rejuvenated art-deco Prospect Inn just outside Manston’s perimetre.

It was demolished circa 1965, by which point it was in a fairly bad state.

So I wonder when they demolished the terminal building.

The aircraft in “longshots” picture is a Messenger so the photograph is definitely post-war.

I live on Rumfields Rd, down the St Georges school end, so what part of the airfield did my house stand on? Cheers guys 🙂

Looks as though you would have been on the eastern boundary of the airport.

I remember visiting the site in the mid seventies.Industrial buildings were encroaching on the field, but the old petrol pumps were still in place and i remember a sign for “Air Kruise” on or near the hangar.
In fact looking at google it looks like the hangar still exists on the western side.
They certainly lost a gem when the terminal went.
On a rather gloomy local note; Plymouth Airport is going for development and another link with pre-war flying will be lost.

Fascinating stuff, thanks for the images and stories. It is indeed a shame that terminal building was demolished, I think now the Sericol factory stands on its grounds now? I live on Rumfields Rd, down the St Georges school end, so what part of the airfield did my house stand on? Cheers guys 🙂

Lovely art deco terminal building, and what looks like a Boulton and Paul VR1 hangar. I think that what appears to be a Miles Gemini on the ground would make it post-war, in fact is that a Bedford CA in the car park to the right?

Wonderful picture and the terminal building proudly in the foreground. I reckon that was taken before the war.

Nice big image from a Google Image search on ‘Ramsgate Airport’
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vP-v_V1Arlk/R7s7gixZlyI/AAAAAAAAADI/mnNglfh9UMM/s1600-h/Ramsgate+airport.jpg

from:
http://thanetcoastlife.blogspot.com/2008/02/ramsgate-airport.html

I went for a pleasure flight in a Tripacer in the late 50s too. I don’t remember a terminal building . I think there was just a wooden hut.
mmitch.

It closed in 1968 but was badly damaged during the war so perhaps many of the original buildings were never rebuilt. I think the terminal escaped but fell foul of the demolition ball, although you do not recollect any buildings. Someone will know for sure.

I took my first ever flight in Prentice G-APIY from Ramsgate in September 1959.

Would this have been the old airfield or a temporary strip for ‘Joy riders’?

I do not remember there being any buildings.

Mark

It is a great shame the marvellous art-deco terminal building was not preserved.

This taken from the “UK Air Pilot” c.1934

You know this already?
http://www.aviationarchives.info/search.asp?TextSearch=X2RT

These photos are remarkable in that they’re taken by two top photographers in their fields, Norman Parkinson (fashion/Vogue magazine etc) and Charles E Brown (transport, Aviation)…curiously Charles E Brown got the pretty girls in this set. One picture which interests me is the eleventh down, labelled Ramsgate M de B….I think this must be of Mary de Bunsen (sunglasses?), previously Press Secretary at Airwork Heston, who was Whitney Straight’s press secretary/assistant, wrote the Straight Corporation’s ‘Straightaway’ review and organised the 1937 Aerial camping weekend you see in the photos. She went into the ATA in WWII and ferried Mosquitoes amongst other types, and post-war wrote for ‘Aeronautics’ under a pseudonym
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74784995@N00/5891435255/in/photostream

http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1616.0

Also the Flight Archive has several mentions ….

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/search.aspx?ArchiveSearchForm%24search=Ramsgate&ArchiveSearchForm%24fromYear=1934&ArchiveSearchForm%24toYear=1935&x=18&y=11

The airport (today)!

http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/Ramsgate.html