Scrapyard Photos; Any More?

From 1956 to 1960 I was quite an avid spotter. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera that worked but here is a photo one of my friends took of me standing on the remains of Viscount G-ALWE at Coley’s Scrapyard in Hanworth/Hounslow.
I also used to go to the Sandhurst Garage in Sandhurst near Camberley who also dealt in scrapped aircraft during that period. They had many Harvards there and I still have a record of the serial numbers. I guess I may have got the name wrong but has anybody any more info on this scrapyard?
Apart from Coley’s which I visited regularly (we used to sneak in over the fence from the side which backed onto the River Crane) I also recall making quite a few trips to Eyre’s Smelting Works in Mitcham.
If anybody is interested I still have details of all the registrations. I still have a couple of pieces of Fabric which I took from Harvard EZ259 in March 1960. It was among a number of other Harvards but I was surprised to find it has now been restored.
I wonder if anybody has any photos of these scrapyards particularly any taken between 1957 and 1961.
Ian

Information is history. If history is not disseminated, it will be lost to future generations. So if you’ll forgive the sermon, the upshot is that all forum users would be very grateful to see your notes of the aircraft in the various scrapyards in the late 1950s. So do please post details of the registrations – and any other information about – the aircraft that your saw there at that time.

More Scrapyards

From 1956 to 1960 I was quite an avid spotter. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera that worked but here is a photo one of my friends took of me standing on the remains of Viscount G-ALWE at Coley’s Scrapyard in Hanworth/Hounslow.
I also used to go to the Sandhurst Garage in Sandhurst near Camberley who also dealt in scrapped aircraft during that period. They had many Harvards there and I still have a record of the serial numbers. I guess I may have got the name wrong but has anybody any more info on this scrapyard?
Apart from Coley’s which I visited regularly (we used to sneak in over the fence from the side which backed onto the River Crane) I also recall making quite a few trips to Eyre’s Smelting Works in Mitcham.
If anybody is interested I still have details of all the registrations. I still have a couple of pieces of Fabric which I took from Harvard EZ259 in March 1960. It was among a number of other Harvards but I was surprised to find it has now been restored.
I wonder if anybody has any photos of these scrapyards particularly any taken between 1957 and 1961.
Ian

Re; the Comet at St Mawgan. I first saw the nose on the dump in 1990. I have a photo somewhere. There was a truck and some people around it. So it looked as though it may have just arrived on the dump.

A short while later it was moved. I think the fuselage appeared around the same time. The Canberra T4was scrapped about 1992 IIRC along with the SC9 and a Nimrod MR2. The Shackleton, Fuselage section, Victor and Harrier GR3 survived a bit longer and were broken up in the late 1990s if I remember correctly.

Here are some pictures I took at NEAM earlier this year

Not sure on the identity of the Balliol, shame its outside!

The tail is off a Firefly and the cockpit was indoors and I didn’t have access to it for pics.

TSR2 question

What site had the TSR2 fuselages? I recall seeing a photo next to a pile of Hunters

The B A Taylor scrapyard in Great Bridge (near West Bromwich) had some TSR2 airframe parts :eek:, around the same time that a pile of RCAF F86s were being scrapped…

Birmingham Harvards

Whilst looking for something else, I came across this photo from my Harvard collection. All that it says on the back is ‘Elmdon 1956’. Not sure where I got this from, think if my memory serves me was from a Jumble Sale years ago!

Martin

Hitchin tornados

Wow thats insane, Could there not have been more of a spares recovery job done? Look at the hydraulic actuators in the rear fuselage?

More from the Mycroft Estate massacre, the shiny Shackleton was WB847…

Tried clicking onto your link but cant get it to work?

Peter, try the following:

http://www.aeroreg.co.uk/

After entering the site click on ‘Hitchin Tornado’ from the menu on the LH side.

Believe the site has seen significant traffic over the past day or so – hence it may be slow to respond.

JAGx204 link doesnt work?

Tried clicking onto your link but cant get it to work?

Scrapping Halifaxes

Cees,

I had this document on my hard drive, but I have provided the link to the PDF so you can see for yourself. If you look at Brackla, there is a small photograph showing scores of Halifaxes waiting for the scrapman’s torch. Hope you don’t cry….! 😉

Brackla was a small airfield to the SW Nairn, in North East Scotland, and would be about 20 miles away from RAF Kinloss. There’s absolutely nothing left of the airfield now…

Regards,
Scotty

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/bridgeford/forres/Aviation/Moray%20Aviation%20Trail.pdf

Williamsons & Sons Hitchin – Oct 2007

In an era when mass scrappings are near unheard of here’s some soon to be extinct Tornado F3’s taken this week !

Somehow the pictures remind me of those earlier evocative pictures posted by mark 12 and others, when all the scrapyards were full of RAF aircraft.

http://90.197.158.232/aeroreg/pictures/tonka/index.html

All are ex St Athan and flew back to the UK in 2004 after use by the Italian Air Force. Nice to see our tax monies used to their full value……:mad:

Are there any surviving photograhps taken just after the war showing the rows and rows of redundant British aircraft in the UK or the Desert.

I remember seing a pic in an old flypast issue of a desert area where Warwicks and Wellingtons were lined up to be scrapped. Did the scrapping in northern africa take place in a similar way? I read stories that airframes were broken up, buried and acid poured over them. Are these sites still around and what can be found there?

Any info?

Cheers

Cees

row of Buccs

Thats a sad sight! Look at the reuseable landing gear and otherspares….:eek:

Williamson’s yard in central Elgin around 1992 or so.

RH746

Here’s the picture we have on our site of the Kemble Brigand. As already said ‘not a pretty site’ but its recovery is a story in itself !

Benghazi 1943

Some interesting Italian and German stuff abandoned in Benghazi and photographed in 1943 by Tony Tubbenhauer, a resident RAAF 203 Sqd Baltimore pilot.
Especially noteworthy are two views of an interesting SM79. This is not the usual hunchbacked bomber version, but an SM79T “Atlantici” of which three were used on the famous flight from Rome to Rio in January 1938. The wording on the fuselage is: ALA LITTORIA S.A. LINEE ATLANTICHE
This is probably I-ALAN, used for regular flights between Italy and Brazil, mostly for mail. In May-June 1940 it was impressed in military service, still in civil markings, for flights in the Mediterranean area and to Abyssinia. On July 16 1940, en route to Abyssinia, it aborted take off at Benghazi and the undercarriage collapsed. British troops found the wreck in February 1941.

http://l.garey.googlepages.com/benghazigraveyard

I photographed these Belgian AF NF11s at Middelkerke on 3/8/59. The Belgian civil registration was painted crudely in yellow on the fins. The front one is OO-ARO. The whole batch was (civil reg, military serial, code, plus ex RAF serial):

OO-ARO EN-18, ND-F. (WD661)
OO-ARP EN-21, ND-J. (WD741)
OO-ARQ EN-16, ND-D. (WD594)
OO-ARR EN-2, KT-E. (WD775)
OO-ARS EN-6, KT-W. (WD730)
OO-ARW EN-5, KT-S. (WD729)
OO-ARX EN-11, KT-T. (WD735)

NF12 WS686 at Northolt 16/7/1959

Karachi dump

In the scrap dump next to the Pakistan AF Museum in Karachi are several interesting aircraft. See some pictures on my site http://l.garey.googlepages.com/pakistanairforcemuseum