By: "1stThings1st" - 27th February 2004 at 18:04
By: TempestV - 27th February 2004 at 10:07
Apparently you need special permission/ground survey to dig deeper than 2ft on North Weald airfield. It was bombed fairly heavily. If it ever becomes a housing development, then the clear-up work could be considerable!!
To my knowledge, the aircraft crashes and fire dumps on the airfield have never been dug/found.
By: Firebird - 27th February 2004 at 09:01
Originally posted by Firebird
but if you look on an A-Z or mutli-map etc. of this estate (to the east of the country park area featured on the TV),
Doh…..of course meant to west of the countryside park……:o
The dig of the ‘E’ pens reminded me of the times I spent as a kid ‘playing war games’ in the old ‘E’ pen shelters at Kenley in the late ’60’s/early 70’s…….the ones in fact that appear in that famous retouched German photo taken by one of the Do17’s on the low level raid on Kenley on 18th August 1940….:D
By: EN830 - 27th February 2004 at 08:52
Originally posted by mmitch
The item in the programme about the threat of invasion and the airfields defences set me wondering about mines etc.
Gravesend airfield had ‘pipe mines’ installed about 6′ or deeper underground. In the event of being overun they would be detonated and leave the field cratered and useless. Most of the mines were removed and a large housing estate built on it in the 1950s.
In the late 80s when more buildings were erected, some more mines were found. It took a bomb disposal team using remote controlled JCBs more than a week to clear them. One detonated. several hundred people had to leave their homes each day. I wonder if they found them all at Hornchurch. 🙁
mmitch.
When Eastleigh was resufaced a couple of years ago, they found several pipe mines which had to be de-commissioned.
By: mmitch - 27th February 2004 at 08:43
The item in the programme about the threat of invasion and the airfields defences set me wondering about mines etc.
Gravesend airfield had ‘pipe mines’ installed about 6′ or deeper underground. In the event of being overun they would be detonated and leave the field cratered and useless. Most of the mines were removed and a large housing estate built on it in the 1950s.
In the late 80s when more buildings were erected, some more mines were found. It took a bomb disposal team using remote controlled JCBs more than a week to clear them. One detonated. several hundred people had to leave their homes each day. I wonder if they found them all at Hornchurch. 🙁
mmitch.
By: TempestV - 27th February 2004 at 08:28
Fascinating stuff!
I spent my youth messing around with planes at north weald, in the 80’s. I was amazed at the items we found that were left over from WW2, littered around the airfield, without us even looking particularly hard! Especially as the site was only de-comissioned in the late 60’s.
In the programme, they found the contents of a medical kit, and half a pilots goggle, and live ammo.
My collection of North Weald stuff includes an electrical connector from a rocket rail, 1ft of spitfire mainspar, avon turbine blades from a crashed 111sqn hunter, several aircraft oil and fuel tank screw caps, and several bullet shells.
By: Firebird - 27th February 2004 at 08:04
Originally posted by Bob
Interesting programme and I have to wonder how long before Hornchurch disappears under housing estates!!
A lot of Hornchurch airfield, I believe, the main airfield area of hangers, mess buildings etc., has already disappeared under a housing estate many years ago, but if you look on an A-Z or mutli-map etc. of this estate (to the east of the country park area featured on the TV), you will notice a link to the past was maintained in the naming of the new roads of the estate, such as other airfield names like, Northolt Way, Duxford Close, Coltishall Rd., Tangemere Cres., etc.
But more importantly, it’s the road names such as Dowding Way, Park Lane, Mungo-Park Rd., Deere Ave., Stapleton Close, Kingaby Gdns., Bader Way., Gillam Way, Malan Square, Finucane Gdns., Tuck Rd., and Kilmartin Way etc that strike a chord….:)
By: Bob - 26th February 2004 at 20:41
Interesting programme and I have to wonder how long before Hornchurch disappears under housing estates!!
By: 334_Pegasus - 26th February 2004 at 15:38
Thanks a lot! Good thing some of the nice programs you guys get are on BBC2 so us Dutchies can watch em as well. 🙂
By: Col. Gibbon - 26th February 2004 at 15:26
Thanks for the info, I’ll be watching!:)
By: Firebird - 26th February 2004 at 14:35
This could be quite promising actually, from the description in todays paper.
Two Men In A Trench
New Series. Archaelogists Tony Pollard and Neil Oliver carry out detailled studies of British battlegrounds, beginning with a visit to Essex to uncover the lost site of RAF Hornchurch, an airbase that played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain.
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February 26, 2004 at 9:15 am