Cowden Range

Hello to all
I have been a member on here for quite some time. I am trying to source the History of Cowden Range.
Cowden started life as farmland along the East Yorkshire coast. The land was requisitioned pre WW2 for an Army Tank range, they fired at static targets, and moving targets.
The range I believe was acquired about 1938. During the War years many different units trained on there. Not only Tanks but Artillery, Mortars, Grenades, and small arms.
Some time in the 50`s the range became joint used by the Army and the RAF. Then in 1959 the RAF took over completely and it became RAF COWDEN AWR. They had 3 Land Targets and 2 Sea Targets. 2 Land targets where bombs and rockets. The third was a strafing range, originally 20mm then becoming 30mm in later years. There is so much more History to this site. Any help would much be appreciated, I do have some plans and air photos.

During my detachment to Northern Radar in 1973, I can only remember Cowden becoming active for aircraft on one occasion.
I'm not sure if it had a 'control tower' and tracking equipment like (for instance) Holbeach but I do remember a Sergeant being detailed to 'operate' the range from one of the radar consoles at Northern (Lindhome); I think this just entailed keeping a log of the aircraft which used it.

Thank you for your post,very enlightening on a few area`s.

Morning , yes know all to well about the ongoing EOD situation at Cowden. A little bit about me back in the 80`s I was temporary Range Warden at RAF Cowden whilst it was an active AWR. Then quite a few years later joined 5131 BD SQN as part of the clearance team attempting to clear Cowden. 10yrs we where there, average tonnage cleared a year was 160 tonnes. Govt cut backs ended that and many other sites. The site is to be handed to Yorkshire Wildlife,as a conservation area. Due to the large amount of munitions buried. Any more info please message

Hello Folks. Long time no visit.

I v. well recall using Cowden Range during my training on Phantoms c. 1973 (in the Good Old Days when they were strike/ground-attack). Typically up to 4 Phantoms would get airborne from Coningsby, transit to Cowden and hog the range for a booked 30 min slot, everyone playing follow-my-leader round a roughly rectangular circuit, and having at the bombing targets and gun firing panels. The targets were over land but very close to the coast.

There was indeed an 'air traffic control' tower, controlled by god (= an air traffic controller a.k.a. the Range Safety Officer - RSO) and 'spotters' spread around the area so they took several bearings on the 'smoke and flash' bombs when they landed, combined the resulting bearings in the tower and the RSO transmitted a score to the aircraft, e.g "20 feet at 12" (o'clock, i.e. an overshoot). If the gods were on your side, it might be 'Delta Hotel' (direct hit). If you were naughty (typically going below minimum safe height, especially when firing the gun), the RSO would send you home in disgrace. Hard rules applied.

There was also a 'hard' target offshore (possibly a ship, I can't recall) used for 'strike' bombing, i.e. simulated nukes. Typically this was used by the Buccaneers and F111s, at night and using the aircraft radar for aiming. The range was used in the same way by other RAF ground-attack units, e.g. Buccaneers and Harriers. Also by USAF units from Suffolk. On exercises, aircraft might be sent across the pond from Germany.

ISTR the range was still operational in the early 1980s as we gave them a courtesy call in passing. Such fun.

Jim Nottingham