The list below was extracted from AIR 20/7260 and features a list of airfields that I have either not come across or their wartime use is sketchy. I know there are some that have been discussed on this forum, and I doubt this adds little other than it confirms they were requisitioned. Others may be aborted new airfields or early war ELGs. Some may have been used as scatter fields or by training units but not recorded or little used. I think there may be some ALG sites that were never built and possibly potential Class A ones. It is also possible that some were used for other purposes once requisitioned but retained the airfield connection to cause it to be on this list.
I haven't yet followed any of these up but I did check Scopwick Moor as it rang a bell, now was it Digby or Sealand? Anyway it was north of Digby airfield and since Digby was pre-war I can only guess that it was for an expansion proposal as it is far too close for a separate airfield.
Have fun and I await the replies, including my own
Consolidated Statement on the use of RAF Airfields March - May 1946
AIR 20/7260
All those below were listed as grass and were listed Requistioned and later De-Requisitioned unless otherwise noted
* Entries that were unreadable of partly obscured by a hole punch
AIRTH
86 acres de-reqn'd 16/7/1941
BALL HALL
De-reqn'd 11/11/1943
BALL HILL (Bath Racecourse)
De-reqn'd ??/7/1945
BIRDHAM
331 acres de-reqn'd 9/3/1943. Not proceeded with.
BOGLE BURN
236 acres de-reqn'd 3/2/1943
BRAUNCEWELL
Hiring was terminated 24/6/1944
BURFORD
135 acres
CAITMANS FARM
20 acres de-reqn'd 7/2/1943
CAIRN BEG
To be leased by hiring but camcelled 24/11/1945
COLD KIRBY
182 acres de-reqn'd 26/4/1946
CORSECOMBE
116 acres de-reqn'd 30/12/1942
CROSS KIRK
145 acres
DERSINGHAM
189 acres
FOREST FARM
225 acres
GREAT CASTERTON
148 acres
GREAT SHEFFORD
171 acres
HAROLDSTON WEST
113 acres
HARPLEY COMMON
151 acres
HATCHGATE
HATFIELD CHASE
HERONFIELD*
Noted as allocated to FTC
HIGHTREE FARM
To be de-reqn'd in 1946
HOCKWOLD
HYKEHAM
KIRKBY MALLORY (STAPLETON)
LIMEKILNS(SIDEHILL)
LISBURN (NI)
LITTLEWORTH
LOWER REEDING
LUDBOROUGH
MANNINGFORD
MARCROSS
MARSKE
MAXSTOKE
To be de-reqn'd in 1946
NORMANTON
NORTH STOKE
OLD SODBURY
OXNEY FARM
Purchased but handed back to WO
PLAINVILLE
PUSSEY
Transferred to MAP
RABURNFOOT
Could this be Burnfoot?
RAGDALE
Not noted as being the bombing range.
ROSEVIDNEY
SANDOWN
SANDRIDGE
SCOPWICK MOOR
SNELSTON
SOBERTON
SOLLAS*
De-reqn'd 1943
SOMERSHAM
De-reqn'd 19/2/1946
STURTON
TADCASTER
TAKELEY
TEHIDY
TEMPLE GUITING
Noted as allocated to FTC
TURKDENE
WAKEFIELD
WALLYS FIELD
Noted as allocated to FTC
WALTHAM ST LAWRENCE
Noted as allocated to FTC
WANSFORD
Noted as allocated to FTC and to be de-reqn'd.
WATERLOOVILLE
WEST LITTLETON DOWN
WHITE ACRE HALL
De-reqn'd March 1946
WHITTON MAWR
WHITWELL
WICK (ST BRIDES MAJOR)
WINCANTON
WINTERBOURNE STOKE
WINTERBOURNE THOMSON
WOLVERY
YEARNGILL
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
Nice one. Wasn't Hatfield Chase to become Lindholme and Plainville to become York (Clifton)? Pussey looks like a typo for Pusey (Oxon) didn't that become an the SLG at Bush Barn, or something like that around that way? Oh for some co-ordinates or corroborating detail. There are six Sturtons, all either Notts or Lincs and 24 Normantons, though I suspect the one near to Bottesford looks warmest. Keep digging.
Wild guess, but how about Brauncewell and Normanton being SLGs for Cranwell? This Normanton is 4 miles SW of Cranwell and there's a suitable strip of land visible on GE just to the East. The 1945 survey photos might give a clue. And Scopwick is not a million miles from Cranwell, either.
I recognise two of the names in the list as being in Cornwall:
Rosevidney, which is a Manor house and farm along a lane that runs parallel to the Paddington-Penzance mainline between St Erth and Crowlas. wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...grat=None&rgrat=None
Its possible the fields could have been a landing ground but I have never heard of it nor have any of the locals mentioned it to me when I was investigating the St Erth POW camp or the GPO/RSS wireless listening station in the village. It's possible with the Commandos in St Ives or the Yanks in Marazion/Penzance there was a landing strip but again I've heard nothing to suggest that.
Tehidy, which is now a country park where the large house used to be a TB sanatorium. wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...grat=None&rgrat=None
Its very close to the decoy site for RAF Portreath
Its possible it could have been utilised as an ELG for Portreath. The fields on the seaward side of the road were trenched in the summer of 1940 to prevent a landing taking place, although were filled in again later in the war in case anything from Portreath crash-landed, so could it refer to that? But locals refer to them as North Cliff rather than Tehidy which they see as the woods, farm & house. There were AA batteries at Carvannel Downs.
PS Before the new Sector Operations Room was built at Tregea (W of Portreath) it did operate for a while in a barn at Tehidy Barton which could be it. That was operational from 10th May 1941 to July 1943.
I have a feeling Plainville was mentioned in "White Rose Base" so will dig out my much marked copy. If some never became airfields I suspect they were either de-reqn'd at the time or after the war. Oddly there are no dates after the letter "C".
I will check the alternative names mentioned in the replies lists in case both names were listed and if so it is probably safe to assume they were different sites. As with a lot of these records it a source of constant frustration that maps or grid refs are not included, even a county would help.
Looking at Hatfield Chase and Lindholme, the Chase itself is a couple of miles to the north of the airfield and Lindholme is mentioned separately as purchased and the bulk of these were requisitioned. Was it a "K" decoy site?
I had the same feeling about Sollas, assuming I interpreted the hole punch correctly, and I think is was via a German Luftwaffe aerial photo. The same, I think, with Sandridge.
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
According to "White Rose Base" Plainville was an ALG for 58 Sqn's Whitleys in 1939/40. The last activity was 1941 when a Whitley crashed there (Z6660).
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
TURKDENE: Actually Turkdean. Located at SP 10860 18229. Site cleared of obstructions but Northleach used instead. Site left marked as ELG but no longer marked as such after 1944. RAF returned in 1946 to rebuild walls but work was abandoned due to extreme winter and work not finished. Incomplete walls still in place.
BURFORD: SP 24035 11619. Made up of several fields to the west of Burford school. No idea of it's use or life span.
The above are all from various official documents/field visits/local research I did. Grid Ref's are the approximate centres of the landing ground. Both Turkdean and Burford formed an inverted "L" shape.
Sollas
is mentioned lower down the page also photo below.
I think Haroldstone West and Marcross were covered in one of the Ivor Jones Trilogy of Welsh airfield. They seemed to have included a lot of airfields I had never heard of before. I suspect the Wick (St Brides Major) would also have been covered but I don't recall it.
Marcross
entry in Coflein states that it was a Q site originally and was used by US Army Cubs later
North Stoke
- Confusing as the entry for Ball Hill is also on Bath Racecourse
I like this game.
Bath Racecourse was used as an RLG for the Oxfords from Babdown Farm. I wouldn't have recognised it from the name Ball Hill. North Stoke was a larger site that would have included the racecourse. It was put up as one possible satellite for Lulsgate Bottom - a project that bit the dust in the December 1942 government review.
Birdham was an ALG prospect south of Chichester that was dropped due to drainage problems.
Might Lower Reeding have been a misprint Lower Beeding ( Sussex)?
Manningford is probably Mannningford Abbas, Wiltshire; a small field that was used as an RLG for Upavon.
I agree that Pussey should be Pusey, aka Bush Barn.
Sollas was a small pre-war landing ground on North Uist. Benbecula opened in 1944.
Somersham was little more that a farmer's field used by Lysanders to practice the sort of clandestine landings they performed in France for SOE.
Takeley is a name I heard used in the late 1940s for the airfield better known as Stansted.
Waltham St Lawrence has been discussed on this site in the past. Anything contributed by me or Peter Howarth is correct. Our article and site plan are in AR June 2013.
Wansford was probably Sibson.
I have a feeling that some of the other sites could have been SLGs.
When I have time, I will consult my trusty Bartholomew's Gazetteer to find the locations for some of the other places on the list but don't fancy my chances of finding Caitman's Farm.
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