Yet Another Mystery Airfield

I'm just taking people's word for it that it IS a Watch Office...it's so grainy and blurry it could be almost anything - good luck with this one

CJH;165114 wrote:

I'm just taking people's word for it that it IS a Watch Office...it's so grainy and blurry it could be almost anything - good luck with this one

You can click on it twice to make the picture (One with the Mini) bigger.
As kids we were often on Worminghall - Oakley airfield on our bikes, but can't honestly say that I remember seeing the Control Tower, though we may well have done. But which type was it ? I've never seen a photograph of it. Be nice to know that it was Wornal airfield

Peter wrote:

I did think of Gaydon but that would have been around the time it closed! I did have a list of airfields connected to the motor industry and I'm sure it was on the web but that was years ago. So what other airfields might BL have used? Nuneaton maybe?

Definitely not Nuneaton.

I did think perhaps it may be Saltby's earlier box type tower during the period when the airfield was used for various auto sport related activities but probably not.

I read on a mini website that BL did their testing at either MIRA (Nuneaton) or a disused airfield in Oxfordshire. It didn't specify which. This doesn't mean anything of course as car companies could take their cars anywhere for photo shoots and not necessarily near where they were made or tested.

They may, for example, have wanted to picture their cars with the Scottish mountains in the background as well as on an airfield. The two shoots would be combined and the car transporter would have stopped on the way north or south. This is a fairly unlikely scenario, but not impossible. So don't limit your search around Birmingham.

By the way, considering the slogan above the picture, might they have used an actual WWII fighter station for authenticity?

airfields wrote:

You can click on it twice to make the picture (One with the Mini) bigger.
As kids we were often on Worminghall - Oakley airfield on our bikes, but can't honestly say that I remember seeing the Control Tower, though we may well have done. But which type was it ? I've never seen a photograph of it. Be nice to know that it was Wornal airfield

[IMG]/community/165143=24859-RAF Oakley BCC 9493.jpg[/img]

Paul ~ using the BCC photo if you look underneath the ' n ' in Unlock and above the ' n ' in Buckinghamshire's was the location for the control tower watch office etc.

I believe it was one of the first structures to be demolished when the land was returned in farming during the early 1950's.

My recollection from the time had been riding down the peri-track with the T2 hanger on the left and the CT/WO on the right down to the gun alignment butts to recover items from the sand ( My Gressham Flier three wheeler had a metal box on the back that carried the digging tools and also brought back the metal finds )

Bigbear comment has reminded me that the BMC export brochure photographs for MG1100 were taken in the Cowley Morris showroom using large back drops showing a USA mountain picture.

I believe that the Mini photographer may have been standing on the Hales Green Village Road off of the A515 looking North up the runway with the CT/WO behind the post war growth of trees. ( The A515 would have been behind the trees at the rear of the CT/WO if I'm in the right location ) My failing memory is that the airfield was completely masked from the main road by trees at the time.

It was during my 1966 visit that I came across RAF Lichfield by taking the wrong turning and heard about the Fauld explosion for the first time.

A detailed plan of the airfields would soon prove my memory inaccurate which I already suspect ( Know )

Bigbear;165133 wrote:

I read on a mini website that BL did their testing at either MIRA (Nuneaton) or a disused airfield in Oxfordshire. It didn't specify which. This doesn't mean anything of course as car companies could take their cars anywhere for photo shoots and not necessarily near where they were made or tested.

Off topic. ! But I had to collect a 3 piece suite from Farringdon, take it to Liverpool to get it photographed in a studio then return it to Thame :confused: I could have taken the pictures just as good !!

By the way, considering the slogan above the picture, might they have used an actual WWII fighter station for authenticity?

In contradiction to what I've said above. Unless they were as interested as we are I suppose any old airfield would be suitable.....the closest.

airfields wrote:

In contradiction to what I've said above. Unless they were as interested as we are I suppose any old airfield would be suitable.....the closest.

This is unfortunately true...look at the films that have anachronisms left right and center...after all...an airfield is an airfield - right.....authenticity - who cares

but then its fun to spot the anachronisms

Harboda77;165143 wrote:

[IMG]/community/165143=24859-RAF Oakley BCC 9493.jpg[/img]

Paul ~ using the BCC photo if you look underneath the ' n ' in Unlock and above the ' n ' in Buckinghamshire's was the location for the control tower watch office etc.

I believe it was one of the first structures to be demolished when the land was returned in farming during the early 1950's.

Thanks for that Dave. I did think that the tower would be in that curve somewhere. Such a shame that it was destroyed unnecessarily !! Seem to remember the firing butts though, plus the other buildings that were around at that time from 1967 onwards. Happy days

BMC, including the Abingdon Competitions Department, used Finmere fairly regularly.

Mount Farm? Unusual design of tower M/4109/41, but it may have gone by the time this picture was taken.