Thank you so much for posting this. There is something hauntingly evocative about these old WW2 sites, that for that brief time once throbbed with young life. I’m part of a group trying to maintain the memory of the three ex RAF airfields up on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. These are Dunkeswell - still active for light planes; Churchstanton, now an industrial site for offices etc , and Smeatharpe as it’s known to the locals, as it’s actually in that village, but better known as RAF Upottery, (and where the 101st Screaming Eagles - made famous in the tv series Band of Brothers - took off fir France for D day). We maintain two small museums, one at Dunkeswell in a Portacabin, and one just outside Smeatharpe in a restored original Nissan hut, and I know all too well how hard it is to retain anything of these great airfield projects. I still find it amazing how quickly sites were identified, farmers informed, work begun, and whole mini villages rolled out to provide accommodation, mess halls, and ancillary support - not to mention the miles of runway, peri track, hangers etc. I guess now that generation have pretty much died out, and as WW2 fades from public memory, it’s natural that things will fade away. It’s up to us to try to retain what we can, and at the very least record it for the future, ad you have done here. Well done - and thank you.
Hi Beth, That's great that you're maintaining the memory of the three airfields and the men that worked on them. It's a shame that most airfields and the personal, pilots are disappearing from the memory of the public as well as the next generation as well as the material items of airfields and the associated buildings with them. Would there be any chance of getting permission to film anything left of the three airfields or do you have any contact details you could put me in touch with. Thank James.
@@WorldWarMilitaria1942 James we have a website. I’d post the link here but YT have a habit of deleting links. Search for South West Airfields Heritage Trust (SWAHT for short). You’ll find all the information you need. It’s all run by volunteers but they usually get back pretty quickly and they will offer airfield tours by prior arrangement, so think something could be sorted, though some is out of bounds as it’s private land, and we always have to ask for permission to go on it. The chair, Brian, is especially good and sends out an excellent magazine with lots of info on it about all the south west airfields. In addition, and separately, few years ago there was a project to interview folks in the Dunkeswell area and video their impressions of what happened when the airfield was built. For example because the information about the land was only sent to the land owners, very often the tenant farmers didn’t find out they were losing their farms until almost the last minute, and the trauma of that was recorded. However the local children recalled the joy of Christmas parties with the USA personnel who gave them a great time. This all on line - it’s on the site run by the Blackdown Hills organisation - search for ‘Dunkeswell war stories’. You’ll find the videos all uploaded and on line.
Worked on the Hatton-Peterborough 42" gas pipeline in 1982. The contractor was Laing. Section 18 went through the SW perimeter track and the SW-NE runway, then on towards Lenton Lodge and Pickworth. I remember hundreds of scrap plant vehicles, (Nelson Green & Sons), parked either side of the N-S runway. One Sunday morning we heard the screaming sound of what we thought was a F1 engine. One of the lads said it was probably a 16 cylinder BRM engine as BRM were based near Bourne.
Many moons ago, I used to deliver car parts to the BRM racing workshop based on the airfield. I was there once when they were testing one of the race cars on the peri track.
A very interesting and thorough explore young man, good on you. As ever it pains me to see our historical sites used thusly but what can you do? Looking at the site on google maps/earth I think the only reason that there is a short stretch of runway left is because of all the junk vehicles parked on it. The same can be said of the "double spectacles" dispersal area. In the north-west of the site is the circle of track you walked around and it was very suggestive of a fuel dump though I can`t say for sure. If that is the case the little building you entered would have been the pump house, also suggested by the plinths on the floor.
Thanks very much, it is a shame that historical sites are being lost, I'll try and document the ones that are still surviving . Thanks for the info on the fuel dump and pump house, I did miss out where the T2 hangar location would of been I believe there was also a stop butt for testing aircraft guns I only had trainers on didn't fancy going across the muddy field I've covered pretty much all of it.
Hi thanks for watching and commenting, glad you found it helpful. It's a shame that the world war two vehicles including the duck are just left rotting.
Great video. Good photography, nice close ups of some of the vehicles. No shitty music drowning everything out. Damn good effort+++ (Did you get any hassle off the farmers/owners?)
Thank you so much for posting this. There is something hauntingly evocative about these old WW2 sites, that for that brief time once throbbed with young life. I’m part of a group trying to maintain the memory of the three ex RAF airfields up on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. These are Dunkeswell - still active for light planes; Churchstanton, now an industrial site for offices etc , and Smeatharpe as it’s known to the locals, as it’s actually in that village, but better known as RAF Upottery, (and where the 101st Screaming Eagles - made famous in the tv series Band of Brothers - took off fir France for D day). We maintain two small museums, one at Dunkeswell in a Portacabin, and one just outside Smeatharpe in a restored original Nissan hut, and I know all too well how hard it is to retain anything of these great airfield projects. I still find it amazing how quickly sites were identified, farmers informed, work begun, and whole mini villages rolled out to provide accommodation, mess halls, and ancillary support - not to mention the miles of runway, peri track, hangers etc. I guess now that generation have pretty much died out, and as WW2 fades from public memory, it’s natural that things will fade away. It’s up to us to try to retain what we can, and at the very least record it for the future, ad you have done here. Well done - and thank you.
Hi Beth, That's great that you're maintaining the memory of the three airfields and the men that worked on them. It's a shame that most airfields and the personal, pilots are disappearing from the memory of the public as well as the next generation as well as the material items of airfields and the associated buildings with them. Would there be any chance of getting permission to film anything left of the three airfields or do you have any contact details you could put me in touch with.
Thank James.
@@WorldWarMilitaria1942 James we have a website. I’d post the link here but YT have a habit of deleting links. Search for South West Airfields Heritage Trust (SWAHT for short). You’ll find all the information you need. It’s all run by volunteers but they usually get back pretty quickly and they will offer airfield tours by prior arrangement, so think something could be sorted, though some is out of bounds as it’s private land, and we always have to ask for permission to go on it. The chair, Brian, is especially good and sends out an excellent magazine with lots of info on it about all the south west airfields. In addition, and separately, few years ago there was a project to interview folks in the Dunkeswell area and video their impressions of what happened when the airfield was built. For example because the information about the land was only sent to the land owners, very often the tenant farmers didn’t find out they were losing their farms until almost the last minute, and the trauma of that was recorded. However the local children recalled the joy of Christmas parties with the USA personnel who gave them a great time. This all on line - it’s on the site run by the Blackdown Hills organisation - search for ‘Dunkeswell war stories’. You’ll find the videos all uploaded and on line.
Thank you Beth, Could I mention your name saying that you sent me over. I'll go and check out the website.
Worked on the Hatton-Peterborough 42" gas pipeline in 1982. The contractor was Laing. Section 18 went through the SW perimeter track and the SW-NE runway, then on towards Lenton Lodge and Pickworth. I remember hundreds of scrap plant vehicles, (Nelson Green & Sons), parked either side of the N-S runway.
One Sunday morning we heard the screaming sound of what we thought was a F1 engine. One of the lads said it was probably a 16 cylinder BRM engine as BRM were based near Bourne.
Hi Richard, thanks for sharing I think Wikipedia say that there was a racing team based there for a period of time.
Many moons ago, I used to deliver car parts to the BRM racing workshop based on the airfield. I was there once when they were testing one of the race cars on the peri track.
Hi, thank you for sharing it's always interesting to hear about people's stories.
A very interesting and thorough explore young man, good on you. As ever it pains me to see our historical sites used thusly but what can you do? Looking at the site on google maps/earth I think the only reason that there is a short stretch of runway left is because of all the junk vehicles parked on it. The same can be said of the "double spectacles" dispersal area. In the north-west of the site is the circle of track you walked around and it was very suggestive of a fuel dump though I can`t say for sure. If that is the case the little building you entered would have been the pump house, also suggested by the plinths on the floor.
Thanks very much, it is a shame that historical sites are being lost, I'll try and document the ones that are still surviving . Thanks for the info on the fuel dump and pump house, I did miss out where the T2 hangar location would of been I believe there was also a stop butt for testing aircraft guns I only had trainers on didn't fancy going across the muddy field I've covered pretty much all of it.
I live nearby and had a peek once, only the amphibious landing duck was recognisable to me so this vid is really helpful, cool
Hi thanks for watching and commenting, glad you found it helpful. It's a shame that the world war two vehicles including the duck are just left rotting.
Great video. Good photography, nice close ups of some of the vehicles. No shitty music drowning everything out. Damn good effort+++
(Did you get any hassle off the farmers/owners?)
Thanks very much glad you enjoyed it, we didn't see anyone it was dead quiet not even dog walkers in the nature reserve next to it.
Love the camera wy, looks like ghosts, very apt very sad.
Thank you for watching.
Looks like a WW2 Amphibious troop carrier called a DUCK.
Hi Michael that's right it's probably unsalvageable now to restore.
If this were left laid about round our way there is a certain community that would have any old scrap metal away in a trice!
Ah yes i know who your talking about, thanks for watching.