RNAS Arbroath HMS Condor 1993 Revisited
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- RNAS Arbroath - HMS Condor is still an active military base and no attempt should be made to enter or photograph without first prior permission.
These pictures were taken back in 1993 during a visit. A couple of aerial shots were taken a couple of years earlier.
Arbroath is a station with a long and distinguished career and continuously active since WW2. This is and was a very important station that is often overlooked by historians, unlike other stations south of the border.
Many of the wartime buildings have now gone to make way for modern and more comfortable, health & safety conscious designs.
Many of these pictures have already appeared in one of my books on the subject of WW2 "airfield architecture". If you would like more information or would like to purchase my books, please go to ebay and search "British Airfield Buildings of the Second world War". Or contact me at gijock@btinternet.com
Only I have a stock of new copies of both Vol 1 and 2.
Please subscribe to my channel and watch out for many more "stations revisited" slideshows coming here on youtube in the coming months.
Graham Buchan Innes
Great to see thanks! I learned to fly gliders there and remember the buildings well.
Many on the airfield side buildings are still there and of course in use by the Royal Marines, as they were when I got permission to photograph them. Most of the other buildings have been bulldozed to make way for new accommodation etc. Glad it brought some memories back.
Trained there in 1967 when it was the navy's air engineering school .changed a lot .
A lot has changed since I took those pics. Many new replacement buildings. Many just bulldozed.
Spent time here trade training, after Ganges, samcos, killick armourers course
Appears like the original Maycrete and timber service buildings were replaced with brick to very similar, if not identical design.
Most of the timber buildings are now gone along with many of the prefabricated structures. Most of the buildings in the video, ie parachute store, gymnasium, squadron offices, latrines etc are in fact the original brick, although many of the original buildings have been rendered ie sick bay etc. All the synthetic training buildings were also of brick.
@@GrahamInnes1 Thank you for the information.
For some unknown reason (other than being brought up at various wartime RAF bases as a child) I have always held a deep fascination with these temporary structures, so I follow your videos, and others avidly. Regards the original brick buildings at Arbroath, I am curious to know why they were built differently and more substantially to the norm. I have visited RNAS St Merryn (HMS Vulture) in Cornwall and as I remember, the buildings there were the standard maycrete construction suggesting brick built is not exclusive to RN airfields. Or am I wrong?
@@maxwellfan55 Planning & construction at Arbroath, like some other RN airfields was started 1939. So real austerity hadn't quite kicked in. Many of these naval airfields had their main buildings of brick or temporary brick. It is also true to say that they were not built as "temporary" stations. There were later temporary Naval airfields. At Arbroath, many of the more austere designs were added as the war progressed and the need for more and more accommodation grew. The design life of "Nissen" , "Seco", "Laing", "AM Timber" etc, was very short. You can only tart them up as it were for so long. Hence, when I visited in the 90's, really the only buildings that had survived in numbers, in near original state were of brick or "temporary brick". Needless to say, the steel hangars have survived. Excepting of course the Blister hangars. They did not fair as well as they were open at the ends to the east coast elements.
If you zoom in on google maps, you can see clearly how modern accommodation has taken over entirely where the original prefabricated accommodation was.
Glad you are enjoying the slideshows, honestly, I have only started. It is so time consuming to scan in each photograph.
Graham
Alot of these buildings look similar or are exactly like the buildings at hms jackdaw (rnas crail) which is weird for me to see having been to hms jackdaw alot. It's also helped me name some of the building as the ones at hms jackdaw are in slightly worse condition. I can tell you that the control tower would've had a garage for an ambulance or a fire truck. The building with the ?looks like a decontamination unit. There are a few buildings here that aren't at hms jackdaw but what hms jackdaw has, that's not here, is a torpedo trainer which is very cool. Are you allowed to walk through here or is it all closed off or is it private property?
Glad you found it useful. Yes, not sure if Arbroath had a torpedo trainer. Of course many buildings had gone when I went round there.
You will not be able to walk round there. It is still an active RN Marine base and I got permission back then when security was not such an issue. I did use some of the pictures taken at Arbroath in my earlier book.
Many of the buildings were standard Naval design and could be seen right across the country.
I can see condor out my window
My brother-in-law was a PO Armourer there for many years. I sometimes wonder if he knew J. K. Rowling, he was there at the same time she was!
What did she do there?
@@GrahamInnes1 She was in the WRNS, She met her husband on the Arbroath train station platform.
@@bobpert4030 lucky guy! He could never have imagined how much cash was coming his way. Or did it nof last?
@@GrahamInnes1 Darn I misremembered her history! It was her mother (Ann Volant) that was at RNS Condor, not her! Her mother met her father (Peter Rowling) there! Her first marriage was abusive and that is how they split.
@@bobpert4030I know the feeling. No worries.