Recommended Posts

  • Replies 92
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

My father was in the Auxiliary Air Force 504 Sqdn in the 30s which I think was based at Hucknall, since it was the county of Nottingham squadron. He did weekend training as an airframe rigger. They ha

It certainly does not seem it but it is now 42 years since the last Whitsun air display at Hucknall. The highlight of that show was the U S Navy's Blue Angels formation aerobatic team with their Phant

As you asked so nicely, and as I remembered that I do still have a Photobucket account...

Thanks Cliff Ton - that neatly shows what I meant, from Bulwell Wood Hall (now a farm) to the building marked 306.1. It was bisected by the runway when the airfield was extended, so is no longer a through route. Now that the runway has closed, it would be nice if it could be resurrected.

The map also shows an old bridleway further west, from Walkers Thicket to BM 350.7 that must have been closed too. The current footpath is more or less where the mineral railway runs on the map, also the route of the M1.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have happy memories of Whit holiday Air Shows when I was little. Not to mention the noise coming from testing jet engines when the wind blew it my way.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I have happy memories too of Whit Moday air display - I grew up in Huchnall, my maternal grandparent's lived in Westville, as children we used to stand on the top of the old air raid shelter in the large garden ( which was lifted and made in to a storage hut) and see onto the airfield........All the relatives used to be there and it was a great day, grandma always put on a good spead and the weather always seemed good - holds happy memorirs for me................

  • Upvote 3
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

I too have fond memories of Air displays at Hucknall aerodrome. Wasn't there a lot of Polish Air Force stationed there during WWII?

One visit that stands out would be about 1960. Our dad took us to Nottingham Victoria to catch the train to Hucknall Central but being air display day the train was heaving. There must have been no carriages spare because they coupled a cattle truck onto the back of the train and herded those of us that were left on the platform into the truck. We thought we would have to travel all the way like this when someone came and moved us all off again. In the end we had to stand shoulder to shoulder in the carriage corridor like sardines in a can. It would have been a nightmare if there had been a crash. We made our way home by bus.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, the Poles were stationed at Hucknall throughout the war. Initially, No.16 (Polish)Service Flying Training School was there with Fairey Battle aircraft - some seen in the sneaky photo (below)taken from Watnall Road in 1940. Then it became No.25 (Polish) Elementary Flying Training School with Tiger Moths. Relief landing grounds were at Papplewick Moor (site of a proposed WW1 aerodrome) and Blidworth. The latter was also an Aircraft Storage Unit. There are some Polish airmen graves in Hucknall cemetery.

Newton was also a large Polish Air Force training base. Here it had Oxfords, Masters and Harvards. Tollerton was its relief landing ground.

scan%208_zpsj9wxsjxk.jpg

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

I remember the air displays at RAF Newton during the 50s when a cardboard castle would be bombed, plenty of WW11 aircraft were around and it was exciting to see the newly introduced Hunter do its bit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Chulla: By the late 1960s RAF Newton had become "RAF 9SofTT Newton". A training school for electricians. I did my LAC and JT training there.

The station was nicknamed "Stalag Luft 9" by the trainees, due to it's strict discipline regime at that time.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well the old Hucknall I grew up in from 1945 onwards, as I knew it has almost gone.......................Now the Airfield is being dug up and another housing estate being built, makes me feel sad.........I can remember not to long ago all around the Misk Hills where we used to walk and play is now houses and the old rec off the Connery, where the fair came twice a year has also gone, the Sunday evening walks, when we were kids, in the sunmer around Linby and Papplewick's country lanes with family and friends, are all housing estates now...........(we used to earn pocket money Potatoe Picking in those fields)........The Co-op on the Market Square is flats and old factories too, the old schools pulled down - my family of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparent's, neighbours, friends etc are all gone as well, I have such happy memories from those day, not the same place anymore when I visit, nothing left for me.................The old Hucknall will soon just be a distant memory for me............Makes me feel very nostalgic and old.... :(

Link to post
Share on other sites

#39. Compo. RAF Newton was one of the pre-war airfields built during the expansion programme. It had permanent hangars, not the sheet-metal Bellman type. I think I am correct in saying that it was the only expansion airfield that did not have hard runways. I made my second flight from there, in an Anson, when I was in the ATC. Although mainly a training airfield it was the home of a bomber squadron earlier in the war.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

There was a maintenance unit at Newton My father was 58MU and stationed there for a while. 1948-50 ish.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

58 Maintenance Unit started out at Newark - its black Bellman hangar was evident until recent times (is it still there, near the railway station?). It then moved to Skellingthorpe airfield near Lincoln and then to Newton in 1950. After that it moved away from the area.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Chulla: By the late 1960s RAF Newton had become "RAF 9SofTT Newton". A training school for electricians. I did my LAC and JT training there.

The station was nicknamed "Stalag Luft 9" by the trainees, due to it's strict discipline regime at that time.

I did the same courses in the 60s plus a management and instructional techniques course later on. On my last visit they had police dogs kennelled there. My seeing the world started off in an odd way. Basic training at Swinderby; at Syerston to await a Mechs course then Newton itself. I got nearer home as the time went on.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

It probably moved to Little Rissington. Newton and Little Ris. are the only two places I remember him talking about. I can't remember now whether or not he was a conscript or national service, I don't know when it changed. He was out the RAF and working at Field Aircraft Services at Tollerton by 1951 for sure, and was there a long time. Another plus for national service (if that's what it was). Before he went in the RAF he was a bread van drivers assistant - when he came out he was a fully qualified airframe engineer!

Link to post
Share on other sites

#45. It moved to Honington in Suffolk, and finally to Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Just had a look in the photo album. He was at Little Rissington while working for Fields in 1953. I can't remember where else he was. I have got photos of him and the gang digging Meteors out of the ground which they did frequently. I shall have to see if I can find them.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...

It certainly does not seem it but it is now 42 years since the last Whitsun air display at Hucknall. The highlight of that show was the U S Navy's Blue Angels formation aerobatic team with their Phantoms. The Chullas attended - missus and Barbara seen here

Hucknall%20May%201973_zpsjphxw2qd.jpg

  • Upvote 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...