Royal Air Force Ashbourne, or more simply RAF Ashbourne, is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

located approximately south-east of the town of Ashbourne,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was opened on 12 June 1942, before closing on 23 August 1954.

Construction

Construction of the airfield began in late 1941 to Class-A bomber standards comprising three paved runways (concrete and woodchip surface) in an "leaning A" formation, 30 "frying-pan" style hard standings, four T2

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s, a control tower and assorted technical buildings. Although at

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

the altitude of the area was above the ceiling height for construction of airfields, the necessity of defensive installations during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

overrode this condition.

History

Ashbourne was home to

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium/heavy bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the World W ...

Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle was a twin-engine military transport aircraft, transport aircraft developed by the British aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth and primarily produced by Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom#Hawksley, A.W ...

and

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. ...

aircraft. Originally planned as a satellite installation of

RAF Seighford Royal Air Force Seighford or more simply RAF Seighford is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located northwest of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. The site was opened as a satellite/relief landing ground for RAF Hixon, to the east. ...

for

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

bombers, due to the unsuitability of altitude and local weather it was relegated to a training role with its own satellite of RAF Darley Moor. Post war it was used for storage and maintenance of ordnance where the bombs were stored along the runways.

Based units

There were three small units in operation based at Ashbourne: * Relief Landing Ground for No. 18 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF (March 1945) * No. 42 Operational Training Unit RAF (OTU) (October 1943) * No. 81 OTU (July 1942 – January 1944) * Sub site of No. 28 Maintenance Unit RAF (May 1945 – August 1954)

Current use

The western half of the site is now an industrial estate, appropriately named Airfield Industrial Estate. The northern half has been used by JCB as a test and demonstration ground for various earth moving products but is now deserted. The north western part of the airfield is now a housing estate. On the South-East side, part of one runway remains usable, and a 2017 document mentioned 5 aeroplanes based.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – No 42 Operational Training Unit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashbourne Royal Air Force stations in Derbyshire Military units and formations established in 1942 Military units and formations disestablished in 1954