RNAS Pulham (later RAF Pulham) was a
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...
(RNAS) airship station, near
Pulham St Mary, south of
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
, England. Though land was purchased by the
Admiralty in 1912 the site was not operational until 1915. From 1918 to 1958, the unit was a
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 ...
establishment. The land today is in private ownership, and little remains above ground.
History
Pulham was one of the main British airship stations, with more than 3,000 men on the base at the end of the First World War. Initially it was used for airships that operated patrols over the North Sea (such as the
Coastal
A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...
and
SS types) until their areas were taken over by seaplanes.
The
R34 landed at RNAS Pulham to complete the first two-way flown crossing of the Atlantic in July 1919.
After the loss of the
R101
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was d ...
in 1930 and the end of British airships, the station was moved on to a care and maintenance basis.
In its heyday Pulham had its own
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
plant, one small and two large airship sheds (one was later moved to
Cardington base in 1930, the other was scrapped in 1948) and a permanent mooring mast.
During World War II, Pulham Air Station was used as an aircraft salvage yard. The
RAF used the site for storage and Maintenance Unit work until closure in 1958.
Archives
The Pennoyer Centre in Pulham St Mary holds an extensive archive of photographs and memorabilia relating to the Air Station.
See also
*
RNAS Howden
RNAS Howden (later RAF Howden) was an airship station near the town of Howden south-east of York, England.
History
It was opened in March 1916 to cover the East Coast ports shipping from attacks by German U-boats during the World War I, Fir ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
{{Commons category inline
British Pathe film reel showing R33 taking off from PulhamBritish Pathe film reel showing R36 landing at Pulham
Pulham
Pulham is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, southeast of Sherborne. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had 105 dwellings, 103 households and a population of 269.
...
Pulham
Pulham is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, southeast of Sherborne. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had 105 dwellings, 103 households and a population of 269.
...
Pulham St Mary