Tranwell Airfield is a former airfield located southwest of Morpeth and north west of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, Tyne and Wear, England. The former airfield is the site of the former Royal Air Force Station Morpeth or simply RAF Morpeth which was an air gunnery school and was home to

No. 80 (French) Operational Training Unit RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, (also represented as Nº, No̱, No., or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, the ...

. Today the site has reverted to agriculture although several wartime buildings remain and are used for storage. Parts of the hard standings also survive and are used for a

car boot sale Car boot sales or boot fairs are a form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. They are popular in the United Kingdom, where they are often referred to simply as 'car boots'. Some scientific ...

every Sunday.

History

The airfield initially housed No. 4 Air Gunnery School (4 AGS). Accommodation was in 10 dispersal sites to the north and east of the airfield near Tranwell village and The Whitehouse Centre (post-war this became a children's hospital). The main aircraft used during its early existence for teaching air gunners was the unpopular

Blackburn Botha The Blackburn B.26 Botha was a four-seat reconnaissance and torpedo bomber. It was produced by the British aviation company Blackburn Aircraft at its factories at Brough and Dumbarton. The Botha was developed during the mid 1930s in response ...

, which was very heavy and under-powered, often taking the whole of the runway to get airborne. Following several crashes and collisions, it was eventually replaced with the

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), R ...

. Most of the air gunnery practice occurred off shore at

Druridge Bay Druridge Bay is a long bay on the North Sea in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south. Druridge Bay Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of D ...

where several of the original wartime structures still exist at the National Trust site, and flew between Newbiggin by the Sea and Coquet Island near Amble. Many of the airmen who flew here were Polish and several settled in the Morpeth area following the war. A large number of Polish casualties including airmen from the airfield are buried in the graveyard of St Mary's Church, Morpeth. Other units included *

No. 72 Squadron RAF Number 72 (Fighter) Squadron of the Royal Air Force is a training squadron that is currently based at RAF Valley using the Beechcraft Texan T1 to deliver Basic Fast Jet Training (BFJT). No. 72 Squadron started life in 1917 supporting the Br ...

* No. 261 Maintenance Unit RAF * Newcastle Gliding Club

Post war civilian use

Accidents and incidents

On Monday 16 November 1942, A

took off on the incorrect runway and collided with another Botha. One man was killed and another injured. On Monday 29 March 1943, two Blackburn Botha Mk.I aircraft collided in mid-air near the aerodrome during a demonstration flight for the benefit of Air Vice Marshal Sir Philip Babington, Officer Commanding No.29 (Training) Group, who was visiting the aerodrome that day. Bothas W5137 and W5154 crashed and were totally destroyed, with all 10 airmen onboard the two aircraft being killed. Five of the eight trainee air gunners were members of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service. Several of the dead were buried at St. Mary's Churchyard, just to the south of Morpeth town centre.

Current use

Today the site has reverted to grazing land although several wartime buildings remain and are used for storage. Parts of the hard standings also survive. A small privately owned part to the North West is used for a car boot sale every Sunday between March and November. There are still a number of buildings in nearby fields and an underground control room hidden in the small group of trees behind the airfield. One of these buildings is a

blister hangar A blister hangar is a type of arched, portable aircraft hangar. It was designed by Graham Dawbarn, who also designed buildings at a number of airports, and was patented by Miskins and Sons in 1939. It was originally made of wooden ribs clad with ...

. Other structures include an air raid shelter, gun-firing test butts and other unidentified structures.

References

External links