Stow Maries
Mike Shreeve paid a visit to the preserved Great War Aerodrome at Stow Maries in
Essex to witness the first time that B.E.2s had been seen there for almost a century.
Saved from demolition and now undergoing restoration, it is the only aerodrome
of this era to be preserved as it was in-period, untouched by later development.
D
uring the Great War, with the onset
of raids by Zeppelins and Gotha
bombers against London (and other
targets) in the south east of England,
the decision was taken by the Government
to station aircraft close to the coast in order
to intercept these raids. A number of air-
fields were built to accomodate these air-
craft. These included Stow Maries, in a ru-
ral area of Essex situated between the town
of Chelmsford and the coast. The first unit
to be stationed there was B Flight of 37
squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC), oper-
ating B.E.2s, which arrived in September
- No. 37 Squadron was formed as a
Home Defence squadron, with a headquar-
ters at Woodham Mortimer and flights
based at Rochford and Goldhanger in addi-
tion to Stow Maries. Initially wooden huts
and tents were used to house the personnel
at Stow Maries, but these were later re-
placed by more permanent brick buildings.
The first commanding officer was Lieu-
tenant Claude Ridley - although only 19, he
had already served on the Western Front
where he had been awarded an MC and DSO.
At one point, on a spy-dropping mission
whilst serving with 60 squadron and flying
a two-seater Morane LA parasol monoplane,
Ridley and the agent he was carrying were
forced down behind German lines due to en-
gine problems and spent the next three
months evading capture before being able
to return home via neutral Holland. Ridley
later died of natural causes in 1942 whilst
serving in the RAF as a Wing Commander,
and was buried in Stow Maries churchyard
at his request.
The first recorded action from Stow
Maries took place on the night of 23-24 May
1917, when Ridley and Lieutenant Keddie
took off to intercept a Zeppelin raid against
London but met with no success. On 7th
July 1917 aircraft from Stow Maries were
sent to intercept a formation of 22 Gotha
bombers heading towards London. Al-
though the bombers were engaged, the
squadron was unable to shoot any down.
The bombers reached London and bombed
the capital, causing significant destruction
and 57 deaths. Although some 95 aircraft in
total were sent to intercept the raid, the
combination of intercepting aircraft and
anti-aircraft fire was only able to bring one
down before they were able to escape back
across the coast. Although during the timethat Stow Maries was operational there
were no losses to aircraft operating from
there due to enemy action, there were a
number of flying accidents which claimed
several lives. Three of the flyers killed
(along with Ridley) are buried in the church-
yard at Stow Maries.
The airfield increased in size in summer
1917 when A Flight of 37 squadron moved in
from Rochford, with Ridley (by now a Cap-
tain) being posted away to Rochford to form
another squadron there. The squadron
gradually congregated at Stow Maries, with
headquarters flight moving across from
Woodham Mortimer later in 1918, by which
time 219 personnel and 16 aircraft were as-
signed to Stow Maries. Finally C Flight from
Goldhanger was posted across in February
1919, bringing the station complement up to
some 300 people and 24 aircraft. This made
the first time that the squadron (by now fly-
ing Sopwith Camels in place of the venera-
ble B.E.2 and B.E.12 - the latter being a sin-
gle-seat variant of the B.E.2) had been
co-located at the same site since its forma-
tion. This was to be short-lived however, as
a month later the squadron was re-num-
bered as No. 39 and moved out to its new34 | FLIGHTPATH