102 FLYPAST September 2018
AIRFIELDS CUMBRIA TO SCOTLAND
October 1943. Boeing Fortresses
and Handley Page Halifaxes
comprised the stock-in-trade of
the unit and these thundered off
the extended southwest-northeast
runway. The HCU returned to
Northern Ireland in early 1944,
but kept a detachment amid the
relatively uncluttered airspace
around Longtown.
To the southwest of the town,
north of the River Esk is a vast
munitions storage site that is
often confused with the former
RAF Longtown, two-and-a-half
miles away. Never an airfield, the
facility was established in 1938 as
14 MU, with its own railway siding
off the West Coast Mainline.
By the beginning of the 1950s,
this huge complex was covered in
hundreds of hardened shelters,
each surrounded by earth
banks, containing all manner of
ammunition and other explosives
for all three British services.
The RAF element, 14 MU,
disbanded in September 1996,
handing over to the Ministry of
Defence. Today the Longtown site
is contracting, with an enclave
used by commercial organisations
to exploit the ultra-secure
hideaways for, reportedly, such
commodities as fireworks, data-
hubs and vintage wine.Nuclear station
Depending on which way round
this outing is taken, the cross-
border raid begins with the
instantly recognisable Annan.
Approaching along a minor road
going north out of the town
of the same name, four huge
concrete edifices loom out of
the countryside. These are the
Magnox nuclear reactors of
Chapelcross power station – the
first of its type in Scotland.
The former airfield provided the
perfect location, on government-
owned land in sparsely populated
countryside; its northwest-
southeast runway was turned into
an access road running alongside
the four reactors. The road from
Annan to the hamlet of Creca
severs this runway and provides a
good view of the Chapelcross site
to the west and, to the east,
a glimpse of the surface from
which Hawker Typhoons once
soared skywards.
The power station was officially
opened in 1959 but electricity
generation ceased in 2004. But
the site remains a hive of activity,Hard to fi nd...For the more determined, there are several other former airfi elds within the
region, but with little in the way of physical evidence, or no access. Southwest
of Wigton, near Aspatria, is the Brayton Hall estate, used as an ‘overfl ow’
storage site for Kirkbride from late 1942 to 1945. The landing ground, long
since returned to agriculture, is home to a wind farm. Wath Head, southeast
of Wigton, served in a similar manner with just a clearing near Spain Wood as
testament to its location.
On the A7 just north of Carlisle is Kingstown, which opened as the city’s
municipal airport in 1933. It was used by RAF basic training units from 1939,
reverting to civil usage in 1953 until it was closed altogether four years later.
All traces have been swallowed up by retail, leisure and housing development.
Further north of Carlisle and close to the banks of the River Esk was Burnfoot
and across the border just south of Kirkpatrick were two RLGs, assisting circuit
traffi c from Kingstown and Crosby-on-Eden. Both were very basic aerodromes.
West of Annan, at Winterseugh was a landing ground providing overspill
aircraft storage for Dumfries between 1941-44. All three sites reverted to
farmland with little evidence of their existence remaining.Traces of the former airfi eld at Brayton are now few and far between.as the decommissioning phase will
take many more years.
Annan was ready for aircraft
in the spring of 1942, and the
Hurricanes of 55 OTU arrived in
April. Typhoons began to take
over from the Hurricanes during
the first weeks of 1944, supported
by Miles Martinet target-tugs.
Throughout this period, air and
ground gunnery, bombing and
rocket-launching skills were honed.
In one form or another, the unit
remained at Annan all the way
through to closure of the station
in the summer of 1944. The OTU
was re-designated as 4 TacticalExercise Unit (TEU) in January
1944, but then renamed 3 TEU
in March.Industrial estate
On the night of June 3/4, 1944,
a Wellington Mk.X crashed on
approach to Dumfries airfield, also
known as Tinwald Downs. Thirty
years later, local enthusiasts
salvaged both Bristol Hercules
engines, one of which still
sported its wooden propeller. This
14-cylinder radial became the
first of the Dumfries and Galloway
Aviation Museum’s extensive
powerplant collection, now
standing at 70 items.
Centred on the three-storey
control tower, this excellent
museum was officially
opened on July 17, 1977.
(December 2016’s FlyPast
featured this
distinctive collection
in detail.)