Hampstead Norris
HAMPSTEAD NORRIS: Military aerodrome later private airstrip (Spelt today as HAMPSTEAD NORREYS)
Note: Pictures by the author.
Military users: RAF Fighter Command 12 Group
15 OTU [Operational Training Unit] (Vickers Wellingtons)
13 OTU [From March 1945] (DH.98 Mosquitos)
Note: In the run-up to D-Day a large number of glider pilots were trained here. And it appears, an EFTS presumably?, operated 33 DH.82A Tiger Moths.
Location: W of B4009, NE of Hamsptead Norris, N of B4009, 10nm WNW of Reading
Period of operation: Military:1940 to 1945
Civil use: 1984 to ? Private airstrip in 2008 certainly and possibly continuous airstrip use from 1984?
Runways: WW2: 14/32 1006x46 hard 05/23 1463x46 hard
09/27 1006x46 hard
2013: 04/22 600 grass
NOTES:
An interesting point has been made concerning the runway layout here, in that all three runways intersected at a common point, which is most unusual. Mainly because it made a bombing attack very easy to disable the entire airfield at a stroke. I wonder if the moron who designed this layout was ever 'hauled over the coals'?
At some time a VOR was installed here and later an airstrip was laid out on the site. Very little evidence of this being a WW2 airfield usually exists, but, in very dry summer conditions much of the WW2 layout can clearly be seen.
Terry Clark
This comment was written on: 2018-01-10 05:32:26The CPT VOR was installed in the late '70s to replace a fan marker and give better track guidance on airway Green 1 (nowadays called Lima 9) and as far as I recall the fan marker was slightly further west just west of the A34 road.
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