Horsey Toll
HORSEY TOLL: Civil aerodrome, (Aka SHORTACRES), later military RLG (Relief Landing Ground)
Location: Just N of the A605, roughly 2.5nm SE of Peterborough city centre
Period of operation: May 1930 to around the early 1950s
Note: The first three items were kindly provided by Mr Michael T Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', and the local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: The second item above, the newspaper article, was published in the Peterborough Standard on the 19th May 1933, on the same day as the event being staged by the British Hospitals Air Pageant tour. This event being, it appears, the 36th venue. Starting at Luton on the 1st May, it was planned to visit 150 venues, ending at Woolwich, south-east London on the 8th October. Zig-zagging around the UK they went as far south-west as Cornwall, into south Wales to display at Swansea, and travelled up into Scotland as far north as Aberdeen - although the majority of the venues were in England.
AN ENDLESS PROBLEM
The primary purpose of this 'Guide' is to try and record as many flying sites in the UK as possible. How little did I know when starting out on the project over twenty years ago, (and this was in 2022). Time and time again I came across locations that have been well known by at least two names, the best example I suppose is London Airport, now known as HEATHROW. But at least that could be easily resolved?
On a somewhat lesser scale, this location also presented a problem too, being known originally as both SHORTACRES and HORSEY TOLL. In many cases I have ducked the issue by providing two listings with cross-references. I have SHORTACRES listed in PETERBOROUGH FLYING SITES. But, it seemed well worth adding a seperate listing for HORSEY TOLL. Not least because it appears it was known by this name almost from the start, and used by RAF PETERBOROUGH as a Relief Landing Ground - presumably during WW2?
SOMETHING TO ADD
In January 2023 I was kindly contacted by Mr Clive Burkinshaw, who has this to add. "Searchlights and anti-aircraft guns located at Horsey Toll (just outside Stanground) gave a clue as to what was nearby during the Second World War. The primary duty of both was to protect the Civilian Repair Depot (CRD) located at the former private landing field at Shortacres Farm (2.5 miles east of Peterborough), belonging to Mr Hugh Abinger Whittome and later his son Kenneth Whittome. The airfield was licensed in May 1930."
"The Horsey Toll airfield was closed on the outbreak of the Second World War, later becoming a CRD that repaired aircraft - Hurricanes and parts of Wellingtons. RAF Peterborough (a.k.a. Westwood) was also close by and may have used the airfield as a RLG (Relief Landing Ground). During the Second World War, Morrisons Enginerring Co. Ltd purchased Horsey Toll airfield and converted the aircraft hangars into factory units where cotton fabric was used on aircraft wings and then doped."
"Main unit(s) present: No 7 (P) AFU, Fenland Airways Ltd, L.E.H. Airways Ltd, Peterborough Flying Club."
My note: An AFU was an Advanced Flying Unit and the (P) denotes it was for pilot training. Other AFUs specialised in, for example, navigation, radio and gunnery.
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