Rochford
ROCHFORD: Gliding site
Operated by: Lane’s Gliding Schools
Location: ? Probably HOLT FARM as listed below?)
Period of operation: From 1909 at least until ?
NOTES: Lane’s also advertised another site at ASHINGDON
ROCHFORD: Military aerodrome (Also often mistakenly known as HOLT FARM - see seperate listing)
IMPORTANT NOTE
There is a very good reason for making two listings for what is essentially the same location. This is because it has been commonly known by two names. Initially as ROCHFORD until being renamed as SOUTHEND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT in 1935. Then, after being RAF ROCHFORD in WW2 later in WW2 renamed as RAF SOUTHEND. It took me many years, after starting this project over twenty five years ago, before I finally got the situation sorted out. I will of course recommend that both of these seperate listings need to be looked at to get the bigger picture of this location.
Note:This picture (2018) was obtained from Google Earth ©
It shows the present day Southend airport, which RAF ROCHFORD once formed part of, especially in WW2.
Military users: WW1: RNAS/RFC/RAF Home Defence Station 1915 to 1918
(RNAS = Royal Naval Air Service, RFC = Royal Flying Corps and RAF of course = Royal Air Force)
RFC/RAF Home Defence Flight and Squadron Station
37 [Home Defence] Squadron ( 'A' Flight)
Note: Types flown by 37 (HD) Squadron were: Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2d, B.E.2e, B.E.12, B.E.12a, R.E.7 and R.E.8. Plus Sopwith Scout, Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Sopwith Camel. But, did all these types operate from here?
61 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Sopwith Pup & Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a)
141 Sqdn (Bristol F2b Fighters)
RFC/RAF Night Training Squadron Station 1917 to 1919
190 Sqdn was a Depot Squadron initially, becoming a Night Training Squadron (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c, B.E.2e & Airco DH.6s)
198 [Night] Training Sqdn (Sopwith Pups)
NOTE: These four items were kindly supplied by Mr Michael T Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide'. The three maps are from 1920 and the source of the photo is unknown? Plus he has found extra information, see below:
These three excerpts are from Action Stations 8 by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny.
The aerodrome map c.1941 is from RAF Southend 1940-44 by Peter C Brown. The article was published in Flight magazine on the 27th July 1933. The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
WW2: RAF Fighter Command 11 Group
56 & 151 Sqdns (Hawker Hurricanes)
Operated by: 1933 - Southend-on-Sea Flying Services
Flying Club: 1930s: The Southend Flying Club
Location: N of Rochford, E of the Ashingdon Road, roughly 3nm NNW of Southend town centre
Note: See 'Comment' below
Period of operation: 1915 to 1919 then 1933 to 1947
Runway: 1933: Max landing run 1006 grass
WW2: NE/SW 1188 grass E/W 1005 grass
NOTES:
In 2020 I acquired a newly published copy of the excellent book ESSEX: A Hidden Aviation History by Paul Bingley and Richard E. Flagg. And they have this to tell us: "Civil flying quickly proved to be a popular activity.......the Navarro Aviation Company moved into the newly relinquished RAF aerodrome at Rochford - by then the largest landing ground in Essex. The Central Aircraft Company arrived soon after and both businesses began offering pleasure flights over the town. Navarro using a converted military Avro 504K and Central employing its newly designed Centaur IVB floated biplane. Both were joined by other Avro 504Ks belonging to Surrey Flying Services which also moved to Rochford in the summer of 1922."
However, other highly regarded sources claim that Central operated their Centaur IVB G-EADR on floats from Southend for just a week starting on the 19th July 1920. At other times it operated on wheels.
LATER
In 1937 ROCHFORD was reopened as an Auxiliary Camp and visited by the presumably newly formed 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron, for example. I mention 602 Squadron simply because they received their Squadron ‘badge’ signed and given to them by King George VI himself in what is reported to have been an unique ceremony.
ROCHFORD was being used in the mid-1930s by the Southend Flying Club and was listed in a guide of ‘UK Flying Clubs & Landing Grounds 1933-34’ published by Flying – The Light Aeroplane Weekly.
THE DELIGHTS OF HISTORY
History is a fascinating subject, and how quickly it becomes distorted. Today if anyone old enough, (like me), who can still clearly remember anything from their childhood, if asked to name the best known ‘Battle of Britain’ airfield in the south east of England, I’ll bet a pound to a penny most will chorus BIGGIN HILL. Just as I have thought most of my life until embarking of the research for this 'Guide' in or around the year 2000. And, I’ve seen plenty of those old films too - in my defence. Aren’t they lovely in so many ways?
However, having now lost my “rose tinted spectacles”, and not wishing to replace them it does seem that a vastly different picture must now be painted about the realities of the ‘Battle of Britain’ in many respects. Indeed, and if you are interested, I have been working on an article about the 'Battle of Britain' for this 'Guide' (see ARTICLES) and perhaps one day it will get finished - but I doubt it.
Here’s one unexpected detail I’ve discovered. It now seems that “Sailor” Malan was the first pilot to score a night victory in WW2, flying out of ROCHFORD, and he scored the first night “double victory” too. Anybody with an interest in the subject of the so-called 'Battle of Britain', and deciding to learn more will soon learn the ‘popular’ image of this major conflict is very flawed indeed. Fortunately for us today, many notable people have made it their business to try and set the record straight, and have produced many excellent books on the subject - some including fascinating reports from the people involved at the time.
A STORY
From his now classic autobiography, Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis, I would like to include this excerpt: "Rochford was a magnificent aerodrome, almost a mile square. No. 61, the Home Defence squadron to which I had been transferred, was quartered on one side of it, while up at the other end were a couple of training squadrons. Rochford village was about two miles from Southend, and the squadron formed part of the ring of the outer defence of London...... 61 was equipped with Pups, another lovely Sopwith scout; but its performance and armament were not good enough to deal with Gothas, so the squadron was changing over to SE 5's."
"I managed to keep a Pup for joy-riding, and some time after, one cloudless day, I decided to drop down and see my father in the Isle of Wight, where he was now being trained as an anti-aircraft gunner. He had refused a commission, preferring the obscurity of the ranks; and my job, having found the Isle of Wight, the Training School somewhere on it, a field adjacent to land in, was to locate Private Lewis."
The practise of simply finding a convenient field to land in when paying a visit, was quite common for both military pilots and indeed civilian pilots during the 1920s and 30s. There did not seem to be any requirement to gain permission beforehand from the land-owner or farmer - you simply turned up. It all seemed an expected privilege to those belonging to a fairly exclusive elite. In fact, Cecil Lewis later says: "One night, on a party in town, I met Lily Elsie. Her charm and beauty turned my impressionable young head. I flew over to tea at her little house at Kingston. Ivor Novello played 'Cupid, Cupid,' the song with which she was captivating London at the time, and she came downstairs singing it. "What would you do without me to make an entrance, darling?" he laughed. I think I never saw two more beautiful human beings together."
Apart from my interest in where, and how often, those pilots used an aeroplane in much the same way we use a car to visit today, this story also serves to illustrate the high social standing many pilots enjoyed. The people he visited were 'the-talk-of-the-town', major celebrities of what we'd classify today as having super-star status. And, Cecil Lewis was hardly from the aristocracy.
To conclude, he also tells this story: " .......one more idiotic experience with an aeroplane - the last, of any account, that happened to me during the war. Somehow or other - I cannot remember why - I was flying an old BE 2c across London. Fog came down. I got lost, and landed in a field to ask where I was. A passing butcher told me Hounslow." Here again, it was not at all unusual for pilots to put down to ask directions. What happened next is explained in considerable detail when, without assistance, he hand swung the prop only to discover he had left the throttle a tad too far open. With the rudder hard over the BE 2c set off on its own in ever increasing circles, and all attempts to try and climb aboard failed. In the end all he could do was watch it going round and round for about half an hour, until it piled into a hedge - damaging the propeller and a wing.
"Of all the exasperating stupid things that ever happened to me with an aeroplane, that took the prize. I never started up a machine alone again." It just goes to show that some lessons are never fully learnt. Even today exactly this sort of thing still happens. Not very often - I'll admit - but it might surprise some to know that quite a few light aircraft, nearly all 'classic' types, still need the 'prop' to be hand swung to start the engine. No electrics you see, no battery and therefore no starter motor.
ROCHFORD was, during much of WW2 it now appears, a satellite of HORNCHURCH.
Roger Hellyer
This comment was written on: 2017-10-27 09:54:35Rochford Aerodrome was not on the Southend Airport site. It was north of Rochford, east of the Ashingdon road, half a mile south of the turn towards Hawkwell. Holt Farm itself was on the west side of the road. The aerodrome is labelled on OS one-inch Fifth Edition sheet 108. OS six-inch 83NW (revised 1919-20) shows the location of Holt Farm, though not the aerodrome.
Reply from Dick Flute:
Hi Roger, Many thanks indeed. I shall keep this information posted. Best regards, Dick
Roger Hellyer
This comment was written on: 2017-10-28 11:00:39Dear Dick - thank you for adding the note, though I had not realised it would be under my name! One minor adjustment - please add in the words 'sheet Essex (New Series)' thus: OS six-inch sheet Essex (New Series) 83NW Thanks, Roger
Reply from Dick Flute:
Hi Roger, Job done! Cheers, Dick
Cathryn Corns
This comment was written on: 2019-05-12 12:50:03You say that Rochford Airfield is marked as being opposite Holt Farm on the OS one-inch Fifth Edition sheet 108 - but sheet 108 doesn't cover Essex. Sheet 162 does, and 5th edition 1" map is dated is 1945 and the airfield - by then at the present Southend Airport site - isn't marked. The land opposite Holt Farm on the east of Ashingdon Road is farmland, and has been since before 1917.
Clive Hammond
This comment was written on: 2020-10-30 21:24:13I was taken by an uncle and aunt on a pleasure flight from Rochford in the early 1950s. My memory is that the pilot wore glasses and that he looped the loop over Southend Pier. Is my memory playing tricks or could this all be true?
Dick Flute
This comment was written on: 2020-10-30 21:52:04Hi Clive, I cannot confirm it, but it could well be true. This said I have taken passengers flying who wanted me to "throw it around a bit" in non-aerobatic light aircraft and having for example, performed a chandelle or two, they were utterly convinced I had flown the aircraft inverted. Indeed, I have had passengers 'white-knuckled' even treating them to a steep turn, with just 60 degrees of bank. It does require pulling a bit of 'G' which is a sensation few people are familiar with. Perhaps some other kind person can throw some light on this? Best regards, Dick
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