Visited with Raztafarian
History;
Opened in 1937, it saw the peak of its activity during the years of the Second World War, when it served within the defence network of fighter bases of the RAF providing protection for the Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Humberside industrial regions.
During September 1940 it became home to the first RAF "Eagle squadron" of American volunteers being No. 71 Squadron RAF initially with the Brewster Buffalo I for one month before changing to the Hawker Hurricane I. The airfield was also home to both the first all-Canadian and all-Polish squadrons, with No. 242 Squadron RAF for the Canadians and No. 306 Squadron RAF for the Polish.
As technologies evolved, the first night fighter Operational Training Unit (No. 54 OTU) was formed at Church Fenton in 1940 and stayed until 1942. Some of the squadrons stationed there flew the famous de Havilland Mosquito.
Today the airfield if used as a private airport for the wealthy while the RAF bunk houses and mess halls lay dormant.
The Explore
So after going all Bear Grylls through think under growth and exploring a few of the bunkers and bunk houses we entered the main mess hall with the checkered floor and found bare foot prints in flour, which seemed like a pretty weird thing to find as it hadnt' been there the week previous when we explored for the first time.
Fast forward a few hours of mishing around the buildings and meeting a few friendly potheads we find ourselves at a fence with a sign which quite clearly said "MOD - Keep Out", however the fence was in great disrepair so i hardly think its credible. So after traversing that we climbed up the water tower and spotted an open door on one of the hangers... only 250m of open ground through the airport to cover, so back down we went
After a few mins of avoiding any security we headed on through and the first thing we see is this;
Somewhere between exciting and terrifying...
As we left we noticed the secca van heading our way so a quick 30 second sprint back into the bunk houses was in order.
All in all a brilliant night and well worth a revisit.
Thanks for reading
- for more check out my facebook page - www.facebook.com/seldomseenworldue
History;
Opened in 1937, it saw the peak of its activity during the years of the Second World War, when it served within the defence network of fighter bases of the RAF providing protection for the Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Humberside industrial regions.
During September 1940 it became home to the first RAF "Eagle squadron" of American volunteers being No. 71 Squadron RAF initially with the Brewster Buffalo I for one month before changing to the Hawker Hurricane I. The airfield was also home to both the first all-Canadian and all-Polish squadrons, with No. 242 Squadron RAF for the Canadians and No. 306 Squadron RAF for the Polish.
As technologies evolved, the first night fighter Operational Training Unit (No. 54 OTU) was formed at Church Fenton in 1940 and stayed until 1942. Some of the squadrons stationed there flew the famous de Havilland Mosquito.
Today the airfield if used as a private airport for the wealthy while the RAF bunk houses and mess halls lay dormant.
The Explore
So after going all Bear Grylls through think under growth and exploring a few of the bunkers and bunk houses we entered the main mess hall with the checkered floor and found bare foot prints in flour, which seemed like a pretty weird thing to find as it hadnt' been there the week previous when we explored for the first time.
Fast forward a few hours of mishing around the buildings and meeting a few friendly potheads we find ourselves at a fence with a sign which quite clearly said "MOD - Keep Out", however the fence was in great disrepair so i hardly think its credible. So after traversing that we climbed up the water tower and spotted an open door on one of the hangers... only 250m of open ground through the airport to cover, so back down we went
After a few mins of avoiding any security we headed on through and the first thing we see is this;
Somewhere between exciting and terrifying...
As we left we noticed the secca van heading our way so a quick 30 second sprint back into the bunk houses was in order.
All in all a brilliant night and well worth a revisit.
Thanks for reading
- for more check out my facebook page - www.facebook.com/seldomseenworldue
:
