Report - RAF Church Fenton, Tadcaster - August 2020

[Specter]

History

RAF Church Fenton was a former RAF station located 4.3 miles south east of Tadcaster, near the village of Church Fenton. The station was opened in 1937 and during the Second World War was home to air defence aircraft, a role retained by the station until the 1960s when it became a training station. It closed in 2013 and is now a civilian airfield known as Leeds East Airport.

In addition to the immediate defences at the airfield itself Church Fenton was also protected by three night decoy airfields and one day decoy airfield: only eight of the 36 fighter stations in the country were considered significant enough to have a day decoy.

After the war it at first retained its role as a fighter base, being among the first to receive modern jet aircraft, namely the Gloster Meteor and the Hawker Hunter. In later years, its role was mainly flight training, from 1973 for a few years being home to the Royal Navy Elementary Flying Training School (RNEFTS) using the Jet Provost T3, and again 1979-1992, triggered by the introduction of the Panavia Tornado, being the first station to receive the new turboprop-powered Short Tucano T1 basic fast jet trainers. From 1998-2003 Church Fenton was the RAF’s main Elementary Flying Training airfield

- Forces War Records

Last time I passed I noticed that most of this site is now in the final stages of demolition, Most of the buildings in the photos have now been levelled.

The Visit

The hardest part about access to this site was finding a place to park, and even then that was fairly easy.
What I noticed first was this site was huge, bigger than I previously expected. I had seen reports about this site but was completely unaware to the actual size, which was quite a nice surprise.

Some of the site has, as usual, succumb to the local yobbos as I found when I walked around a corner and noticed door frames speared into plasterboard with 4 inch nails sticking out at roughly eye height.

Thanks for Looking



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[Calamity Jane]

Nice natural set there, Nice report. Shame its being demo`d but expected.

 

[dave]

Yeh good effort tbh i thought it would have gone by now. This was the sort of place if i was heading north would pop in for a quick mooch that usually lasted a lot longer due to areas i had missed previously.

 

[HughieD]

Nicely done. Some great pictures and informative reoprt.

 

[Specter]

Yeh good effort tbh i thought it would have gone by now. This was the sort of place if i was heading north would pop in for a quick mooch that usually lasted a lot longer due to areas i had missed previously.

Did you ever get into the bit which I found partially underwater? My curiosity is driving me mad as to what could be down there

 

[dave]

Did you ever get into the bit which I found partially underwater? My curiosity is driving me mad as to what could be down there

Good question it looks familiar i,ll have to have a look through my own pics see if i can find it tbh the old memory not as good as it used to be.

 

[Specter]

Good question it looks familiar i,ll have to have a look through my own pics see if i can find it tbh the old memory not as good as it used to be.

More and more it seems I should be bringing some form of waders in my bag, I keep stumbling upon flooded places which stop me in my tracks, last one was waste deep at best

 

[jST]

There were some bunkers dotted around here and there, could be flooded now given the redevelopment by Bellway next door.

 

[The Amateur Wanderer]

No excitement there gents, simply one of the air raid shelters beneath the airmen's blocks, the corridor in the distance only runs about a metre if that out of view to a set of ladders leading to an emergency escape hatch.

Edit: I hope the Pelepone engine was rescued from the demoed water block, had a message years ago when my first report of this place went up asking if it could be preserved...

 

[Specter]

No excitement there gents, simply one of the air raid shelters beneath the airmen's blocks, the corridor in the distance only runs about a metre if that out of view to a set of ladders leading to an emergency escape hatch.

Edit: I hope the Pelepone engine was rescued from the demoed water block, had a message years ago when my first report of this place went up asking if it could be preserved...

Definitely a time where the idea was better than the reality, but good to know!!

Not sure about the engine, The building was still there last time I passed in feb, and demo was fairly underway at that point. If I pass again ill double check for you.