Former RAF Aston Down

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Aston Down is a former Royal Air Force airfield near Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, South West England. It was first used as an airfield in the First World War, serving as a base for the Australian Flying Corps.[1] Originally known as Minchinhampton Aerodrome, the airfield was renamed Aston Down in 1938 at the request of the residents of Minchinhampton village, which lies about one mile (1.5 km) to the west of the airfield, who feared not enemy attack, but a fall in the value of their houses.[2] During the Second World War the hard runways and hangars were built. Until early 1941 Aston Down was host to the RAF's No. 55 OTU (Officer Training Unit), after which it was used as a ferry base. More recently the airfield was used as a satellite airfield for the Central Flying School at RAF Little Rissington, with trainee pilots practising their circuits in BAC Jet Provosts. Visits by the Red Arrows were also frequent until their departure from the nearby Kemble Airfield in 1983.[3]

In 1967 the Cotswold Gliding Club (CGC) moved to Aston Down, which in 1981 became surplus to requirements and was sold by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Having since acquired further land, the CGC now owns most of the airfield within the perimeter track. Aston Down is, by gliding standards, a large airfield: the main runway—about a mile (1500 m) long—offers scope for high winch launches of up to 3000 feet (900 m). Aerotow launching is occasionally used, particularly when westerly or north-westerly winds generate lift off the Cotswold ridge (or "Edge") or wave lift downwind of the Welsh mountains.

The land surrounding the airfield, including a number of large hangars (visible in the photograph above), continued to be used by the MOD until 2002, when it was sold to the development firm Leda Properties to be let as warehousing and industrial units.[4] In 2005, following a Freedom of Information request, the local newspaper revealed that Aston Down is contaminated with arsenic, hydrocarbons and radium.[5] Since the site is located above a vulnerable aquifer, local residents have formed a pressure group to persuade local government and central government agencies to implement more stringent safety regulations.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Aston_Down
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   51°42'20"N   2°7'54"W

Comments

  • Good fun until the airfield residents call the police.
  • My uncle Lt Jack Weingarth was with 5 Training Squadron here in late 1918. He was taken off combat duties over the Western Front where he was a Sopwith Camel Fighter pilot with 4 Squadron,only to die in a training accident flying an Avro 504 shortly after hostilities ended. We remember 23 AFC trainers and cadets in the ANZAC Day ceremony at nearby Leighterton cemetery, where they are buried, on the closest Sunday to 25 April each year. The Royal British Legion and others are involved. All Australians in WW1 were volunteers. Lest we forget. Steve Weingarth Sydney Australia.
This article was last modified 14 years ago