Burscough
BURSCOUGH: Military aerodrome, Royal Naval Air Station
(HMS RINGTAIL 1948 Books of HMS BLACKCAP)
Note: This picture (2018) was obtained from Google Earth ©
The main features, the perimeter especially and three of the four runways can still be clearly seen. This includes Tollgate Crescent.
Military user: RN Fleet Air Arm
Carrier training
Location: 1.75nm NNE of Ormskirk
Period of operation: 1943 to 1957
Runways: 1944: 03/21 914x27 hard 08/26 1133x27 hard
12/30 914x27 hard 17/35 914x27 hard
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', has very kindly provided these items.
SOME PICTURES
Mike has obtained these pictures from Lancashire Airfields in the Second World War by Aldon Ferguson.
Note: The local area and area views are from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: It seems that BURSCOUGH was used almost exclusively for aircraft carrier deck landing practise, before the squadrons were posted on board the ships. Therefore a large number of squadrons passed through here, only staying for short periods such as a few weeks. It appears that one of the first, if not the first squadron to arrive here was 809 Sqdn flying Vickers-Supermarine Seafires.
CROP-SPRAYING
According to an entry in Wikipedia, the airfield was later used by both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft engaged in crop-spraying operations. Are any details known?
BURSCOUGH: Private helipad
NOTES: Generally speaking I’m not listing too many private helipads but every now and again an item of interest crops up. For example, in the mid 1970s it seems the Bell 47G-5 G-BAXS registered to Mr T C Barton was based at BURSCOUGH, but , did he base this rather interesting and rare helicopter type, (in the UK at any rate, and privately owned), on the military airfield site?
Auriol Stephenson
This comment was written on: 2025-08-16 14:31:58In 1960, as a student PPL, I was sent to Burscough from Barton to practice spin recovery solo in an Auster Autocrat J1. Barton used to use Burscough for all their spin recovery training.
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