West Hartlepool flying sites
WEST HARTLEPOOL: See also OWTON MANOR FARM
WEST HARTLEPOOL: See also WESTLANDS
WEST HARTLEPOOL: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: Many years ago I made these comments: "On the 4th July 1932 the “Flying Circus” enterprise of Sir Alan Cobham’s National Aviation Day UK Display Tour performed at/in/near West Hartlepool and again the next year on the 29th June 1933. Does anybody now know exactly where such singular events took place? See 'Comment' below."
"It is very tempting of course to assume they used the RAF GREATHAM site, but was this really the case? The next year, on the 7th September Cobham’s 1934 Tour displayed in/near West Hartlepool. Very often the ‘Flying Circus’ operaters did deals with farmers to use fields, sometimes adjacent or very near to aerodromes, to cut a better deal regarding rental costs."
NEW NOTES 2025: This 'Guide' is of course an impossible task, as I was warned about now over a quarter of a century ago. But, at least a start has been made. The West Hartlepool venue for Sir Alan Cobham's NAD displays in 1933 and 1934 was OWTON MANOR FARM - see seperate listing.
WEST HARTLEPOOL: Opened as a military airfield, (RAF GREATHAM), later regional aerodrome/airport.
Note: Both of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
WW2: Military RLG (Known as RAF GREATHAM until WW2)
Note: During WW2 known as RAF WEST HARTLEPOOL
Military user: WW2: Allocated to RAF Coastal Command (But did they actually use it? It doesn't seem so)
Apparently a satellite for RAF THORNABY, but little used.
Note: It appears that four Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires from 403 Squadron were based here from June 1942 to January 1943.
POST WW2: 645 VGS (Volunteer Gliding Squadron)
British airline user: Post 1945: BKS
Charter, air taxi: Post 1945: Astral Aviation, North East Flying Services, Northern Air Charter
Flying Club: Post 1945: Teesside Flying Club and West Hartlepool Flying Club
Note: In the 1957 The Aeroplane directory the Teesside Flying Club were listed as operating one de Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth.
Location: SW of Seaton Carew, SE of Owton Manor, NE of Greatham, 5nm NNE of Middlesborough.
Period of operation: Civil: Officially opened in the summer 1939 Military: 1933 to 1945?
Civil: 1946 to 1958 (Some say 1957)
Runways: WW2: N/S 914 grass NE/SW 1280 grass
E/W 1280 grass SE/NW 914 grass
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have to thank Mike Holder, a long term friend of this 'Guide', for investigating what might be available these days, to illustrate the civil flying operations from 1939 when the airport was opened, and then for the post war period. Mike also supplies the maps.
The Notice was placed in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle on the 21st January 1939. Photo One showing the dignitaries arriving for the official opening of the airport on the 15th April 1939, was published in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette on the 17th April.
NOTE: A very poorly shot amateur film of the opening day can be found in the Yorkshire Film Archive: 'Opening of West Hartlepool Airport'. Well worth looking at to see the range of aircraft types attending, especially military examples.
THE POST WAR PERIOD
Article One was published in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail on the 1st February 1946. Followed shortly after by Article Two, published on the 9th April.
Photo Two was published in the same newspaper, but on the 3rd April 1946. This shows the Percival P.44 Proctor 5, G-AGTD, which was first registered 17.12.45 to Northern Air Charter until 23.03.48. It was then registered to Astral Aviation, also operating from WEST HARTLEPOOL, from 16.04.48 until 18.10.48 when it crashed near Carlisle.
However, Mr Graham Frost, another long term friend of this 'Guide', tells us that the Airspeed AS.65 Consul, G-AJLH (ex NJ376), was operated by Northern Air Charter from 27.06.47 until 27.08.47. The British Register is incomplete regarding G-AJLH, but, it was later registered to Astral Aviation from 03.02.48, perhaps until May 1949? The Airspeed Consul was a civilianised version of the military Airspeed Oxford, much used in WW2.
Later, Graham found that the Airspeed AS.65 Consul, G-AJGA (ex K6740), was also briefly registered to Northern Air Charter from 08.04.47 until 27.08.47. It later also went to Asrral Aviation, then based, it seems at WOOLSINGTON near Newcastle.
The Notice Two was also placed in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail on the 28th February 1947. Photo Three is of a de Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide at the Air Show in 1949, obtained from Hartlepool History Then and Now.
This article, in three parts, was published in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail on the 4th February 1949.
ADVERTS and PHOTOS
Advert One was placed in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail on the 6th May 1949, whereas Advert Two was placed on the 15th June 1949.
Photo Four, from the Hartlepool Mail, shows the Taylorcraft Plus D, G-AHXG (ex LB322), being refuelled in the 1950s. This aircraft was operated by the Teesside Flying Club from 05.02.53 until 23.05.55. The Taylorcraft Plus D, an American design, was I think (?), the first type built by Auster in the UK.
Once again, Advert Three was also placed in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, this time on the 9th September 1949. And finally Advert Four was placed on the 11th November 1949.
Photo Five, from the Hartlepool Mail, shows the rather basic Air Traffic Control tower and other facilities in 1957. Presumably taken not long before the airport finally closed.
NOTES: This aerodrome seems to be a bit of a mystery. It appears that during WW2 it was on loan to the War Department ostensibly for use by RAF Coastal Command who declined to use it. During WW2 it appears that very little took place here.
One highly regarded record states the aerodrome closed in 1945 and yet I have found evidence of civil commercial use later on, by BKS especially. In fact it appears that BKS ran a scheduled service from here to NORTHOLT, (see LONDON), from May 1953 to 1956. Presumably flying Douglas DC-3s?
Another source claims that BKS ceased operations from GREATHAM AIRPORT, (as it was also known), in 1957.
As it appears that this aerodrome was used by the military from 1933, it seems odd that it was officially opened as a civil aerodrome in 1939. If anybody can kindly offer advice this will be most welcome.
Michael T Holder
This comment was written on: 2020-05-27 22:37:52From the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail – Thursday 30 June 1932 – Air thrills in plenty will be witnessed at the old aerodrome at Seaton Carew (Now a landfill site) on Monday next(04 July 1932) when Sir Alan Cobham and his retinue of skilled pilots pay a visit to West Hartlepool in the course of the National Aviation Day Campaign which Sir Alan has organized.
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