Old Sarum Airfield
Old Sarum Airfield is a grass strip airfield north-north-east of Salisbury, in Laverstock parish, Wiltshire, England.
The adjacent areas are a mix of vacant land, residential and industrial sites. Residential areas lie to the south and east, occupying the old airfield married quarters and officers' mess, now known as Throgmorton Hall. Industrial/business units occupy a number of the First World War and Second World War airfield buildings, as well as several large modern warehouses, office blocks and car showrooms.
Old Sarum is a well-preserved flying field of the First World War period, bounded by one of the most complete suites of technical and hangar buildings of the period. The site has three Grade II* listed hangars and a Grade II listed former workshop, all built in 1918, as well as a Grade II listed Territorial Army Headquarters.
The airfield was designated as a conservation area by Salisbury District Council in February 2007.
An aviation museum opened in Hangar 1 in July 2012, after the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection relocated from the nearby Boscombe Down airfield.
Airspace and procedures
Old Sarum airfield Aerodrome Traffic Zone sits within the nearby MoD Boscombe Down Military Aerodrome Traffic Zone. Old Sarum Airfield procedures dictate that all circuits, weekday and weekend, are to the south with a crosswind departure and a base leg joins at circuit height. During the times when the MATZ is inactive, Boscombe Down's ATZ is still active.The aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee, Blanefield Airfield Operations. The aerodrome is not currently licensed for night use. Unlicensed night flying is permitted but the airfield owners chose not to allow night flying from 2007 in order to reduce noise complaints under an understanding with Salisbury District Council, as it then was. The owners later decided to install lights and resume night flying for a time.
History
First World War
The site for Old Sarum Airfield – just east of the hill on which stood the abandoned medieval settlement of Old Sarum – was selected in 1917, to provide a training station for the rapidly expanding Royal Flying Corps. Like many others of this period, the airfield was provided with a cluster of general service sheds and a camp consisting largely of wooden buildings. It was opened in August 1917 and was briefly known at first as 'Ford Farm' but very soon took instead the name of the local landmark.Its first task was to act as a base for the formation of three new day bomber squadrons which would ultimately be sent across the English Channel to operate in France. The Royal Air Force was founded on 1 April 1918, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. On the same day a new flying training unit was formed at Old Sarum, to become the airfield's principal resident unit. This was 11 Training Depot Station, whose task was the operational training of fresh aircrews.
1918 to 1939
At the end of the First World War, Old Sarum was one of the few airfields which were not closed as part of the post war run-down. In 1920, 11 Training Squadron was disbanded and preparations were made to turn the station into the permanent home of the School of Army Co-operation. The School was transferred to Old Sarum from Stonehenge Aerodrome in January 1921 and for many years ran mixed courses for Army and Air Force personnel. Its prime task was the development of efficient air/ground communication under operational conditions, principally between Army officers, including those of the newly formed armoured forces, and the pilots and observers of the RAF Army Cooperation Squadrons.A 'Special Duty Flight' was formed here in about 1926 to work with the Experimental Gas School at Porton Down, not far away. This used a handful of aircraft including a Bristol Fighter, a Dart and a Horsley, and was transferred to Netheravon in 1928. In April 1924, 16 Squadron was re-formed at Old Sarum for cooperation with Army units in Southern Command. Initially equipped with Bristol F.2 Fighters, it subsequently received the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas, in January 1931, and Hawker Audaxes in December 1933. With these types it took part in exercises all over southern England. In June 1938 it became the first unit to equip with the Westland Lysander.
The mid-1930s saw the beginning of the RAF expansion scheme, where many First World War airfield sites were inspected to see if they would be suitable for the new permanent stations which were planned due to the increased threat to Britain from Nazi Germany. Old Sarum Airfield was identified as suitable for becoming a permanent station, and the period between 1934 and 1937 saw the construction of new domestic, administrative and technical buildings. This increased the area of the airfield occupied by station buildings from to roughly. The flying field remained the same size.
Three other operational squadrons were based at the airfield for varying periods between 1935 and 1939. First of these was another army cooperation unit, 13 Squadron, whose Audaxes were based here from May 1935. Next came the Hawker Hinds of a new light bomber squadron – 107 – which stayed here until 1937. The third unit, 59 Squadron, was formed here in June 1937 and was a new army cooperation unit, intended to carry out night reconnaissance using Hawker Hector aircraft. Subsequently, it was decided to replace these with higher-performance Bristol Blenheims and in May 1939 the squadron transferred to Andover to make the transition.
Second World War
At the outbreak of war, the appearance of RAF Old Sarum had changed little. Its line of hangars still looked out onto the grass flying field, while a Roman road still formed the northern border of the airfield. The squadron continued to be primarily engaged in training and developing ground support techniques, including the spraying of poison gas, although this was never actually used. In February the 16 Squadron left for France via RAF Hawkinge and its place was taken by the first two Canadian flying units to arrive in Britain – 111 and 112 Royal Canadian Air Force Squadrons. The final operational unit to be based here during this period was 225 Squadron RAF, another Lysander equipped unit. This took the place of 110 RCAF Squadron on 9 June 1940 and with the growing threat of a Nazi invasion of the Britain, it was engaged in patrolling the south coast for enemy landings.In 1939, the establishment of aircraft was increased to serve the expanding School of Army Co-operation. In February 1940 a new 'D' Flight was formed within the School for artillery spotting duties. It was out-stationed at Larkhill to be close to the Royal Artillery camp there, and served as the nucleus from which all future air observation post units originated.
During the Battle of Britain, as losses mounted, the shortage of fighter pilots became so desperate that a number of army cooperation trainees were selected at Old Sarum and immediately sent to Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire training units. During the massive campaign of enemy attacks on RAF airfields in the summer and autumn of 1940, Old Sarum escaped lightly, but during the night of 11/12 May 1941 one hangar was burnt out in an air raid and two aircraft were destroyed.
During the first two years of war, it became clear that higher performance aircraft were needed and so a small number of Hurricanes and Harvards joined the unit in early 1941; they were soon followed by a flight of Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks. Because of the limitations of the landing ground at Old Sarum, a larger satellite was prepared at Oatlands Hill, some away to the north-west. Oatlands Hill was equipped with only basic flying facilities and most of the maintenance work had still to be undertaken at Old Sarum, but henceforth all higher performance aircraft would carry out their training programmes at Oatlands Hill.
In August 1941, the first full AOP squadron was formed. This was 651 Squadron and it was equipped with Taylorcrafts, flown by specially trained army pilots. They were frequently detached to Larkhill to train with the gunners there, and in the following spring the squadron joined Army manoeuvres, thus establishing the practice of sending small detachments of aircraft to improvised advanced landing grounds "in the field".
The advances in size and performance of aircraft types from the Lysander to the Tomahawk prompted a reorganisation, and the Training Wing was redesignated 41 Operational Training Unit. The development and teaching of methods of artillery reconnaissance were undertaken here from 1942. However, these activities required a permanent runway instead of a flying field, and so 41 OTU was transferred out in 1942. It was replaced by a new Fleet Air Arm Squadron, developing tactical reconnaissance. In 1942 Old Sarum became the principal base for the training of AOP with three new squadrons, and 43 OTU moved from Larkhill to Old Sarum. While it was engaged in training new pilots, the facilities at Old Sarum continued to be used for the formation of new Auster squadrons.
655 Squadron formed in December 1942 for Southern Command, and took part in the huge "Spartan" exercise in East Anglia in July 1943 which tested the efficiency of Army co-operation squadrons under mobile conditions, and was effectively a rehearsal for the invasion and liberation of North-West Europe. This led to the formation of Tactical Air Forces, which were created as replacements for RAF Army Cooperation Command.
The School of Army Cooperation had been reformed at Old Sarum in June 1943 and was subsequently retitled the RAF School of Army Cooperation. In 1944 it was reorganised as the School of Air Support with its own small fleet of aircraft. The experiences of war had highlighted the importance of inter-service cooperation, and increasingly personnel from all three services became based at Old Sarum.
1944 marked the end of a period of major expansion in the AOP squadrons; the spare hangar space at Old Sarum Airfield was used by 3505 Servicing Unit, which maintained numerous aircraft operating in small and scattered detachments to provide practice facilities for anti-aircraft and searchlight sites.
The brick-built buildings now occupied by Wessex Archaeology immediately adjacent to the airfield include two operations/large scale map rooms with upper viewing galleries: one is now the company's drawing office and the other is the finds processing area.