Panshanger - another old airfield gone...

I was saddened to learn of the recent closure of my 'local' airfield. I'd sort of lost touch with the place since I had to cease my activities there for financial reasons - it came as rather of a shock find out the place had closed without my knowledge - I had been meaning to go back and see how things were. A new flying club had taken it over since my days there so I doubt I would have met anyone I remembered anyway.

I thought I'd go up there and try to have a look round if I could before the bulldozers move in and another piece of history slips quietly away forever...

It was possible to get onto the old approach and walk a bit closer, but it wasn't possible to get far before finding the way blocked by security fencing and signs warning of guard dogs on patrol. A couple of the old small hangers could be seen quietly decaying....

Getting a little closer it was possible to glimpse the large old T2 type hanger rusting away and awaiting it's fate. I suspected there wasn't a great deal more to be seen as I knew many of the old WW2 buildings and the control tower had been demolished since my days there - probably around the time the previous flying club closed down.

While I was taking a few pictures a couple of locals turned up walking their dogs - amusingly they thought I was some security guy keeping an eye on the place! We chatted for a few minutes and one of them said he had signed the petition to save the airfield. From 1953 the airfield was owned by former air racer and notoriously shrewd businessman Nat Somers - a Jersey based tax-exile and former owner of Southampton airport among others. After Nat's death in 1990 the airfield passed to his wife Dame Phyllis Somers (also a former pilot) who he first met at Panshanger. Unfortunately she died in March of this year, and it appears her son wants to sell the airfield for housing development so the company owning the aerodrome declined to renew the lease to the flying club. Part of the airfield was built on in the 1960's-1970's leaving only one grass runway remaining. There is a campaign by the locals to save the airfield...

I would have liked to poke around a bit for old times sake but it was starting to get dark. I was hoping to explore and get more pictures - I wanted to record what I could before another part of my past gets bulldozed. Although the airfield didn't see any use by combat units since it opened in 1940 it still has an interesting history and was a decoy site with a large dummy factory built to lure German bombers away the the vital de Havilland factory only six miles away in Hatfield. Some bombs and incendiaries did fall on and around the site so it must have worked and probably saved some lives. Originally the airfield was called Holwell Hyde but it's name was changed to Panshanger in 1943. The original factory decoy and airfield site was quite extensive and I'm sure it could tell many stories. Now only it's ghosts remain...

Although I was hoping to explore and get some better pictures, I have since found a website with a lot of pictures of the sort I was hoping to take and also a load of interesting information on the place.

 Looking back I see that I flew from Panshanger eleven times.