As a result of long planning and co-operation between the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust (ABCT) – the world’s first national airfield charity – and various more local elements, three memorials will be unveiled during Friday to Sunday 7-9 June 2024 to commemorate Beverley I (Beverley Racecourse), Hutton Cranswick and Snaith Airfields.
Beverley’s first airfield, on what still remains today the racecourse, originally opened in March 1916 as a Home Defence (fighter) airfield, resident aircraft being involved in defensive action against enemy Zeppelin attacks. Activity primarily switched towards the end of that year to equally important flying training, a task which remained until after World War One ended; several units also notably helped to establish military aviation in Canada. The airfield eventually closed in the spring of 1920 but continues to be remembered to this day, one of the more prominent racecourses in Yorkshire to also have seen military use as an airfield.
Hutton Cranswick was a major but perhaps less well known World War Two fighter airfield from its opening in November 1941. Many Spitfire squadrons subsequently stayed here for the next four and a half years as part of RAF Fighter Command’s rotation system of units, while other tasks included more specialised training such as anti-aircraft co-operation plus air-sea rescue. Once the final flying units had left in mid-1946, this once busy airfield closed the following September. Hutton Cranswick has since largely disappeared amid a mixture of farmland and light industry, though some buildings and part of the perimeter track still survive.
Snaith became a most important RAF Bomber Command airfield from its inception in June 1941 to the end of World War Two in Europe. First accommodating Wellington medium bombers, Halifax heavy bombers then dominated once No 51 Squadron arrived in the autumn of 1942 and mounted thousands of operational sorties against many enemy targets. After some training use, Snaith finally closed in January 1947, and some items such as hangars and runway sections still survive to a degree despite motorway construction and redevelopment. The RAF Snaith Museum also carries out excellent work in remembering this airfield.
All three memorials are of the main full-sized standardised design already widely utilised by ABCT https://www.abct.org.uk/airfield-markers/marker-programme/. The charity’s objective in this regard is to eventually commemorate each known major airfield in the United Kingdom with one of two forms of standardised granite memorial. Well over 200 have already been unveiled – following huge national public demand for them – to clearly major effect, with hundreds more being planned.
Event details as follows:
Hutton Cranswick Airfield
https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/hutton-cranswick/
Friday 7 June 2024, 10.30 am, south of Hutton Cranswick village, alongside junction of A164 (Beverley Road) and road into industrial estate
Postcode (nearest) YO25 9QE, What3Words: punch.bookmark.wrong
Beverley I (Beverley Racecourse) Airfield
https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/beverley-i/
Saturday 8 June 2024, 12.15 pm, south-west side of racecourse, west of town
Postcode (nearest) HU17 8QZ, What3Words: fidgeting.radiated.promise
Snaith Airfield
https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/snaith-pollington/
Sunday 9 June 2024, 2 pm, at RAF Snaith Museum, Long Lane, east of Pollington and south-west of Snaith town
Postcode (nearest) DN14 0DH, What3Words: happier.clusters.prepped
Also see ABCT’s extremely popular 3,500 pages website https://www.abct.org.uk and associated social media pages for further details.
Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust (ABCT)
For more information, contact:
Telephone: 0141 483 8798 / 0141 483 8799 (if numbers not answered, leave an answer message and/or send an email to info@abct.org.uk)
Email: info@abct.org.uk
Web: https://www.abct.org.uk
Facebook: @Airfields
Twitter: @ABCTlive