Monument record 0851400000 - Halton airfield

Halton has been associated with military flying since 1912 when 3 aeroplanes and an airship made use of the ground of Halton House then owned by Alfred Rothschild. On 10 September 1917 the Halton School of Technical Training was established to train men and boys in aircraft fitting and rigging. After the First World War the school was renamed and in 1920 became No 1 School of Technical Training (Boys) Halton. An RAF hospital was established in 1919 and a larger hospital was opened in 1927 with the opening ceremony performed by HRH Princess Mary after whom the hospital was named. In 1940 a burns unit was established and by the middle of the war Princess Mary's Hospital held over 700 equipped beds. Here in 1957 the first artificial kidney unit in Britain was set up. Alongside the camp is a grass airfield and was the last landing ground for countless old aircraft brought here for technicians to be trained upon (B1).
As part of the forces involved in the 1913 army manoeuvres, 3 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps deployed to Halton to support the operations of the Household Division. They set up a temporary airfield on what was later to become the Maitland Parade Square, which was at the time pasture. Old Worksops was built in 1917, using German PoW labour, and the current airfield was established. Alfred Rothschild died in 1918. The Royal Flying Corps had been established as the Royal Air Force and it needed permanent bases. They had already invested a considerable amount in the workshops and accommodation they had built at Halton and so eventually bought the whole property to house the new No 1 School of Technical Training. After the Cold War there was a brief fear of closure and technical training was moved to RAF Cosford but Halton is now for non-technical ground training (B2).
The earliest record of the use of Halton by military aircraft dates to 1912, when three aeroplanes and an airship taking part in military manoeuvres in the area used Halton park as a base. The first hangars on the site were two reused sea-plane hangars, augmented by tented Bessoneau hangars (B3).

An airfield of 20th century date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant buildings and structures, and earthworks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in the parish of Halton and centred at SP 487311 210962. The airfield is part of the wider training camp at RAF Halton (MBC24938) and is situated across the border of the parishes of Halton and Aston Clinton. It may have been within the late 19th century parkland associated with Halton Hall; the Ordnance Surveyors’ Drawing of 1813-4 shows field boundaries similar to those on the Epoch 1 Ordnance Survey mapping.
The camp was set up initially as an Army camp just before World War I and became part of the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, becoming a Royal Air Force airfield in 1918 when the RAF was formed. Training activities continued through World War II with a squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force also based at Halton. The airfield continues in use for gliding, Halton Microlight Club and Halton Aero Club.
Buildings visible in the 1940s include hangars, including three blister hangars, blast shelters, a fuel depot, detonator and explosives stores, pill boxes and other airfield buildings and offices. Two plans of the airfield and training camp were consulted, from 1934 and 1948, the former gives descriptions for most of the buildings on the airfield. The pillboxes are type 22 and six were recorded but only one is still visible in the eastern hedge boundary of the airfield. Some were only visible on the 1942 photographs, not visible by 1945, and the one remaining is visible only on the 1945 and later photographs. Three Yarnold Sangar Forts are visible on more recent aerial photographs, but these were not mapped.
Some of the roofs of the airfield buildings and hangars were painted with camouflage patterns and painted field boundaries and woodland, to camouflage the airfield itself, very similar to field boundaries on historic mapping; these are present in 1942 but not on 1945 aerial photographs.
A sewage works, on the east side of the airfield, was also constructed for the training camp and airfield amid controversy during WWI (Beechwoods and Bayonets p109) and, in Rosemead Covert, earthworks of probable chalk extractive pits, possibly to maintain the chalk runway markings, can be seen on lidar visualisations. Also visible in the woodland are features associated with managed woodland including boundaries and rides which were part of management project to address the lack of biodiversity in the overgrown woodland. Lidar visualisations show subtle earthworks of the remains of ridge and furrow field systems and a cropmark of an enclosure but no map evidence shows anything that corresponds with these features. (8-35)