South Shields Flyingboat ramp

[pippin]

I was down at the local beach yesterday and took some photos of this and thought I would share, it is the remains of a flyingboat ramp built in 1916 for the defence of the Rivers Tyne and Wear against Zeppelin attacks and U- boats and formed part of a chain of coastal defences.

You dont often see this monument as it is normally covered by the sands.

The Flyingboats were Felixstowe F3s I belive.

More info if anyone has any please.

Ian

[ss002d6252]

Whereabouts on the beach is it - is it on the little beach, about mid way between the large and small piers ?

Craig

[pippin]

Yes on the Herd sands next to the groyne. in between the piers.

Ian

[pippin]

Littlehaven beach

[ss002d6252]

Littlehaven beach

Thanks, I couldn't remember the name.

[Nepper]

Check out http://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAR/Airfields/Histories/SouthShields.htm

[Mick D]

been there loads of times , never noticed it.

Mick

[pippin]

Thanks Nigel,

Yes I have seen that site. All I have managed to get are a couple of old photos of the Sheds. There is nothing that I can find regarding the baloon base? and there seems very little info as to the people who were stationed there or who worked there.

Ian

[ss002d6252]

been there loads of times , never noticed it.

Nor have I. We go often with the kids in the summer was just live in Gateshead. On quite a few occasions we must have pretty much walked straight over it.

Craig

[mickdavis]

The information on the NE Aircraft Museum website is drawn from a history of NE WWI flying sites that I passed on to them. The South Shields section reads as follows. I've appended the section about the Tyne kite balloon station.

During late 1912, a plaque was placed in the entrance of South Shields High School to commemorate one of its old boys. It had been bought with donations from across the country; many from people involved in aviation, and was to the memory of Robert Cooke Fenwick. His name is now little-known but he was a true pioneer of flying in the United Kingdom. Together with Sydney T Swaby, also native to South Shields, Fenwick has managed a company, Planes Ltd, which had been formed to develop a biplane that was designed by WP Thompson and built by Handley Page Ltd. Fenwick used the biplane to obtain his aviator’s certificate. He and Swaby utilised their employer’s premises at Freshfield, near Formby in Lancashire, to construct a monoplane of their own. It was, appropriately, named the Mersey Monoplane and it first flew in 1911. Fenwick and Swaby took over the company, developed the machine further and entered it in the 1912 Military Aeroplane Competition that was held, by the War Office, at Larkhill, on Salisbury Plain with the objective of finding designs suitable for use by the newly-formed RFC. Fenwick flew the monoplane on 9 and 11 August and it completed, not very successfully, a test for quick assembly. Fenwick took off again from Larkhill at just after 6pm on the 13^th and headed south-west toward Stonehenge. It was then seen to dive and crash. Fenwick was killed and the enquiry into the accident divided the blame between turbulent weather conditions and the aeroplane’s instability.

A seaplane station was established at South Shields during the summer of 1916. The chosen site was on what is now Harbour Drive, with a slipway leading into the sheltered water behind the South Pier.

The new station’s first machines were Short 184s 8007 and 8008, which were delivered on 7 and 25 September, respectively. 8008 only lasted until 24 October when it was wrecked in a forced landing in the mouth of the Tyne. Its crew, FSLs TC Wilkinson and PC Moyniham were rescued, but 8008 had to be returned to the Saunders’ factory where reconstruction was considered impractical.

The station had been designated as a depot for the receipt and preparation of seaplanes. A further three Short 184s (9080, 9081 and 9084) arrived, crated and by rail, the following month. They had been manufactured by the Peterborough based firm Frederick Sage and Co Ltd and, after erection, were tested by a pilot from that company. That pilot wrecked 9080 during a take-off on 4 November and the machine had to be re-built. 9081 and 9084 passed their acceptance tests and were then delivered to Felixstowe and Calshot, respectively. After reconstruction, 9080 was delivered to HMS Riviera. Further Sage-built 184s arrived for erection the following year, including N1131 and N1134 which remained until the following year.

8007 was damaged in a forced landing at sea on 30 January 1917 and had to be towed back to base. Flt Lt RE Dean and Leading Mechanic Connor were unharmed. The Short was repaired and back in service by the following month.

South Shields maintained some of the Shorts for operational use in a War Flight, one such being 9784 which was flown on two sorties in search of an enemy submarine on 20 April 1917. Neither FSL KM Smith nor FSL FH Wallers reported any sighting. FSL FH Wallers was sent on a further such sortie, with Mechanic Jolley as observer, on 1 May in 8007 but saw nothing to report. Smith was injured nine days later, when he crashed Sopwith Baby N1101 when alighting at Shields on a delivery flight from Killingholme.

The seaplane station was the only such base between Killingholme and Dundee and as such was a convenient re-fuelling and stop-over point for machines in transit to and from Scottish bases. Numerous machines, ranging in size from Sopwith Babies to Porte FB2, Felixstowe F3 and Curtiss H16 flying boats used the base in that context until after the cessation of hostilities.

Sopwith Baby N1104 had arrived by the beginning of June to join the War Flight and lasted more than three months before being wrecked. Short 184 9783 was delivered from Yarmouth on the 15^th of that month but both it and 9784 were transferred to Calshot in August. A further Baby, N1421, crashed off the mouth of the Tyne on a delivery flight from Brough on 29 July with its pilot, FSL JHW Clark, surviving unhurt. N1420 arrived eleven days later, possibly as a replacement.

Accommodation at South Shields comprised five of the standard F Type seaplane sheds, measuring 200 x 100 feet. These faced onto a large apron, from which the slipway led into the mouth of the Tyne.

A further seaplane station, named Tees, had been established near Seaton Carew in September 1917 and, initially, the facilities there were very primitive. South Shields became the parent depot for the new base and there began a steady stream of movements between the two, as machines were delivered for operational use and received for overhaul or re-building. Those movements continued until Tees, later renamed Seaton Carew II, closed. The depot also handled smaller numbers of machines from the seaplane stations at Hornsea and Killingholme.

The War Flight at South Shields received Short 184 N1233 on 5 October and its crash, near the Farne Islands’ Longstone lighthouse on 22 November resulted in the station’s only fatalities, Temporary FSL KG MacAloney and Aircraftman FT Sprules. Flying over the sea brought its own risks and seaplanes often had to alight after engine failure. N1268, a Short 184 that had been with the War Flight since June, suffered this fate on 29 December and came down four miles off Seaham Harbour. Its crew was rescued by P52 but N1268 sank.

Further Babies were added to the War Flight and, after the formation of the RAF, these, together with the flight’s Shorts, were incorporated into 252 Squadron, when that unit formed on 1 May 1918.

RNAS planning had, during 1917, the large scale deployment of flying boats in mind; Felixstowe F2As and F3s. One of the contractors for the F3s was the Preston-based firm of Dick, Kerr & Co which utilised the former United Electric Car Co premises in that town for the construction of the fifty flying boats’ wings and tail surfaces. The fuselages were built by other contractors, such as Boulton Paul of Norwich, and delivered to Preston. Another F3 contractor was the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Co of Bradford and acceptance facilities were needed for the two companies’ machines. Brough, Blackburn’s seaplane testing station on the Humber, was selected for the final assembly and testing of Phoenix-built machines and South Shields for those from Dick, Kerr.

Mr James Barton, the chief foreman of Dick, Kerr organised workers at South Shields to equip the two seaplane sheds that had been allocated for the company’s use. Everything was ready by 3 February 1918 and the first F3, N4231, had arrived by road within the next week. A convoy comprising a trailer lorry, for the fuselage, and a large van, for the flying surfaces, arrived after a three-day journey via Skipton, Harrogate, Thirsk, Osmotherley, Stockton and Sunderland. The vehicles were part of a fleet owned by H Viney & Co of Preston, the firm contracted to deliver the production batch. N4231 was assembled and its acceptance test took place on 20 February. That test was conducted by a Captain Newton, who named the machine Pauline, after his wife. The flying boat was moored out six days later, when a squall hit the area. N4231 broke from its mooring, overturned and sank. The wreckage was salvaged two days later. N4230 arrived for assembly on 2 March and was delivered to Killingholme twelve days later. Others followed; five in April, eleven in May, six in June, five in July, five in August and eight in September. There is no official record of delivery for eight of the batch. It has been stated that the final fifteen machines were delivered to storage at South Shields and there were still fourteen of the machines at the station on 30 January 1919, but these were not all from that final fifteen. A further two were lost before they could be delivered; N4242 sank after a heavy landing outside the harbour entrance on 6 April and N4253 crashed taking off on its delivery flight to Stennes, in the Orkneys, on 3 June. Neither crew was injured. Brough had, with the formation of the RAF on 1 April, been designated 2 (Northern) Marine Acceptance Depot, acknowledging its role in handling flying boats, and South Shields, technically a sub-station to Brough, became 18 Group Workshops.

Despite the fact that it was a seaplane station, South Shields was also responsible for the acceptance, assembly and delivery of DH6 landplanes allotted to the coastal patrol flights that began to form in the North East during May 1918, under the auspices of 252 and 256 Squadrons. C6693 was listed as being at Shields by 23 May, with a further nineteen allotted. Thirteen of those allotted had been delivered within the following week. There is logbook evidence that these machines were actually flown to their units from South Shields; certainly the apron would have offered a long-enough take-off run if there was a north-westerly or south-easterly wind. The attrition rate was high for DH6 machines employed on Marine Operations. Their aerodromes were primitive and maintenance facilities negligible and so machines were returned, with great regularity, to South Shields for repair and/or overhaul.

The establishment of the station at Seaton Carew was increased to include Short 184s from the summer of 1918. Again, these machines were delivered via and overhauled at South Shields.

Deliveries to Killingholme continued and these sometimes served a dual purpose. When Short 184 N1387 left on 31 July at 18.35hrs, crewed by Ensigns Murphy and Allen USN, it was bombed up. An oil streak was observed en-route and one bomb dropped. There was no observed result but surface vessels in the area were alerted and the area was depth charged.

The station played a small role in a little piece of history on 6 August. A flying boat from Killingholme landed in deteriorating weather and almost out of fuel at 05.30hrs. It was piloted by Ensign AW Hawkins with Lt GF Lawrence as second pilot. This USN crew had taken off from Killingholme at 22.30hrs in response to a reported Zeppelin raid. It was probably the first night patrol by an American naval unit.

18 Group Workshops still occupied the station and continued to function until May 1919, after which the only occupant was a Storage Section, comprising 2 officers and 50 other ranks, which collected machines from local stations.

The RAF had no further use for the seaplane station. Its operations were run down and its closure was confirmed in the Air Ministry Weekly Routine Orders of 11 March 1920. That confirmation seems to have been premature because there was still a Care & Maintenance party present until the following month. The seaplane sheds lingered a little longer but were dismantled and stored. The Type F shed, such as those at South Shields, were brought back into use in the 1930s, as the standard hangarage on the RAF’s new Armament Training Camps. One such camp was at 7 ATC at Acklington, which opened in 1937, and it is interesting to speculate that its two F Sheds, which still exist, may once have been at South Shields.

TYNE

The Royal Navy had, during 1917, recognised the value of kite balloons for anti-submarine work. Captive observation balloons had been used for observation and artillery registration by the RFC from early in the war. The naval application of these craft was as towed platforms for use in the convoy system. Flying high above convoys, those on naval operations could allow an early warning of threat from U Boats. Selected naval vessels were equipped with winching gear and stores of hydrogen tanks, as well as platforms to which balloon cages could be moored.

Shore facilities were needed and Kite Balloon Bases were established at strategic points around the coast. One of these was Kite Balloon Station Tyne. Its exact location has yet to be determined but it may have shared the site of RNAS South Shields. The base was for two balloons and it was customary for such establishments to have canvas hangars, 100 x 36 feet, in which balloons could be stored when not at sea. The Tyne base was re-titled upon the formation of the RAF, being designated as 10 Balloon Base on 15 April 1918. It cannot have survived for long and certainly did not appear in the Autumn 1918 Quarterly Survey of Stations.

[pippin]

Mick many thanks for this info!

What a great site, I wish had found this sooner

Ian

P.S. To see the ramp at its best I think you need to pay a visit in the winter time or early spring. It seems the winter storms remove the sand at this time. It seems more exposed this year but we have had a good long cold spell and a wind coming from off the sea.

[ianjonesncl]

Just been to have a look and the tide was in !! However parts are still visible. Like others I have been on that beach many times and not noticed.

Article from the Shields Gazette

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/sands-of-time-part-to-reveal-relic-1-5544688

From the Sanddancers forum

http://forum.southshields-sanddancers.co.uk/boards/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=16407#p511549

Durham Record Office

http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/Pages/AdvancedSearchCatalogueDetail.aspx?SearchType=Param&SearchID=7b490c91-a9f8-4231-a1b3-ffa5b4aed456&ImageView=List&Page=7&ItemID=165150&ImageID=327492

And a spot of Googling..........

Looks like this is taken from The Lawe

[mickdavis]

Here's an air to ground of the site

Whoops

I had to significantly reduce this site plan, so it may not be as clear as the full size one

[pippin]

Mick that is fantastic!

I have seen another shot with a couple of chaps tending allotments on the Lawe top. And it had me a bit puzzled as the sheds looked so diffferent from the one Ian Jones posted above which I had seen. I would assume that this photo is later as the sheds are much enlarged. disregard that bit I see it now when looking at the plan just the angle of the photos.

Also looking at that photo you have provided do I see trenches set back along the Lawe top?

Ian

[Mick D]

Yes that is definitely a trench line at the back of Marine Park. Great photo's chaps, got any more ?

Mick

[Mick D]

Further to that, I can see in the photograph that there appears to be 2 ramps, I've just checked on google streets image and you can see both, was there any trace of the other one, nearer the South Shields pier ?

MIck

[pippin]

I will go back down there tomorrow and see if I can find any evidence of that second ramp.

This is a shot looking down the beach towards South Pier and there is no clear indication of any structure.

Ian

[ss002d6252]

The photo and the map have the ramps in different locations - were there 3 different ones over time ?

[pippin]

I just cannot got my head around that ramp?? (to the south) It looks wrong, almost as if it is going too far out into the bay. Is there any possibility that it is a shadow of a baloon?

Ian

[mickdavis]

_{The photo dates from 1917. I drew the site plan from that in the autumn 1918 Quarterly Survey of Stations - things changed}

[ss002d6252]

When you overlay the images it certainly looks like the ramps moved over time - possibly there are remains of the other ramps still their somewhere under the sand.

[pippin]

Interesting view there. Though I would think it more likely that the scale drawing is slightly out. The ramp was avery solid looking thing beintg made up of what appear as railway sleepers braced with Iron cross bars abd the filled with concrete. Also notice that there is a slight angle in the photograph.

I have been down there this morning at low tide 8.20 and can find no structures (that suggest a ramp) futher along the beach. Already the sands are a little deeper than last week as there were two red pipes sticking up the last time I was there, they are now buried.

The two red pipes were about three feet apart and would be on the inside of one of the larger sheds I belive.

I also noted that the sea wall has a base of wooden uprights looking about the same age as the ramp posts. I would imagine that this was part of the original boundry for the Sheds.

Ian

[nils d]

l read somewhere that a RN medical officer condemed the mechanics quarters as being sub-standard.They were just the existing public toilets so those men were living in a miserable location {he said avoiding half a dozen puns]

[mickdavis]

_{I like the idea of superimposing the plan & photo, but one is oblique and the other vertical. I suppose that what I was trying to get at in my last post is that it's unwise to be too dogmatic about WWI sites, unless they're referenced to a date. I've done a lot of work looking into early RNAS/RFC/RAF stations and have found that such things as slipways on FB/SP stations could and did change - even at such well known sites as Felixstowe. Once you get down to lowlier sites such as HD night landing grounds, the situation can become even more complex. There were, for example, 3 different North Coates Fitties, 2 different Penstons and Sawbridgeworths and, while previously published works say that Hylton/Usworth was originally named West Town Moor, it wasn't - WTM was a different site, used as a NLG, that was replaced by the flight station, just as Leigh was replaced by Penshurst (Chiddingstone Causeway) and Hoprig Mains by the Penstons. Hopefully, subscribers to CCI will have already noticed some of such changes by referencing the Gazetter of Flying Sites currently running in that journal, looking at, for example, the site plans for Dundee 1916 and 1918.}

[Mick D]

Finally been down to the beach and can confirm that the remains are still visible, the sand hasn't covered them up.

There is a lot of work going on in the area, most of the car parks are fenced off with the surfaces ripped up and the fencing extends well on to the beach.

Mick