Market Lavington landing ground, Wiltshire 1919

[Moonraker]

At the National Archives I was looking through MUN 4/5850, "Guarding of buildings at aerodromes awaiting disposal", when I came across a long list of "RAF stations for relinquishment or disposal up to 30/6/19". They appeared to be mostly minor establishments, but I was surprised to see that "Market Lavington landing ground" was included, Market Lavington being a small town on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain.

I thought I knew my Wiltshire WWI airfields, but this was a new one on me. I consulted Rod Priddle, author of the 396-page Wings over Wiltshire, which implied that there was a landing ground near Market Lavington early in WWII, but it was subject to air pockets, leading to its closure and a transfer of operations to New Zealand Farm by October 9, 1940. He was unaware of a WWI landing ground there.

There were two WWI landing grounds at Tilshead, four miles to the south of Market Lavington.

Any information will be very welcome. There are a number of AIR 1 files that may be worth my while consulting next time I visit TNA, but I wonder if they will have much to say about what would appear to have been a very modest facility.

Moonraker

[mickdavis]

That's a new one to me. Logic would suggest that such a site would be on the top of the chalk escarpment and there are two suitable, large and flat open areas, one on either side of the main road.

The site is not mentioned in AIR1 452/453, the Autumn 1918 Quarterly Survey of Stations, which was actually compiled during the late summer. Could it have been brought into use by the Artillery Co-operation Squadron during its brief time at Tilshead?

[Medic7922]

Intriguing, I have a good knowledge of the Sailsbury Plains area and was not aware of any Airfields in the Market Lavington area,

I even had a look on Google Earth to see if there was any signs of an old airfield but due to intense farming there is no good evidance

to be seen.

[Moonraker]

The WWII Relief Landing Ground was on the east side of the A360. I wouldn't expect there to be any evidence on the ground of it today,or even shortly after it was decommissioned. Perhaps the Market Lavington ground was similar to the field at Manningfold Bohune, two miles north of Upavon, used by Central Flying School trainees to practice landings and take-offs. There were no airfield buildings and not even a windsock. It too was used as a RLG in WWII.

I think that Mick is on the right tack. Market Lavington was/is very close to the artillery ranges, and in the early 1960s I had lunch at a hotel where a shell had overshot and landed in the garden.

Moonraker

[Guest rogfrost]

Hi

I'm new to this forum. As curator of Market Lavington Museum I'd like to know more about any possible WW1 Landing strip/airfield in Market Lavington. Could it have been associated with the Pond Farm Camp?

I'm told that a pipe still standing near the Ridgeway to the West of the Current Market Lavington Vedette was a refuelling pipe for aircraft in WW2. Has anybody any further information?

Best wishes

Rog

[Moonraker]

Hi

I'm new to this forum. As curator of Market Lavington Museum I'd like to know more about any possible WW1 Landing strip/airfield in Market Lavington. Could it have been associated with the Pond Farm Camp...

Best wishes

Rog

The only reference I've come across is in the National Archives file MUN 4/5850 but nothing else has been discovered (by me, anyway)about the Great War site. Possibly it was used by aircraft taking part in experiments (perhaps involving the Royal Engineers Meteorological Section at nearby Butler’s Cross) or artillery-co-operation exercises on the Plain. The Chapperton Down Artillery Ranges were not far away.

I've no evidence that Pond Camp Farm was used after the departure of the First Canadian Division in February 1915. It was the most isolated of the GW camps in Wiltshire, and nearly all the others were very close to railway lines, often with their own rail connections, which would not have been possible for Pond Farm; instead there was a hard uphill slog from Patney & Chirton and Market Lavington stations, which taxed man and machine.

Moonraker

[Lyffe]

Gentlemen,

I think the clue to the answer to Moonraker's question can be found in the Report on the Overseas Artillery School, Salisbury Plain: May 1917 at http://www.gutenberg-e.org/mas01/archive/app20.html. The report covers November 1916 to March 1917, and includes a reference to support by the RFC:

Royal Flying Corps

Much useful work was done by a flight of the RFC permanently attached to the School. Observation of special series was earned (sic) out, photographs taken and trial flights given to a large number of Officers on the course who were anxious to practise aerial observation for themselves.

I suggest the 'Market Lavington landing ground' in the first post was literally that - a field purchased by the War Office for these aircraft to land on, rather than an airfield on which permanent, or semi-permanent, buildings were constructed. It would not take long for such a site to revert to its peace-time appearance once returned to agriculture. Given that it was referred to as the 'Market Lavington landing ground', as opposed to 'West Lavington', I suggest it was on top of the escarpment overlooking the village, possibly near the vedette at 51deg 16 min 47.22 sec N, 01 deg 58 min 00.89 sec W (Google Earth). From my own knowledge of the location much of this area would have been suitable for aircraft operations of the type described.

Brian

[Lyffe]

Further to my last, and having looked a little more closely at the OS map, I've just noticed that the boundaries of the Market Lavington Civil Parish extend southeast from the village to cross the Wessex Ridgeway at Grid Ref 021528 in the west and 028539 in the east; this neatly encloses the plateau overlooking the village. I won't suggest it's the only place for a landing ground, but looking at the gradients to the northwest and southeast of the plateau it seems the most promising.

Brian

[MikeMeech]

Further to my last, and having looked a little more closely at the OS map, I've just noticed that the boundaries of the Market Lavington Civil Parish extend southeast from the village to cross the Wessex Ridgeway at Grid Ref 021528 in the west and 028539 in the east; this neatly encloses the plateau overlooking the village. I won't suggest it's the only place for a landing ground, but looking at the gradients to the northwest and southeast of the plateau it seems the most promising.

Brian

Hi

In the Cross and Cockade Gazetteer of WW1 Airfields (by Mick Davis & Bill Morgan, Part 13,Spring 2013 Journal) there is only a little bit of information on Market Lavington. Grid Reference SU 028535A (I think the 'A' is for approximate GR, so close to your "in the east"). Landing Ground RAF 1918 to June 1919, possibly for use by the Artillery Co-operation Squadron.

Mike

[Moonraker]

From memory, it seems to be the flattest piece of ground in the Market Lavington area - and this is confirmed by a look at the contours on an OS map.

Moonraker

Just looked at the 1922 revision of the 6-inch OS map, and no sign of any buildings on the site but, as Brian suggests, there probably wouldn't have been any that were permanent.

[Moonraker]

I've just been updating my notes to include the map reference and found this:

Local man Jack Welch corresponded regularly with his parents in Market Lavington and on May 10, 1918 commented on something they must have said to him: "An aerodrome out in the Recreation Ground is getting a bit too close isn’t it, Lavington must be very much altered especially with the felling of so much timber".

The parish council had regular use of the Ground and their minutes record nothing of any requests for military use. In 2012, John Burgess recalled: "As a young lad living in Market Lavington I understood that the old air strip was where Lavington Hill meets the Ridge Road [the range perimeter road at the top of the hill] right hand corner of this junction and walk at an angle for about 200 meters, there was an observation shed there with a lift up front. Later there was a model airoplane club that used this area to fly their model aircraft."

Some at least of the above comes from the local museum's website

Moonraker

[Lyffe]

Mike

I wonder where Mick Davis & Bill Morgan found their reference to Market Lavington - not the location, but the fact there was a landing ground there. If Mick's picked up this conversation perhaps he could help. The fact he is referring to the RAF and not the RFC actually helps me as it implies the aerial support for the ranges continued on from the reference I found to 1916-17.

Moonraker

I guess Burgess was talking about the WW2 LG, but it would be logical if the WW1 and WW2 LGs were more or less in the same location.

Brian

[Moonraker]

This

is where I got the John Burgess information from, but I agree that there's ambiguity as to which war he's referring to. I wonder how old he is? I'll pm "Lavington Curator" to bring these updates to his attention.

Moonraker

[Lyffe]

I've just had a thought (dangerous at my age); it's just possible that the English Heritage Archive in Swindon has some WW1 + 4 years aerial photos of the Market Lavington area. Unfortunately it's closed on Saturdays but I will phone them on Monday.

Brian

[Moonraker]

Laving Curator has replied to my pm, saying that he thinks John is about 73, making him a "young lad" c1950. Not conclusively one might guess that he had the WWII landing strip in mind.

Moonraker

[Lyffe]

I had a moment of panic thinking I'd blown my own suggestion out of the window when remembering there was a gun/battery known as Fiddington Farm; but checking in Gunners at Larkhill its postion was 028528, placing it in a gully to the east of the plateau.

Brian

[Blue Dragoon]

Have we got a Grid reference for Pond Farm on SPTA?

[Moonraker]

N D G James in Plain Soldiering states that it was 055534, which I suspect refers to the pre-WWI camping-site, which was a little way from the original farm.

 

See this 1898 map

 

Pond Farm is SE from Market Lavington. My 1908 WD-revised two-inch map shows the centre of the camping-site to have been about 1.5 miles NE of the farm. (I can't scan the map as it's very delicate.)

Edited 14 April , 2020 by Moonraker

[Jrmh]

https://marketlavingtonmuseum.wordpress.com/tag/pond-farm-camp/ Has a layout of the camp near Weatherhill Plantation

 

OS Map shows grid 055534 in blue

 

and http://php.wiltshire.gov.uk/row/sect31deposits/mod_training_area_salisbury_plain_map4.PDF GR is shown in red with a landing strip 2km N. Is that it?

 

[Moonraker]

Thanks for that. I was never much any good with new maps. The original camping-site was in the bottom left-hand quarter of the top map. It was the most exposed of all the Salisbury Plain camping-sites and never had anything other than a cook-house shelter built on it. I'm not aware of it being used after the Canadians left in February 1915.

[Terry_Reeves]

On 14/04/2020 at 11:55, Moonraker said:

Thanks for that. I was never much any good with new maps. The original camping-site was in the bottom left-hand quarter of the top map. It was the most exposed of all the Salisbury Plain camping-sites and never had anything other than a cook-house shelter built on it. I'm not aware of it being used after the Canadians left in February 1915.

The site is recorded in Forgotten Aerodromes of WW1 by Martin Chorlton, Crecy Publishing 2014. The grid reference is given as SU 028535, located on Gibbet Knoll which is marked on this planning application: http://php.wiltshire.gov.uk/row/200406.pdf

 

The landing ground opened in 1918 and was used by local artillery co-operation squadrons until its closure in 1919. 

 

TR

 

 

Edited 17 April , 2020 by Terry_Reeves

[Moonraker]

Thanks for that, Terry. Looking at this thread and my notes, it would seem that there was a landing strip on the same spot in WWI and WWII - and there's now there's one nearby, judging from the planning-application map - though this doesn't feature on Streetmap. I would say that the original strip was just above the faint yellow line north of the bridleway marked in red on "your" map.

 

(I note that on Streetmap the road from the crossroads at the top of Lavington Hill SW to Gore Cross is now a "yellow" one, suggesting that it's been re-surfaced since I cycled along it 30 years ago!)

 

Moonraker

Edited 17 April , 2020 by Moonraker

[Fovant]

The National Library of Scotland's contemporary OS maps show Gibbet Knoll clearly between Little Farm and Limekiln Farm. There is a handy measuring tool too

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=51.28294&lon=-1.96720&layers=168&b=1

[Moonraker]

Fovant's map shows other farms close to or on the ranges. N D G James' Gunners at Larkhill, has a handy appendix of some 26 farms "extinguished" by the formation of the Larkhill and West Down ranges. Below is a card showing the Canadians' depot at New Copse (030502) in the winter of 1914-15.

 

And the postcard photograph of the shell-damaged farm was published by a Market Lavington photographer c1911 and may feature Pond Farm.