( I live on old ) Thornaby airfield

Good evening all. I currently live on the site of the old airfield in thornaby and would really be interested in obtaining a map or pics of the airbase as recently married a southerner and it turns out that my hubbys grandfather was based where we actually live which has surprised us and we are intrigued for any help we would be very grateful. Thank you

Welcome Nicolette,

Which 'new' road or area do you live on? Might be able to superimpose a feature of the former airfield onto the current plan view.

thank you so much for that I will have a look this afternoon

hi thank you for your response, we live on Harrier close, my neighbour told me that this was where a hanger that contained the spitfires was?

Welcome Nicolette. Thornaby was my 'home airfield' when I was a kid. It had two large 'C' hangars. One burned down decades ago and your house stands on that site. If you go into Google Earth, you can wind the clock back to the year 2000 and clearly see the base of the hangar. There is a slight anomaly with these earlier views as the large steel hangar just to the northwest of your road disappears then comes back again as you observe different dates.

Not sure about Spitfires though, but lots of other aircraft would have used your hangar.

There are two books on the subject:
Thornaby Aerodrome and Wartime Memories : David Brown. Out of print and S/H copies are not cheap.

Kipper Patrol by Louise Wilkinson. It's an interesting book but unfortunately contains numerous factual errors and more spelling and grammatical errors than I've ever encountered in any publication. It clearly hadn't been proof read. Most of the photos are dreadful, but, as said, it's interesting read.

tinyurl.com/krvyk7l

Hopefully David Thompson will be along.

You should be able to get your bearings with this! Image dated 1949

Note, the actual negative is damaged so ignore the 'golf course' mess on the left half of the image.

North is to the LEFT

Click on the markers for info:

www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw024...ch=thornaby%20&ref=2

Carnaby wrote:

Kipper Patrol by Louise Wilkinson. It's an interesting book but unfortunately contains numerous factual errors and more spelling and grammatical errors than I've ever encountered in any publication. It clearly hadn't been proof read. Most of the photos are dreadful, but, as said, it's interesting read. tinyurl.com/krvyk7l
Hopefully David Thompson will be along.

Hard to believe but Ms Wilkinson is/was a teacher , of history too , so I was led to understand ?

Get in touch by PM Nicolette and I can supply you with some maps and information and there is also a display of Thornaby aerodrome memorabilia in the local library which is well worth a look .

Despite an imitation Spitfire on the roundabout in Thornaby, I think from what I have read that no Spitfires were actually based at Thornaby. Although, I guess that there were occasions when Spitfires visited the airfield.
The claim to fame of the RAF station was 608 Squadron and I think there has been some material on this website before about RAF Thornaby.

There were various fighter flights stationed here as detachments from the 13 Group Fighter Sector Station at RAF Catterick e.g (Source: Rawlings: Fighter Squadrons of the RAF...)
I guess the Spitfire is a more attractive and well known aircraft than the Hudson or Warwick and follows the popular belief that 'All WWII fighters are Spitfires, all WWII bombers are Lancasters.