Help me out - where is this? It's driving me nuts!

Hey all.

Can anyone help me with this? I was sent the following picture along with some others a while ago by someone who said that they were of No.3 Glider Training school.

I know for a fact it's not No.3 GTS but I can't for the life of me figure out the unit or location without any certainty. As I don't want to get into trouble over copyright I've scaled the pictures down and cropped out a section that might help with identification.

What can I tell you?

Well, first of all they are all Hotspur MkII gliders in 1942/1943 colours and markings. I'm 90% sure the unit is No.1 Glider Training School. I asked the RAF Museum for the movement cards for three of the aircraft who's serials could be seen and the only unit the three have that sync up is No.1 GTS between September 1942 and March 1942. Also in one slide you can see a sky letter P over painted with 39 in white - and this they did when they moved to Croughton. Also the tugs are Miles Master II's which 1 GTS received in August 1942.

The problem is, I can't place the airfield! The above details tie up nicely with them being at Croughton but I cannot get the details in the background to match up with any photo I have of the place.

What's clear from the photo, to me at least, is:

- There seems to be a definite slope to the landing area.
- No evidence of a hard runway.
- The perimeter track at some point has a concave corner.
- There are two blister hangers.
- There appears to be a house between the two hangers on the other side of the hedge on the curve.

Any of you geniuses want to help me identify the airfield and the spot it was taken from?

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No-one? I'm stunned!

I'm not sure about Croughton, there looks to be a hard runway in the second photo

Croughton certainly has a slope but I can see why the image is tricky to ID
The NW corner of the A/F has a similar taxyway curve but no signs of any Blister sites - although I suppose they could have been obliterated !(unusual)
REF's rwy could be a taxy link or a dispersal link (ie long frying pan)

Shame it is not 3 GTS - at least that would give the options of Culmhead,Exeter and Zeals.
Culmhead has a similar peritrack shape at Trickey Warren,but the dispersal tracks are not quite right and unsure of slope at these locations anyway.
A WW2 site plan would help of course

Yes I looked at netheravon as well but could not find a match for location...!

edit...same for kidlington

Could it be No.2 GTS at Weston on the Green?

Skelly, It's No.1 GTS for the reasons mentioned in the first post.

Not much help but, 1 GTS movements:
In 1942 Croughton had 8 blisters - nothing else. Some of these can be seen on GE rolled back to 1945 - the larger sheds (extant today) were added post 1942.
1944 gives 4 off T2 and 10 off blister.

Intriguing.