Monument record MDO39623 - Early 20th century military airfield, Hurn, Christchurch

Hurn airfield was digitally plotted from 1940s aerial photographs by the Dorset Stour NMP. The photographs show the airfield at a time of transition from military to civilian use but prior to major alteration and extension. Many World War II buildings and structures are visible, some of which are still extant. A former World War Two military airfield known as Hurn, now an airport. The military airfield was opened in 1941. The airfield was provided with three concrete runways, a large number of hard standings, and a mixture of aircraft hangars (type T2, Bellman and Blister aircraft hangars). The airfield served a number of roles including use for testing airborne radar, and as a base for glider training. During the D-day campaign it was used for squadrons of Typhoon aircraft who were attacking German positions and troop movements in Normandy. After the war the airfield was used by the aircraft industry: as a training and development centre by the British Overseas Airways Corporation and as an aircraft factory for Vickers Aircraft during the 1950s. In the early 1960s it was the home of the the School of Air traffic Control. It is now Bournemouth-Hurn airport. The layout has subsequently been altered and a runway extended. The site is also home to the jet Heritage Aviation Museum.

Hurn airfield served a number of roles including use for testing airborne radar (by the telecommunications Flying Unit) and as a base for glider training (for the Glider Pilot regiment). During the D-day campaign it was used by Canadian squadrons forming 149 Wing flying Typhoon aircraft, who were attacking German positions and troop movements in Normandy. The airfield is now Bournemouth-Hurn Airport. The layout of the airfield has subsequently been altered and a runway extended. The airfield is also the home of the Jet Heritage Aviation Museum (noted in 1999). <3>

After the Second world War, Hurn was used by BOAC, by Vickers in the 1950s for aircraft production, and as the home of the School of Air Traffic Control in the early 1950s. <4>

Hurn airfield was digitally plotted from 1940s aerial photographs by the Dorset Stour NMP.

Aerial photographs of 1946 show the airfield at a time of transition from military to civilian use but prior to subsequent major alteration and extension <5>. Many World War II buildings and structures are visible; a small number of these are roofless, suggesting disuse by this time. Construction of larger hangars to replace existing hangars is already taking place by 1946 <5>. The aircraft dispersals are of the loop form by 1946 but the parchmark of an earlier frying pan dispersal bay is visible on the northwest side of the airfield, overlain by the later loop form <5>. On the northwest side of the airfield the loop dispersals are themselves being built over in places by the new construction taking place. Present within the dispersal areas on the north side of the airfield and also along the southern taxiway are a number of circular bays containing small circular points set in a circle with one central point inside these. These are thought to be aircraft tie down points for bomber aircraft.

To the west of the wartime airfield, located in fields to the west of the main runway are structures and an access trackway considered likely to be associated with a radar station, possibly an approach radar for aircraft taking off and landing. Aerial photographs of 1954 and 1981 reveal alterations to the radar station site, which becomes amalgamated into the extended runway by 1988 <6-8>.

On the northeast side of the airfield a series of small ditches or trenches are visible in 1946 <5>. These may be slit trenches or possibly bomb or blast shelters. These features are within the heathland on the northeast edge of the airfield and it is not clear whether these are contemporary with the World War II airfield or earlier World War I features. Also in this part of the airfield are a number of banked linear features and a possible banked enclosure showing up on current Lidar imagery <9>. These may be associated with historic field boundaries and enclosures and not necessarily part of the wartime airfield. These are still within an area of open tree covered ground on current Google Earth imagery, although not visible beneath the tree canopy <10>.

Dispersed within the airfield are a number of banked structures with four interior compartments, un-roofed and with a single entrance <5>. These may be blast shelters contemporary with the World War II airfield. Additionally, there are a small number of rectangular banked structures with curved roofs and a single deepset entrance; these may also be shelters of some form <5>. Both types of possible shelters are also evident within a series of ancillary complexes (MDO 39677) to the east of the airfield on 1940s aerial photographs, also thought to be military in nature and possibly a military camp or part of the wider airfield complex.

The features comprised within Hurn Airfield by the 1940s were digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

Hurn airfield is noted in the Willis and Holliss gazetteer <2> of World War Two airfields. The address details are incorrectly given in the gazetter as Hampshire, SU 115 980 (sic- the letters in the grid reference appear to have been mis-typed and should be SZ. Also Hurn lies in Dorset). <11>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1972 (Map). SDO17396.

Bournemouth (Hurn) Airport SZ 115 980 (NAT)

<2> Willis, Steve, and Hollis, Barry, 1987, Military airfields in the British Isles 1939-1945, 110 (Monograph). SDO17980.

<3> Smith, G, 1999, Dorset Airfields of the Second World War (Monograph). SWX8847.

<4> Levesley, John, Other Wartime Airfields Around Winkton Advanced Landing Ground, Hurn (Digital archive). SDO18935.

<5> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4168-72 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15525.

<6> Royal Air Force, 07-OCT-54, RAF/58/1593 F21 0006-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15526.

<7> Royal Air Force, 07-JUL-81, OS/81030 V 34-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15527.

<8> Royal Air Force, 03-AUG-88, OS/88209 V 292-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15521.

<9> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

<10> Google Earth, 2017, Google Earth 2017 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15388.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1398712 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 29 2022 4:29PM