Boxted

[Carnaby]

I'm having a real problem with those lights:

1) Main runway lights are clearly shown on the September 1943 vertical in UK Airfields of the Ninth. (This despite AIR2/5500 which states that Contact lighting was not extant at this time).
2) They are not evident on the May 1946 vertical in Airfields of the Eighth, (but may have been toned down / overgrown by then).
3) Haven't seen anything exactly like the concrete plinth or the fitting itself before.
4) One very remote possibility is that they were early versions of the T2 (See POST 2)

T2 Post war glass encased, replacement for WWII cast iron taxi-track light. 12 volt lamp at either 12, 24 or 36 watts. Manufactured principally by GEC and Revo. 8 inch diameter with 5 inch glass dome. This unit was often fitted with a lens to provide a bi-directional beam and then used as flarepath lights at 100 yard spacing on subsidiary runways of some airfields in the immediate post war period.

Need to establish whether it is contact lighting or otherwise. Could some wonderful person measure the overall diameter, and that of the lens please. Thanks in advance.

Graham

[cwbalmer]

This may sound daft but is it possible that these were simply placed here to "get them out of the way"? They are also now upside down are they not? If you look at them they are split into 2 sections (across a track) and are sited at different angles...

I am happy to pop back up there and make a measurement Graham - give me a day or 2 and I will fire them at you.

[Richard t]

We are putting together a museum dedicated to this airfield. The USAAC used it between 1943-1945. It was home to 386th BG, 354th FG, 56th FG and 5th emergency rescue squadron. After the war finished it was used briefly by the RAF. If you were stationed at this airfield or are a relative of someone who was we would like to here from you. Likewise if you have an item to donate to put on public display that might be linked to the airfield or someone who served there, we could give it a good home.
see www.boxted-airfield.com

[airfields man]

Sounds like a great idea, best of luck with that project.

[SGA]

Speaking from Langham I can assure you that the concrete bases are from the airfield and were removed when the runways were dug up. Three of them are used on the new Memorial. I notice a comment about it being rare to find a base with the light fitting and when the original Monument was built in 1992 a local man managed to find somewhere, I think on the south coast, where there were some fittings. So the bases are from Langham but the lamp fittings are not.

[SGA]

In answer to another point the rest of the bases are not intended to be anything to do with the site. I think that they were simply placed there when the runways were grubbed up to get them out of the way.

[SGA]

This morning, being Remembrance Sunday, we held a wreath-laying ceremony there. The Union flag and the Stars and Stripes were flying from the flag poles, which adds to the appearance. There was also a bugler to mark the beginning and end of the two minute silence.

[STAN11]

Just to reiterate what our Richard has posted above, we've very nearly constructed a museum dedicated to Boxted Airfield's history which is situated a couple of miles outside Colchester in North Essex. Whilst this is going to be a small museum - we're housing it in two nissen huts at the moment - it will illustrate the important history of what happened here. Several 'Aces' came from Boxted and it was here that the young Roger Freeman started his observations which eventually became material for his books. In 2008 the memorial in Park Lane in the nearby village of Langham was refurbished to a high standard (there is a thread someone else has entered on this website with photos) and the museum will hopefully complement the memorial.

Like many airfields, there's not much left to see in some areas. On one side, the main runways are discernable and a few nissen huts remain. On the other side of the land (owned by one of our members) there is quite a lot of the old buildings left which are used as a business park. A Blister hangar and the flare hut remains as does the Ops' block -the latter three are not available for general public access I would point out. One would have to make arragements if they were interested in having a look.

The museum itself is constructed near the site of an old Cold War Royal Observor Corps Post and it may be possible - we don't really know yet - Health and Safety etc - to somehow include this into the museum. Recently we acquired part of a Marauder fuselage which had been left in storage since the 'Rebel Air Museum' was closed down many years ago at Earls Colne airfield. (The museum had to go as the owners wanted to put in a golf shop - wonderful)

We've made a bit of footage of us collecting it and if anyone's interested I'll put a 'YouTube' link on here so it can be seen. It's supposed to be the largest piece of Marauder left in the U.K. Anyway, the plan is to keep it trailer based bringing it over to the museum on open days.

We're now collecting articles for display and as word gets around more things are being donated and loaned. But saying that we're still on the lookout for things. We were given for example two very nice radio telephone sets that came from the base by a local woman, and some original light fittings. Through my metal detecting efforts we have (as with most WW2 airfields) plenty of spent cartridges.

I've also put together some YouTube videos of our small volunteer team constructing the nissen huts. Again if this is of interest let me know and I'll post a link.

ATB

Stan11.

[Denis]

So glad to see that remaining chunk of B-26 Marauder esconced safely on a former Ninth airfield.
A local chap had the same idea for a museum on Matching airfield, he also had that same piece of fuselage in mind too, but it never came to anything.
Good luck in your venture

[Southend Spitfire]

Good luck with the museum project. This is something i would like to see. What sort of condition is the B-26 in? that would also be good to see as there were many based in Essex.