Tollerton / Nottingham

[stevie]

As far as i'm aware nobody has posted anything on Tollerton so far on here so here it is!!

Been a while since i last visited this site so it was good to return. It is now known as Nottingham airport and houses a fair size collection of light aircraft and the original wartime runways look in pretty good condition. It was originally a civilian all grass airfield in the 1930's before the RAF moved in during the war years using the site for training and Field Aircraft Services used a big factory on site overhauling Lancasters, Hampdens,Dakotas Halifaxes etc Nowadays the airfield is operated by Trueman Aviation. It's a nice little airfield although theres not a huge amount from it's wartime days still surviving....


OPS block above and below what i believe was the factory building where Field Aircraft Services where based until they moved out to Wymeswold in 1957.




Signals square above and below 'Nottingham'
[IMG
Shelter lurking amongst the undergrowth.


Original and current enterance to the airfield.

Nice to see this restored Pill box.


..with some quite interesting plaques attatched to it..




Sorry some of these are a bit on the blurred side. The setting wintery sunshine was making it a bit tricky.

[stevie]

View across the runways. It was pretty quiet on my visit. I remember it being pretty busy here in the past though.

The control tower is fairly modern by the looks of it.Would be interesting to see a pic of the wartime tower.

[stevie]

Thanks for the kind words Rich. I do love walking around airfields at dusk (the disused ones especially). They have such a great atmosphere at this time of the day and especially at this time of the year.

There were a couple of other small memorials on the pill box that came out blurred so i couldn't post them on here. I'm sure one of them mentioned the Polish airman from Newton who used Tollerton for circuits and bumps when the station was a satellite to Newton.

Let me know when you want to 'tick off Tollerton from the list' & i'll join you.

[REF]

I'll definately let you know when I'm about Stevie, there are so many I'd like to visit over that way. I'll see you at Newton next weekend anyway.

That book is really good, I got my copy a week or so ago - its 264 pages and packed full of great info. I ordered it from the Newark Air Museum, 01636 707170, the lady I spoke to was Roslyn Blackmore in the shop, she was very help ful and the cost was around the £9 mark including postage.

[Jerry]

Whilst "working" thought i'd stop off at Tollerton, Stevie got most of the pictures I did so I won't duplicate them, but a couple of different ones:



Some views from the control tower:







The memorial pillbox with helicopter:





Stanton shelter, with fire tender, hanger and plane:



The front hanger:



Another hanger:



The last photo of day, Belvoir Castle:

[dangerousdave]

I used to fly out of there in a Tomahawk. A week after I flew i it a guy borrowed it and slammed it into a mountain in Wales. Just a bit of useless trivia for you there!
There was a flying club called Sherwood Flying Club there and a pub called the Tiger Moth but I know the pub closed several years ago and I am unsure about the fllying club. I believe they still fly choppers out of there though.

[contentd]

Just came across this lot this morning...

Tollerton History from the original Truman Aviation Blurb Sheet Circa 1958 -rescued from a building skip.

(* Shipsides were a large motor car dealership)

1928 Opened, as City Airfield by Nottingham, Airports Ltd (* T. Shipside Ltd) Continued as active airfield catering for Private Fliers up to the time of Munich.

1938/1939 Used for RAF Reserve School and National Air Guard.

1939/1945 Field Aircraft Services take over Existing Maintenance Company and Airfield. becomes satellite to RAF Newton for Training purposes.

1946 T Shipside Ltd return and the Flying Club is reformed the Ministry of Aviation also set up offices and staff at the aerodrome with the intention of making it the Official Airport for Nottinham. Small air;Lines such as Blue Line and Trent Valley commenced operations. It is interesting to recall that the latter sold out to a Company which is now British Eagle, thus it is true to say that one of the biggest independent Operators started life at Tollerton. In fact Eagle Airways still have a registered office in Nottingham.

1949 The Ministry of Aviation gave up their tenure after the small airlines had closed down or been taken over.

Late 1949 The RAF returned and used as satellite to Syerston with Field Aircraft Services continuing,their maintenance activities. The original flying club closes but ndividual private fliers remain.

1956 Airfield Derequisitioned by RAF.

1957 Field Aircraft Services move majority of work to another base. Sherwood Flying Club then formed continues to look after Airfield until present time Sherwood Flying Club has 185 members, some come from as far away as Scarboroughh with 25/30 from the Sheffield area and the training programme has produced:-

76 New Licenced Pilots. -
24 Pilot Radio Over Operators.
6 Commercial Pilots
11 Flying Instructors
While at the moment 37 members are training for their licences.

110 Flying tests have been completed for the Ministry of Aviation and other Flying Schools and at the present moment there are 24 machines based there which is as many as if not more than the number of Private Aircraft kept in Birmingham.

Some of the personalities who have used the Airfield recently include the Prime Minister of Malaya, Lord Robens, Mr Bloom of the Rolls Washin~ Machine Company, Hughie Green, Stan Stennet. Alfie Bass as well as many business houses such us Tube Investments etc.Over the last twelve months there have been 3 3500 visiting aircraft and the total number of movements including Club Trainin& and Private owners based on the Airfield amount to 14270.

Flights starting from Tollerton have gone as far afield as Prague and behind the Iron Curtain and to Stuttgart,Paris, Brussels, Rome NIce and Le Mans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The name Truman Aviation can still be seen on the large Hangar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Yours truly amongst the remains of the "iconic" 30's Country Club destroyed by fire in 1982. Very sad, but fortunately due to heroic efforts by many the adjacent hangar (full of aircraft) escaped damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Present tower without the additional buildings tagged on.
The portacabins to the right were occupied by Halls Helicopters (Jetranger G-BHTR) and Noble Aviation (Piper Navajo G-BGCC)

The Chipmunk was operated by Sherwood Flying Club (G-BDBP)

Cheers
Dave

[stevie]

Fantastic post there Contentd! I've been recently reading about the club house fire in the excellent book "Tollerton - an airfield for Nottingham 1929-2007" funnily enough.

Anyway..More bad airfield news....
It's looking as though the historic Trueman and Field Aircraft hangar/Factory along with the few other remaining wartime buildings that actually do still exist at Tollerton will be eventually dissapearing under a new planned mini business park! Although the runways and remaining active airfield site will remain (Thank god) along with a planned new control tower for the airfield at least.
That doesnt take the 'sting' out of it for me to be honest. It's great that flying will still take place out of here but it's yet more historic airfield buildings set to dissapear before are eyes YET AGAIN !!.

...Anyway thought it would be good to update this thread with a few pics of the factory i took last weekend when i revisited the site with Wiganmick -

Pre-war shot first (obviously not taken by me last weekend..much as i would love a Tollerton time Machine) -







Nice shot inside the factory during it's hay-day -


....and today -

[stevie]

A couple of the derelict buildings nearby -

Above - gate house for the factory.
Below - Store building.



Steve

[stevie]

.......Just one more from me!
It's great to see they still find a use for this old pillbox. A nice landing point for the airfields helicopter fleet (excuse the piccy quality..it was hammering it down at the time!!) -