So a while back yuo may recall I posted about a forthcoming UXO survey I need to commission around the locality of Shoreham Airport.
Pattle expressed an interest in this so I mailed him with some interesting info. Nothing about the job obviously, or about the survey which will remain confidential unless it makes it's way into the public domain as part of the planning process.
so as noted... all of this is in the public domain... and obviously I'm not going to be discussing anything beyond that...
drop this into google maps
50.835667, -0.304828
That chunk of land imediately west of Shoreham Airport is identified in Adur District Councils Local Plan for a mixed use development. Housing / retail / public open space
And since its right next door to a WWII airstrip an unexpolded ordnance survey is generally considered a pretty good idea !!
Typically these cover the wider area and seek to locate areas knwon to have been hit by Axis bombs and potential Allied anti aircraft shells.
The airfield itself has been active ever since... so will have been sweeped, one would hope THOROUGHLY, in the past.
The runway located southwest-northeast is tarmac and built in '81 / '82.. which is why it isn't there in CLoD....
another feature you will see if you switch to "earth" view is a thing that looks like a model of planet earth at the northwest corner of the Airfield...
It was an anti aircraft gunnery training dome. and is now actually a scheduled monument... "YEY!"
I'm trying to myself get a tour of that as it goes.... Fingers crosed !!
So... Public Domain Stuff
here is a document I found in the public domain which tells a little about the airfields history... and about those domes too !
http://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/medi...,139006,en.pdf
oph look.. i found a map showing teh training dome as a red blob (also in the public domain)
https://historicengland.org.uk/listi...-entry/1005818
Also...
If you do get the chance to drive past at any point then definatly drop in to the terminal building... very cool Art Deco...
It has a restaurant too.... and is open to visitors, no special permits required.
Free parking too if you use those bays along the eastern boundary road. !
Couple of old american WWII training aircraft there too and a pair of Tiger moths... and some other WWII type plane I havent yet properly identified... you can stand there literally 3m away from them as the warm up and taxi off... and get airbourne.
Amazing. !
A month or two or three back... (I lost track) there was a part stripped Merlin engine in the lobby of Northbrook College (who have an engineering training facility there)... i think I posted some shots of that here some place...
I went back more recently and it had gone... presumably shifted back to the students training workshops...
Amazing to be stood right in front of that monster !!
So there ya go...
Bit of light public domain reading.
Did I mention that all of this is in the public domain?
It's kind of important !!
'Seas
EDIT
Look what they found in March
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-35868978
(they were in the public domain by the way... hehehe)
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