First and Second World War airfield, 'Rochford Airfield' (now 'London Southend Airport'), Rochford (EHER 14870)

A civil airport, which had phases of use as a military airfield in both World Wars. The site opened as a military airfield for the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. It was used during World War One for training airmen and to attempt to intercept German raids on London. In 1919 the airfield was decommissioned and the site reverted to farmland. It reopened in 1935 as a civil airport. In 1939 the airport was once more used as a military airfield, known as RAF Rochford, mainly for fighter units of various nationalities. It was used by 11 Group of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain: this group was the most heavily engaged in that battle. The airfield was still grass surfaced, and was equipped with a mixture of Bellman and Blister aircraft hangars. The airfield was protected by three Pickett Hamilton forts, (a special type of retractable pillbox) one of which survived in 1989 In 1944 it was also for armament practice and as a barrage balloon centre. After World War Two, it was again a civil airport. In 1955-1956 two hard runways were added. In 1995 there was a major programme of refurbishment at the airport, some airport buildings were demolished, and others renovated. In the early years of the 21st century there are plans to expand the airport.

Remains of WWII airfield, consisting only of a metalled perimeter track, on early vertical photography. The subsequent development of the airfield noted on following year photography. <1> - <8> This flying ground, began as 'Rochford' an RFC defence aerodrome and eventually became the largest in the county and house the greatest number of units. The site was founded in the autumn of 1914 when farmland between Westbarrow Hall and the Great Eastern railway line at Warners Bridge 2½ miles north of Southend Pier was acquired for RFC training purposes. Eastwoodbury Lane formed the southern boundary and from near St Lawrence and All Saints' church to the west a tributary of the River Roach and hedges ran northwards along the west side. The south and west sides also had 12'0" high poles with telephone wires strung between them but this was not considered too much of a hazard. Relatively open country lay between the northern boundary and the church of St Andrew at Rochford Hall three-quarters of a mile to the north, whilst the east boundary stopped short of the railway line. At 40' amsl the level surface was a heavy loam soil which was moderate but wet in winter, maximum landing dimensions being 1000 x 800 yards with the surroundings fairly open with large fields. Initially marked during the day by a white strip the landing ground later had the usual luxury of a landing circle added. Training continued until May 1915 when the site, known also as Eastwood, was taken over by the RNAS to become a Flight Station (night) in the fight against intruding Zeppelins. The camp area was set up in the south-west corner, near to the church, where a copse of trees existed. After the last RNAS action from here on 26 April 1916 all personnel and stores went to Detling Air Station in Kent and on 4 June it became once again RFC Rochford. Initially it was defined as a Home Defence night landing ground but in September was reclassified as a Flight Station (night) in the 1st Class category. It was then allocated to 'A' Flight of No.37 (RD) Sqn in 50th Wing, South East Area who moved in from the experimental station at Orfordness, Suffolk with their B.E.2 and B.E.12 aircraft. A building programme had started in June for a planned completion date of 30 November 1918 and, with the site boundaries squared off to finally encompass an area of 168 acres, 73 structures eventually occupied 35 acres on the southern and western boundaries with a separate sewage disposal works a quarter of a mile to the south. However by the end of November 1916 on-site accommodation was still not finished such that the ground staff remained at billets in Rochford with aircrews at the Westcliffe Hotel in Southend town. On receipt of an alert, the first of which came on 28 November when only one defensive sortie was flown, the duty crews would be driven from the hotel to the aerodrome. Normal Home Defence duties continued until after the Armistice when a run-down of unit activities began, with No.198 Sqn disbanding in May and No.61 in June 1919. Except for the occasional civilian flights aviation lessened, even more so when the station closed in 1920 and the site returned to farmland. The whole of the southern technical site area was later developed for housing with roads having names such as Avro and Bristol being laid down to commemorate the aircraft types flown during the war just ended. Early in 1933 Southend Corporation bought the aerodrome for a flying ground but prior to it opening, a site at Holt Farm on the Ashingdon Road to the north of Rochford, was used in the interim. On 18 September 1935 the flying ground became a municipal aerodrome, the opening being carried out by Sir Philip Sassoon, the Under Secretary of State for Air, who arrived in his D1185 Leopard Moth as one of the many aircraft to attend that day. Southend Flying Club, Crilly Airways and Southend on Sea Flying Services Ltd were in residence, along with a RAF Volunteer Reserve unit which was based here along with No.34 F and RFTS until the outbreak of the Second World War when the civil aerodrome closed on 1 September 1939. Taken over by the RAF it became a satellite of Hornchurch as RAF Rochford in No. 11 Group, Fighter Command but was renamed Southend in October 1940. By March 1943 the war had passed it by and in 1944 it became part of the V1 balloon barrage network. In May 1946 it closed and was handed back to Southend Corporation for civil flying to be resumed. From 1948 it was the main base for Aviation Traders Ltd who, for many years as the resident aircraft company, carried out the conversions and servicing of Handley Page Halifax/Halton aircraft and other types working on the Berlin Airlift. Cross-channel car and passenger ferry services were operated by Air Charter and Channel Airways using the Bristol Freighter Mk 31, then in 1956 two asphalt runways were laid inside the WWII concrete perimeter track to replace the grass surface. Further airlines then took advantage of the airport location for both internal and cross-channel services and it became a busy terminal for flights of all types to the Continent and beyond. In 1957 Aviation Traders (Engineering) Ltd were tasked to design and build for Freddie Laker the 'Accountant', a DC3 replacement which did not progress past the sole prototype, which was followed in 1960 by the ATL 98 'Carvair', a conversion of the Douglas DC4/C54 design. Carvairs operated in the cross-channel car ferry role until 1975 when the trade declined, the carriage of freight then took over both the type and the airport's role, and although private aviation has increased to date the air freight companies still struggle to survive. <9> Little of the 1918 airfield survives. The original landing ground is now part of Southend Airport, while the buildings along Eastwoodbury Lane (now in Southend Unitary Authority) have been replaced by a housing estate. Any remains of the WWI structures which may survive should be recorded and where possible preserved. <10> See also <11>. A 1942 aerial photographs shown an irregular shape grass field with a track around its perimeter. On the south side two Bellman type hangars at (TQ 8710 8890 and TQ 87221 8888) were erected, the latter of which survives. Four Blister hangars were dispersed around the perimeter. An aerial photo taken in 1942 shows the grass field camouflaged with paint in an attempt to break up the otherwise obvious airfield. Post-war Southend has been developed into a busy airport. In 1955 two paved runways were added and most traces of WWII and earlier airfield have disappeared with the exception of the Bellman hangar. A dispersed site existed at TQ 865 895 which is now wood/scrub. <12> - <15> Site assessment: This is an historical airfield but the only identifiable remains from this past is the Bellman hangar - which is a rare structure and should be retained and preserved. Importance ***. <16> 2003. World War Two Defences in Rochford survey: site visit and desktop research. Historical overview, 1914 - 1946: Rochford Airfield was first established in 1914 when land to the north of Eastwoodbury Lane and west of the Great Eastern railway line was acquired for training pilots of the Royal Flying Corps. By the following year the site had been taken over by the Royal Naval Air Service in the battle against intruding Zeppelins. It once again changed hands in June 1916 when the RFC returned and within a few months Rochford had been upgraded to a Flight Station (night) in the 1st Class category. In August, No. 37 (RD) Sqn moved in with B.E.2 and B.E.12 aircraft, one of a number of squadrons to be based at Rochford to counter the Gotha bomber menace. By the end of the war the site encompassed 168 acres, with 73 buildings and other structures along its south and west boundaries. However, like most of the wartime airfields, the site was then run down, the buildings dismantled and by 1920 the land returned to agriculture. With the ever-growing interest in civil aviation, the site was purchased in 1933 by Southend Corporation and within two years had been re-opened as Southend Municipal Airport. Four years later, at the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, it was requisitioned by the RAF and civil flying ceased. RAF Rochford, as it now was, became a satellite of RAF Hornchurch in No. 11 Group, Fighter Command. It quickly became a fully operational fighter airfield with Spitfires of No. 54 and 74 squadrons alternating between their parent station, Hornchurch, and Rochford. With the Battle of Britain at its height in the summer of 1940, the station played host to a number of fighter squadrons, flying both Spitfires and Hurricanes. In October 1940 the station was renamed RAF Southend and its role as an advanced base grew. During the following years pilots from many countries, including South Africa, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and North America, were stationed at the site. Although the Spitfires and Hurricanes played the primary role, aircraft of numerous types were based there, including Defiants, Lysanders and the rare Westland Whirlwind. By 1944, with defence turning to offence, the site was being wound down. It became first a training camp, then a transit base for the RAF Regiment and finally, in September, it was placed under ‘Care and Maintenance’. In 1946, the site was de-requisitioned and returned to Southend Corporation. <9> <17> Ground defences, 1939 - 1945: In determining the extent of the defence works constructed during World War Two, the primary source has been a plan of the airfield dated 1945. This plan shows a layout of all the buildings and structures at that point in time within, not outside, the boundaries of the site. All the buildings and structures are numbered and there is a clear Schedule with the function listed. The pillboxes, battle headquarters, Pickett-Hamilton forts and aircraft dispersal pens are all shown. The second major source is low-level aerial photographs taken in August 1947 from a height of just 4,000 feet. This series of photographs - there are 24 in total covering not only the airfield but a large part of the land around it - is so clear that structures as small as Light Anti-Aircraft ammunition shelters, and even Pickett-Hamilton forts, can be made out. Crucially to the World War Two Defences in Rochford project, the defences both inside and around the airfield can be seen. Thus it is possible to pinpoint the LAA emplacements and their ammunition shelters plus the pillboxes in the surrounding fields. There is, however, one reservation. Many, if not most, pillboxes were covered with soil on the roof as a camouflage. When this has grassed-over it can be difficult to make the pillbox out against the field background. This is particularly true in the case of the 'mushroom-type' F.C. Construction Company pillboxes which have a larger-than-normal flat roof. It is therefore possible that not all of these have been picked up in the study of aerial photographs a testament to a simple but effective wartime camouflage technique. From the two sources outlined above, the extent and precise locations of the vast majority of the airfield’s defences can be determined. It is now known that there were at least three Pickett-Hamilton forts, ten pillboxes, the battle headquarters and four Light Anti-Aircraft gun emplacements, with their ammunition shelters, within the current boundaries of the airfield. There were more pillboxes and LAA emplacements in the immediate vicinity. Although it was not possible, in the World War Two Defences in Rochford project, to access the major part of the airfield, much of it can be seen from vantage points outside the perimeter fence. Thus it is thought, with reasonable certainty, that within the airfield two Pickett-Hamilton forts, two pillboxes, the underground element of the battle headquarters and at least one LAA ammunition shelter still survives. Outside, fieldwork has tracked down all the known sites and has discovered seven pillboxes and two LAA ammunition shelters still extant. <18> <19> See also aerial photograph <20> and NMP cropmark plot <21>. NRHE data transfer: London Southend Airport, formerly Southend Municipal Airport , A civil airport, which had phases as a military airfield in both World Wars. The site opened as a military airfield for the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, after ad hoc use in 1915. It was used during World War One for training airmen and to attempt to intercept German raids on London. Units using the base in World War I included 37, 11 and 61 Squadrons RFC. In 1919 the airfield was decommissioned and the site reverted to farmland. It reopened in 1935 as a civil airport. In 1939 the airport was once more used as a military airfield, mainly for fighter or fighter bomber units, including 37 , 65, 603, 54, 611, 324, 350 Squadrons, 222 (Natal) Squadron, 402, 411 and 403 Royal Canadian Air Force, 350 (Belgian) Squadron, 453 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, 121 Eagle Squadron (composed of American volunteers), 310 and 313 Czech Squadrons . The wartime airfield was known as RAF Southend. It was protected by three Pickett Hamilton forts (retractable pillboxes), one of which, along with an air raid shelter was rediscovered and found to be in working order in 1989. In 1944 the airfield was also used for armament practice. After World War Two, it was again a civil airport: the Southend Airport website details the fluctuating fortunes of the civil airport and the airlines using it. In 1955-1956 two hard runways were added. In 1995 there was a major programme of refurbishment at the airport, some airport buildings were demolished, and others renovated. In the early years of the 21st century there are plans to expand the airport. <22> Southend WWII airfield, Essex, TQ 872 895. The WWII phase of the airfield was still grass surfaced, and equipped with Blister and Bellman type aircraft hangars. By December 1944 the airfield was apparently designated as a barrage balloon centre. <23> Southend Municipal Airport TQ 872 895 (NAT). <24> Also known as RAF Rochford. For further details on this airfield please refer to source <25>. RAF Rochford was used by RAF 11 Group during the Battle of Britain. The following units were stationed there during the battle: No 54 Squadron from 25 June 1940, No 264 Squadron from 27 August 1940, No 264 Squadron from 29 October 1940. <26>