Eshott

55°16'46"N 001°43'05"W

runway: 01/19 - 1122x45m - tarmac/asphalt (CLOSED)
runway: 08/26 - 1722x45m - tarmac/asphalt (CLOSED)
runway: 14/32 - 1110x45m - tarmac/asphalt (CLOSED)
runway: 14/32 - 600x43m - tarmac/asphalt (CLOSED)
runway: 01/19 - 610x11m/2000x35ft - asphalt
runway: 01/19 - 550x17m/1800x55ft - grass
runway: 08/26 - 490x11m/1608x35ft - asphalt

Eshott airfield (RAF Eshott, also known as Bockenfield Aerodrome) is a airfield 435 kilometers north of London.
The airfield was built in 1942 and opened on 10 November 1942 as RAF Eshott. It served as the station of No.57 Operational Training Unit (OTU), operating Spitfires. At the time some 2000 personnel were stationed at the base. Spitfire training was carried out at the airfield until the unit was moved to RAF Boulmer in August 1944.
It was then put on Care and Maintenance until it was sold off in 1948.


World War II plan of the airfield

The airfield was then largely returned to agricultural use. Many of its wartime facilities were torn down. Some remain however, as do some platforms, the runway and much of its taxi track and dispersal system. On the north side of the airfield the taxitrack was converted into a public local road.
Around 1990 the airfield reopened.
On its old runway system three smaller runways were laid out, and a fourth grass runway was laid out immediately parallel to the 01/19 runway. The airfield is now the home for over 50 aircraft and accommodates a clubhouse building, parking, and several hangar blocks. Somewhere between 2002 and 2011 it lost the use of the 600x43m 14/32 runway when hangarage was built on the runway.


airfield map ca. 2002 (eshottairfield.co.uk).


Overview of the airfield in 2002 (Google Earth)


The airfield in 2006 shows some construction had taken place on the 14/32 runway, as well as ongoing construction north of the former technical site (Google Earth).


View of the old runway 01/19 in 2008.


2009 overview of the airfield, showing even more hangars on the 14/32 runway, and a completed hangar north of the former technical site (Google Earth).