Wombleton

54°13'59"N 000°58'16"W

runway: 03/21 - 1280x45m - concrete
runway: 09/27 - 1825x45m - concrete
runway: 16/34 - 1280x45m - concrete

Wombleton airfield (RAF Wombleton) was an airfield 310 kilometers north of London.
The airfield opened on 20 October 1943. A day later 1666 'Mohawk' Heavy Conversion Unit occupied the base for training purposes with Halifaxes and Lancasters. They shared the airbase with only one other unit, and only for a little over a month. Between 13 December 1943 and 27 January 1944 1679 HCU, flying Lancasters, shared the base. Wombleton served as a sub-station of RAF Topcliffe and was part of 6 Group RCAF.
In December 1944 the base was transferred to 7 (Training) Group. The 'Mohawks' were to remain at the airfield until August 1945. After they left the aifield it was put on care and maintenance under 261 Maintenance Unit.
On 10 September 1946 they were replaced with 268 Maintenance Unit. 268 remained at the airfield until 31 August 1948, after which the airfield closed.
It was permanently closed and sold off in 1949.


A Halifax B.II srs1 (special) of 1666 HCU at Wombeton in June 1944 (ww2aircraft.net).


Lancaster B.Mk.I/III serving with No.1666 HCU at Wombleton, early 1945 (ww2aircraft.net).


A Lancaster parked on Wombleton during World War II, with the bomb-dump woodland in the background (Kirkbymoorside Town website, via yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk).

During the 1950s some of the accomodation blocks were used to house homeless people. At some time the airfield began to see use by light aircraft and microlights. The abandoned operations building was photographed without windows in 1978. Since, it has been closed up, and it was photographed again in 1986, with glass in most of its windows.
Part of the west side of the airifleld is now occupied by a caravan and camping park. Although it still sees some occasional flying it has mainly been returned to agriculture. A local road crosses the main (09/27) runway along the 06/34 runway. From aerial photography (Google Earth) a number of what appeared to be small pigsties were located on the north side of the runways until at least 2002. At the same time two small aircraft could be observed around the airfield; one in front of the tower, and one on the south side.
The pigsties were gone in October 2008 and only one aircraft was visible on the north side of the airfield. A year later two aircraft were visible; one on the north side, and one near a shed on the southwest side.


Overview of what remained of Wombleton in 2002. Small pigsties can be seen on the northern sides of the runways (Google Earth).


Overview of what remained of Wombleton in Oktober 2008. (Google Earth).



Overview of the airfield in 2009 (Google Earth).


View along 16/34 from 09/29 heading north in June 2011 (© 2011 Ian S. - Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence.)