Thursday 28 September 2017

Aerodrome not Airport!

Strictly speaking this blog will not be about Croydon Airport for the next 10 months or so. We'll be sharing research from our Heritage Lottery Funded project Fighting for Air about the origins of the airport in the aerodromes - Waddon and Wallington or Beddington - in Sutton and Croydon and the impact of the war locally.

In order to start this blog off on that theme, I thought we'd share some photographs of
Wellington or Beddington Aerodrome 1918
Wallington, also known as Beddington, aerodrome that Historic Croydon Airport Trust have copies. These belonged to a Royal Flying Corp (then Royal Air Force) officer Herbert Montgomery Martin. These photographs were scanned in by Cross and Cockade from a descendant of Martin some years ago.


This is just a short post to wet your appetite for the research and information to come from our project. . .
Waddon Camp
Bristol M1C crash landed in field at Beddington gasworks


Thursday 14 September 2017

Volunteers needed for assistance with ‘Fighting for Air’ World War One Project
Just over one hundred years ago, two small airfields at the edge of Croydon became a focus for fighting German zeppelins and planes in World War One. Historic Croydon Airport Trust (HCAT) has received a National Lottery grant of £9,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to explore the ‘war in the air’ and how it impacted on the local area.  The Historic Croydon Airport Trust are the volunteer run charity that operates the popular Croydon Airport Visitor Centre and we are looking for volunteers to research and interpret information for this project.

Topics to be researched include Zeppelin raids on Croydon and London 1915-16, the development of air defences, the opening and function of the National Aircraft Factory, the female workforce at this factory, the airmen – many of whom became ‘celebrity’ pilots – and the impact on the local area. We are also looking to catalogue the relevant collections held in HCAT archives. The underlying aim is to share the research with a wider audience through the stories you uncover.
33 Leslie Rd, Croydon, Air Raid Damage, 1915 (c) IWM (HO26)

The information on the airport’s involvement in the First World War will inform a new display case and interpretation at Croydon Airport Visitor Centre micro-museum. The impact of the war and the fledgling aviation industry on the local area will be mapped on the History Pin website and a free heritage map produced.

We Need You!

We are looking for volunteers to help us with this project. We will provide training on research techniques, reading material around the subject area and using archives as well as time to share knowledge. There will be a visit to the War in the Air exhibition at the RAF Museum in Colindale (on Saturday 4 or 18 November), as well as presentations from experts.

We need people who can use email and basic Word and Excel programmes

Travel expenses to the RAF Museum Colindale and locations external to Croydon & Sutton will be paid.

The sessions will take place on monthly evening meetings from October 2017 to March 2018. Dates are 17 October, 14 November, 12 December, 9 January, 6 February and 6 March 6-8pm. The first one will be in the Croydon Airport Visitor Centre at Airport House.

Please send an email as an expression of interest with a paragraph of information about why you want to take part. We ask for a commitment to attend 3 of the evening sessions.


Contact: Debbie Challis on volcoordcas@gmail.com