Reconstructing the First World War Aerodrome at Croydon / Beddington: Updated

Roger Potten has updated the ambulances and ambulance station on Sketch Up since the last blog post on the ambulance station. The ambulance is based on a replica made for filming reproductions at Stow Maries as they match the scene lot better than the stock Sketchup vintage lorry he used before:

Reconstructing the First World War Aerodrome at Croydon / Beddington: Photographs

Roger Potten has recreated two of Herbert Montgomery Martins photos from World War One. Compare The five ground crew (211):

with

and, to give context, where they are:

Then this one of Pt Fay on a Phelon & Moore 350 RFC issue motorbike: 

with

Then to give context, you can see they are near Plough Lane and New Barn Farm:

Reconstructing the First World War Aerodrome at Croydon / Beddington in Detail: Bombing Observation Tower

One of the new training procedures brought in was target practice for pilots to bomb designated locations. In the field these would mainly be trenches, army camps or Zeppelin bases. Roger Potten has reconstructed the bombing observation tower that was used in this training - one side of the airfield seems to have been effectively used for target practice.

Compare this with Montgomery Martin's photograph below:

Reconstructing the First World War Aerodrome at Croydon / Beddington in Detail: Hangers, HQ and Camels

Following on from our previous post on Roger Potten's reconstructions of the aerodrome between 1916-1919, these images illustrate the hangers (and therefore detail aspects of the training) on the site. The light and the grass make the reconstructions seem even more real. The images are constantly being added to as Roger finds more details from visiting other places, such as Stow Maries.

View from the Hanger

Building Beddington / Croydon Aerodrome in 1918

The last post detailed the activities of volunteer Roger Potten in mapping out the aerodrome and airfield from 1917 to 1920. Drawing on photographs and what maps he could find, Roger has illustrated the rapid growth of the aerodrome after it became the base for the Training Squadron. Roger has also carefully reconstructed the buildings by date. These shots of the aerodrome reconstruct it from 1918 and give a sense of the scale of it

A view showing Plugh Lane and the farm to the right.

Mapping the Aerodrome in the First World War

Roger Potten is one of our highly skilled archive volunteers who has been working on rebuilding the first Croydon Airport (1919-1927) on a platform called Sketch Up. This software enables the building of architecture to create sophisticated 3 dimensional reconstructions with intricate detail and texture.

First airport tower, 1923

When the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded Historic Croydon Airport Trust a grant to investigate the first world war origins of what became Croydon Airport, Roger turned his attention to 1916-1918. He began building up a reconstruction what started as an airstrip overshadowed by the farm on Plough Lane in 1916 to a large RAF training aerodrome, complete with bombing practice range, by 1918. In doing this Roger has found the photographs of Herbert Montgomery Martin, previously blogged, invaluable for building up an accurate picture of the layout of the airfield and aerodrome and the intricate details needed for the added texture. This blog shares the maps that Roger has pieced together of the airfield and aerodrome from 1917-1919.

By summer 1918 the training airfield had grown dramatically and surrounds the farm with a camp now on the farm side of Plough Lane. The Training Squadron was still growing.

Shortly after the war ended, the RAF (newly formed on 1 April 1918) was still using the airfield and aerodrome for training purposes and for taking civilians and politicians to Paris for the Versailles war treaty negotiations. The farm is now entirely overshadowed and Plough Lane is clearly a barrier in the aerodrome.

By 1920, the aerodrome was designated for civilian transportation and became an airport, i.e. having a customs and excises for duty on imported and exported goods.

Gosport Photographs: Keith le Geyt Lansdowne 1897 - 1984

Keith le Gent Lansdowne aged 17 in 1914 from album 3

Historic Croydon Airport Trust is extraordinarily fortunate to have 3 albums of original photographs taken (mainly) at Gosport 1916-18. They are among the Trust's archival 'crown jewels'. We  knew very little about them before now but can add some information about Keith Lansdowne, who donated them. They have been digitised due to funding given to  this Fighting for Air project from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The photographs appear to have been (mostly) taken by Keith le Geyt Lansdowne, who was born 1897 and served in the Royal Flying Corp then Royal Air Force as an electrician and mechanic. It is likely that he was transferred within the army from his original regiment, where he'd seen action in Belgium, due to the need for electricians in the enlarging RFC.