Cramlington Aerodrome
(Author : Mick Davis)

Location :6 miles North of Newcastle
OS Ref : NZ 240 776

Map showing where the Aerodrome was located

Cramlington was the first RFC station to open in the North East and its establishment was a consequence of the German airship raids that had began during 1915. The industrial importance of Tyneside, at that time, was recognised by the decision to create a flight of BE2c machines specifically for its aerial defence. The Army and Navy were, during the closing months of 1915, involved in discussions concerning responsibilities for Home Defence but had not reached a formal agreement. The flight was formed nevertheless.

BE2cs 2071 and 4121 were allotted to the new unit on 24 and 25 November, respectively and the flight formed on 1 December 1915, under the command of Captain RO Abercromby. A further machine, 4130, was allocated two days later. The aerodrome was a large field to the south of the main railway and to the west of the Seaton Burn-Bedlington road. Canvas hangars were provided to accommodate the aeroplanes.

The Admiralty and War Office resolved their differences at a meeting on 26 January 1916 and agreed that the Army would be responsible for the overland defence of the UK while the Navy would tackle raiders as they approached to coastline. The Army quickly brought forward plans for the creation of Home Defence squadrons that would be deployed to protect areas of strategic importance.


An aerial view of the Cramlington aerodrome looking East, circa 1915                 (NEAM Archive)

The Tyneside HD flight had been subsumed into 36 Squadron, which formed in 8th Wing, VI (Training) Brigade at Cramlington on 1 February 1916 and under the command of Abercromby. On 18 March, the unit was re-designated 36 (Home Defence) Squadron, the first such unit to be created, but still under VI Brigade and responsible for pilot training as well as its titular function.

The aerodrome was developed into a more permanent station. Three 1915 pattern flight sheds, each measuring 210 x 65 feet, were erected along the eastern boundary and extensive hutting was built on the opposite side of the road to provide office space, stores and accommodation for the personnel. The aerodrome was developed further, during the war, until it occupied 155 acres and had maximum dimensions of 800 x 600 yards. At 250 feet above sea level, it was less prone to being fogged in than stations on the coast.

36 (Home Defence) Squadron’s dual role was reflected in the aeroplanes it had on charge. In addition to BE2cs, it also received a BE2b, Avro 504s and AW FK3s. Some of the BE2cs were fitted for night flying by the addition of wing-tip brackets for Holt’s flares and the fitting of navigation lights. They were to be flown a single-seaters and armed with HE bombs (with disc nose pieces), Ranken darts, 16-lb incendiary bombs and Lewis guns that were mounted to fire over the centre-sections of the mainplanes. That variety of armament was a reflection of contemporary ignorance concerning the best method of attacking airships.

The region’s first airship raid of 1916 occurred on the night of 1/2 April, when the naval Zeppelin L11, commanded by Kvtkptn V Schütze, crossed the coast at Seaham, headed inland to drop bombs around Hetton-le-Hole, then proceeded northward to bomb Sunderland and finally turned to fly down the coast to bomb Port Clarence before returning home. The raid lasted just over 1½ hours. 36 (Home Defence) Squadron sent out two machines, but neither made contact.

L16, under Obltn zur See W Peterson, flew over Northumberland for 90 minutes the following night. Having made landfall near , L16 bombed the Ponteland area and headed back to the coast, dropping further bombs. Some of these fell on and near Cramlington aerodrome but there is no record of any sortie being made. The airship departed the coast near Coquet Island shortly after midnight

A third raid, four nights later, saw L16, with Peterson again in command, drop bombs in the Bishop Auckland area. After L16 had departed the coast, L11 came in to bomb Skinningrove. This time, a pair of BE2c went up from Cramlington but both crashed on return, with Captain J Nichol being killed when his bombs exploded as 2739 hit a building on the landing approach.

Command of the unit passed to Major CS Burnett on 24 April. Operational equipment level was well below that intended, with only 6 BE2c and 2 Bristol Scout Ds on charge. The squadron was also undermanned at the time with Burnett doubling as A Flt commander since Nichol’s death and Captains HF Glanville and ED Horsfall in charge of B and C Flts respectively. Lt JP Inglefield was the only other pilot qualified for night flying and the unit’s only other officer was 2Lt J Armee, Assistant Equipment Officer. Four officers were attached and under training.

Control of the station was passed to 19th Wing when that command was formed on 1 May. Night landing grounds had, by then, opened for 36 (Home Defence) Squadron, in order to provide for the real possibility of patrolling machines being unable to return to base through fuel shortage, engine failure or adverse weather. Those sites were at Cleadon, Currock Hill, Ponteland, Seaton Carew, Spennymoor, West Town Moor (Hylton) and Yarm (Thornaby).

The concentration of the entire squadron on one station was not considered suitable. The unit was intended to cover the area from the Forth to the Tees against attack and it was decided to detach flights, to operate on a permanent basis from Turnhouse, near Edinburgh, and Seaton Carew. This was amended when the decision was made to form 77 (Home Defence) Squadron at Turnhouse, as cover for lowland Scotland, and Hylton and Ashington were designated as intended flight stations, ensuring local defence for the industrial areas of the Tyne, Wear and Tees.

The impracticality of Home Defence squadrons also having a training commitment soon became apparent and that secondary role was to be withdrawn. One consequence of this at Cramlington was the formation of a new unit, 58 Squadron, on 8 June. The nucleus of the new squadron’s personnel was provided by 36 (Home Defence) Squadron, as was much of its initial equipment, in the form of Avro 504s (2912, 2914, 2935 and 7739), BE2b 2772, BE2cs that were training machines (2749, 4559 and 4590) and an AW FK3 (5514). The personnel included Horsfall, who soon received his majority and command of 58 Squadron. A second consequence of the withdrawal of 36 (Home Defence) Squadron’s training commitment was a change in higher command, with its attachment to 16th (Home Defence) Wing from that unit’s formation on 25 June. From 29 July 16th Wing became known simply as the Home Defence Wing. BE2b 2772 was lost in a crash on 5 July, in which 2Lt EC Berry probably became 58 Squadron’s first fatality. Berry was observer to Lt FL Hambly and they encountered low cloud over the Scottish borders. Hambly, who was injured in the crash, was presumably trying to make the Cairncross landing ground when 2772 came down at Reston, near Berwick. The BE2b had been with 36 (HD) Squadron as a training machine but an order dated 24 June had relieved the unit of that duty and it seems logical that 2772 would have passed to 58 Squadron.

Bristol Scouts were unsuitable for night flying and they too were disposed of by 36 (Home Defence) Squadron, whose establishment was made good by the receipt of further BE2cs, as well as BE2es and BE12s, the latter a single-seat development of the BE2c that was fitted with the 140-hp RAF4 engine.

A Flight of 36 (Home Defence) Squadron was duly detached to the existing landing ground at Seaton Carew, which was then up-graded to Flight Station status. B Flight remained at Cramlington until it was moved to a new Flight Station, Hylton, by October. C Flight was scheduled to move to the new Flight Station at Ashington, but also remained temporarily at Cramlington.

That flight, by then under the command of Captain CG Burge, had been nominated to participate in wireless trials. The value of aircraft pilots being able to receive telegraphed information and instructions from the ground, during raids, had been appreciated. A 70 foot mast was erected at Cramlington, to carry an umbrella aerial that would transmit signals from 500 watt Marconi set. A light-weight receiver in the aircraft had a 150 foot trailing aerial that could be wound out after take-off and re-wound before landing. The receiving set was pre-tuned to the transmitter’s wavelength, ensuring simplicity of operation. All a pilot had to do was switch on his set and wait for a signal to be transmitted. The initial tests were promising at short ranges and achieved greater success after the flight had moved to Ashington in October.

36 (Home Defence) Squadron’s HQ and staff had remained at Cramlington throughout this period but the departure of B and C Flts made the location unsuitable. A more central location was needed and so the HQ moved into requisitioned property in Jesmond on 12 October. It was policy, at this time, to avoid placing squadron HQ on a Flight Station as this may have been construed as the commanding officer favouring the resident flight above the others.

One of 36 (Home Defence) Squadron’s last duties at Cramlington was to oversee the formation of another new squadron. 76 (Home Defence) Squadron was scheduled to take over the aerial defence of North Yorkshire and formed on 15 September with a nucleus provided by the Cramlington unit. The HQ of 76 (Home Defence) Squadron then moved to Ripon Racecourse on 10 October where Major EM Murray DSO MC took command and established its flights at Catterick, Helperby and Copmanthorpe. Cramlington was then designated as a 2nd Class Night Landing Ground for 36 (Home Defence) Squadron, a role it retained for the rest of the war.

58 Squadron then remained the sole unit at Cramlington until 31 October, when 63 Squadron, under Major AC Boddam-Whetham, moved in from Raploch, Stirling. The nucleus of 47 Reserve Squadron was formed by 58 Squadron on 2 November and left for its intended base at Waddington eleven days later. Both resident units were acting as training units that received newly qualified pilots from elementary Reserve Squadrons and introduced them to flying service machines. An RFC list of intended unit establishments, dated 23 December 1916, stated that both 58 and 63 Squadrons should operate Avro 504s, BE12s and either BE2cs or AW FK3s. Both units, in fact, operated all four types and there was a regular interchange of machines between them. One of 58 Squadron’s FK3s was constructed at Cramlington from parts salvaged from other machines and numbered A9972 under the Reserve Aeroplane Scheme. The December listings also stated the intended operational equipment of the two squadrons. 58 Squadron was to receive AW FK8s and join the BEF in France as a Corps-Reconnaissance unit, while 63 Squadron would receive BHP-engined DH4s and go to France as a day light bombing squadron. Those plans did not come to fruition.

25 Squadron passed through Cramlington during the final week of 1916, as part of its move from Montrose to Narborough, with its machines departing for their next stop-over point at Catterick on 1 January 1917.

A more unusual machine on 63 Squadron’s strength during early 1917 was DH2 7866, one of a handful of those pusher scouts that had been evaluated for possible Home Defence duty, found unsuitable for the task and handed on for training purposes. The squadron had provided the nucleus of 52 Reserve Squadron, which formed on 14 January and left for Catterick four days afterward.

1917 saw the introduction of new aeroplane types at Cramlington. 58 Squadron began to receive small numbers of Martinsyde G.102s and some of the first of the new Armstrong Whitworth FK8s, its intended operational equipment. 63 Squadron was then earmarked for service as a Corps-Reconnaissance unit in the Middle East and began to receive examples of its then intended operational type, the RE8. Both units had the inevitable accidents that accompanied pilot training; only six fatal, others resulting in injury or, more often, damage to machines only. 61 Reserve Squadron’s nucleus formed at the station on 1 May and departed for South Carlton nine days later.

Command of 63 Squadron had passed to Major JC Quinnell on 27 April. The unit’s personnel left for Plymouth at the end of May and sailed for Mesopotamia on 23 June in SS Dunvegan Castle. Its training machines were left behind and 24 brand new RE8s were shipped in packing cases.

58 Squadron was, once again, the station’s sole occupant until 10 October, when the nucleus of 69 Training Squadron arrived from Catterick. That unit was intended to train day light bombing pilots but there is little record of its brief time at Cramlington. It may be that the unit was still an administrative nucleus until it moved to Narborough on 9 December.

December saw the arrival of Captain CF Collett MC* at Cramlington. That pilot had a distinguished operational career with 70 Sqn in France and his posting to Home Establishment saw him tasked with demonstrating a captured Albatros D.V at RFC stations around the country. The machine, 2129/17, had been captured, virtually intact, in July, made airworthy, given British markings and given the number G56, in the serial range reserved for captured machines. It did, however, retain its black spiral fuselage marking applied during its service with Jasta 4. From Cramlington, Collett took G56 northward to Turnhouse and was killed on 23 December when the machine crashed into the Firth of Forth.

Still under Horsfall’s command, 58 Squadron received notification of its mobilisation for active service in late 1917. All of its training had been on tractor machines but, on 22 December, it moved to Dover, where FE2b pushers were received and the squadron worked up as a night light bomber unit. It flew to France on 10 January 1918.

The day of 58 Squadron’s departure from Cramlington saw the arrival of a replacement unit. 75 Training Squadron had formed, the last Training Squadron to do so, at Waddington on 14 November. It was a higher Training Squadron, intended to provide pilots for day light bomber squadrons that were then operating DH4s and were scheduled to receive DH9s. DH4s were never numerous in training units and 75 Training Squadron was initially equipped with a miscellany of types that also included Avro 504Js, RE8s, BE2es, DH6s and Martinsyde G.102s.

RFC planning for 1918 included a massive expansion of its day light bombing force and one consequence of this was the formation, for such duty, of 120 Squadron at Cramlington on 1 January 1918. The new unit, commanded by Major ARS Clarke, was also scheduled to receive the DH9 but its interim equipment was similar to that of 75 Training Squadron. It also had an elaborately painted AW FK3, A1505, which had seen previous service with School of Aerial Gunnery at Loch Doon, but crashed on the aerodrome on 27 March, killing Lt ES Howells and 2Lt J Armstrong. DH9s began to arrive in the spring but the squadron was still not completely equipped with the type by the early summer.


An aerial view of the Cramlington aerodrome looking North West, circa 1918                                                                            (Mick Davis)

Operational flying briefly returned to Cramlington after the formation of the RAF on 1 April 1918. The aerial protection of coastal shipping from attack by U-boats was becoming of paramount importance. Two flights of 36 Squadron had been hastily drafted into that duty but the closure of the RNAS school at Redcar allowed the beginnings of a more permanent solution to develop. Redcar’s closure had released a number of DH6 training machines. Some of these were moved to Cramlington to become the equipment of the first two Special Duties Flights. The DH6 could, if flown solo, carry a small bomb load and the task of the new flights was to fly regular patrols along the North East War Channel with the primary aim of keeping enemy submarines submerged below periscope depth. There was an early indication of the potential hazard of such duty when, on 3 April, both B2808 and B2871 came down in the water, the former being fortunate to do so within the harbour at Sunderland

Armstrong Whitworth had built a new scout, the FM4 Armadillo, and considered the Newcastle Town Moor aerodrome unsuitable for its test flying. The company sought and was granted permission to use Cramlington for that purpose and the testing began on 6 April. The machine proved unsatisfactory and did not go into production.

The Special Duties Flights were absorbed into 252 Squadron when that unit formed, with its HQ at South Shields, on 1 May. Those flights were numbered 507 and 508 Flts, still within 252 Squadron, on 24 May and a third, 510 Flt, formed and moved to Redcar on the 29th. A Cramlington DH6 made contact with the enemy on 3 June. Captain FW Walker DSC sighted and bombed a U-boat that was some 7 miles SE of Creswell but no positive result was observed. 507 and 508 Flts moved to Tynemouth on 8 June, the day after the fourth and final flight, 509 Flt, formed on Cramlington. That flight departed for Seaton Carew before the end of the month.

Cramlington became involved in the wholesale re-organisation of the RAF’s training programme that took place in the summer of 1918, after smaller-scale trials had proved the worth of a new system. Hitherto, pilots underwent initial training at an elementary Training Squadron before moving on to a higher Training Squadron, usually at a different station, for introduction to operational machines. This, it was realised, was expensive in time and resources and the panacea was the creation of Training Depot Stations, which would take a pilot through all stages of training. Cramlington was designated 52 TDS which was formed from 75 Training Squadron on 15 July. Its function was to train pilots for day light bombing work and it was to have a strength equivalent to two Training Squadrons, with an official establishment of 24 Avro 504Ks and 24 DH9s. Initially, 52 TDS operated machines it had inherited from 75 Training Squadron; RE8s and DH6s, as well as DH9s. New Avros began to arrive during August.

The final stages of the training programme included formation flying and instruction in the use of armament. An aerial firing range had been set up off Newbiggin using moored targets and the remote Wingates Moor, four miles west of Longhorsley was used as a bombing ground by both resident units.

The creation of 52 TDS meant that the station was again overcrowded. 120 Squadron, therefore, moved out, to Bracebridge Heath near Lincoln, on 3 August. It never saw operational service but ended up flying mail runs to the continent after the Armistice was signed.

The existing hangarage at Cramlington had never been sufficient to house the aeroplanes of two units, or their equivalent, and a pair of Bessonneau hangars was erected as a temporary solution to this problem. A more permanent solution was the construction, in late 1918, of a coupled 1917 pattern GS shed, measuring 170 x 200 feet, on further land that had been requisitioned in the south-east corner of the aerodrome. Construction continued into 1919 and that was raised in Parliament on 13 May, when Sir Francis Blake questioned the Under Secretary of State for War about it. The reply was that the 22 workmen still there were employed on clearing up duties and that the RAF had no plan to use the site as a permanent station.

A new system of creating RAF squadrons was introduced by late 1918. Nucleus flights were created at separate stations and were then brought together for mobilisation. 52 TDS oversaw the formation of a flight of 156 Squadron that moved to its mobilisation station, Wyton, on 2 October.

52 TDS continued its everyday activities for the duration of the war and, although at a reduced pace, through to September 1919, when it was re-designated 52 Training Squadron. That re-designation was coupled with a reduction in strength to ten officers and one hundred other ranks and, by then, most flying was done on Avro 504Ks. That squadron’s existence was brief and it was disbanded on 2 October, bringing an end to service flying at Cramlington.

A Storage Detachment had been formed at the station, to collect and maintain equipment from other local aerodromes as they closed, but it soon disbanded.

The Air Ministry announced the intended closure of the station on 6th November 1919 and that process had been completed by 22nd January 1920. A Care & Maintenance party remained and one of its duties was the running of a meteorological station that had been established on the site. The final RAF presence was withdrawn that March.

The Cramlington Aircraft Ltd company was established here in the early 1920's by co-owners Connie Leathart and Leslie Runciman (former 607Sqn), operating aircraft such as the DH63A Puss Moth (G-ABLG, G-ABWG), DH63G Gypsy Moth (G-AAIB, G-ABRT) and Simmonds Spartan (G-AAGV, G-ABXO).

By the time the Newcastle Aero Club had formed here in July 1925 the airfield had fallen into a state of disrepair and a new hangar was required as a priority. The £400 required (a vast some of money in those days) was somehow found allowing the aero club to be officially opened on Saturday 21st November 1925 flying new DH60 Cirrus Moth's G-EBLX 'Novacastria' & G-EBLY 'Bernicia' which had been purchased with a £2,000 grant from the Air Ministry.

In 1928 a violent storm ripped through the aero club hangar resulting in the roof collapsing onto three hangared aircraft. Club members railed and raised the necessary funds to repair all three aircraft.

The aero club vacated Cramlington in 1935, moving to the new airfield at Woolsington and by the time World War Two started, the airfield had officially closed.


A Handley Page W.8 over the Cramlington aerodrome during the 1932 Air Pageant      (NEAM Archive)

Based units

Unit Arrived From Arrival Date Dept Date Departed To Aircraft
Tyneside HD (Formed) 01/12/1915 01/02/1916 (Subsumed into 36(HD)Sqn) BE.2c
36Sqn / 36(HD)Sqn (Formed) 01/02/1916 12/10/1916 HQ to Newcastle
A Flt to Seaton Carew
B Flt to Hylton
C Flt to Ashington		 Avro 504, AW FK.3, BE.2b, BE.2c, Bristol Scout
58Sqn (Formed) 08/06/1916 22/12/1917 Dover From 36Sqn : Avro 504, AW FK.3, AW FK.8, BE.2b, BE.2c, BE.12, Martynside G.102
76Sqn (Formed) 15/09/1916 10/10/1916 HQ to Ripon, Flts to Catterick, Helperby & Copmanthorpe From 36Sqn : BE.2c, BE.12, DH.6
63Sqn Stirling 31/10/1916 23/06/1917
13/08/1917		 En-route to Middle East.
Basra		 Avro 504, AW FK.3, BE.2c, BE.12, DH.2, RE.8
47RS (Formed) 02/11/1916 13/11/1916 Waddington From 58Sqn : Various
52RS (Formed) 14/01/1917 18/01/1917 Catterick From 63Sqn : BE.2c, DH.4
61RS (Formed) 01/05/1917 10/05/1917 South Carlton Various
69TS Catterick 10/10/1917 09/12/1917 Narborough Administrative Nucleus only?
75TS Waddington 22/12/1917 15/07/1918 (Formed 52TDS) Avro 504J, BE.2e, DH.4, DH.6, DH.9, Martynside G.102, RE.8
120Sqn (Formed) 01/01/1918 03/08/1918 Bracebridge Heath Avro 504J, BE.2e, DH.4, DH.6, DH.9, Martynside G.102, RE.8
Special Duty Flt (Formed) 04/1918 01/05/1918 (absorbed into 252Sqn) ?
252Sqn
507Flt
508Flt
510Flt
509Flt		 (Formed) 01/05/1918
24/05/1918
24/05/1918
29/05/1918
07/06/1918
08/06/1918
08/06/1918
29/05/1918
??/06/1918		 HQ South Shields
Tynemouth
Tynemouth
Redcar
Seaton Carew		 DH.6
52TDS (Formed from 75TS) 15/07/1918 ??/09/1919 (Re-designated 52TS) DH.6, DH.9, Avro 504J, Avro 504K, RE.8
52TS (Formed from 52TDS) ??/09/1919 02/10/1919 (Disbanded) Avro 504K