This press release was sent to me today and I thought it may be of  interest to some of you, especially if you are in the local area.

PRESS RELEASE from Airfileds of Britain Conservation Trust to honour local airfields.

Early airfields in the general Dover and Folkestone areas to be honoured with the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust's latest memorials

As a result of long planning and co-operation between the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust (ABCT) - the world’s first national airfield charity - and various more local elements, four memorials will be unveiled during Friday and Saturday March 17-18 to commemorate four of the general Dover and Folkestone area’s early airfields - Capel (Folkestone), Dover (Guston Road), Dover (St Margaret’s) (Swingate) and Whitfield.

Capel, also known as Folkestone, was one of Britain’s most important airship stations during World War One and opened in May 1915. Non-rigid airships constantly patrolled the English Channel looking out for enemy U-boats, while later on in the first world conflict mooring-out sub-stations were established at Godmersham Park and Wittersham, for which ABCT has already provided examples of our memorial plaques. Capel closed during 1920 but later in World War Two provided major assistance as an important wireless station. One airship shed survived into immediate peacetime, and various foundations and roadways can still be seen as part of the holiday park there today.

Dover (Guston Road) was established by the Royal Naval Air Service early on in World War One , being situated immediately to the north of Fort Burgoyne. Aircraft based here proved considerably operationally active, notably during 1915 bombing German-occupied naval targets in Belgium. Training duties subsequently occurred in addition to equally intensive anti-submarine and fighter patrols until the end of fighting, after which Dover (Guston Road) closed in 1919. Today a mixture of housing and schools stand on this airfield. 

Dover (St Margaret’s) (Swingate) was Dover’s other World War One landplane airfield, already active prior to World War One but heavily used by numerous Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and later RAF units. It is perhaps best remembered as being where the first RFC squadrons bravely took off from to fly over to France and the Western Front in August 1914 as war began, after which many operationally active and training duties resulted. This airfield closed in early 1920 but became a vital radar station during and after World War Two, and some remains can still be seen from this period as well as from its days as a prominent airfield. 

Whitfield could be regarded as Dover’s somewhat forgotten airfield, but remains historically most important as well for its early pioneering aviation work prior to World War One despite closing in 1913. One such flyer here was American pilot Harriet Quimby, who took off from Whitfield in April 1912 to become the first woman pilot to fly across the English Channel to France. The airfield also forms part of one of the earliest recorded films of any British airfield, from 1911 when the airfield opened, as can be seen on ABCT’s relevant Airfield Finder page. 

All four memorials are of the two standardised designs already widely utilised by ABCT. The charity’s objective in this regard is to eventually commemorate each known major disused airfield in the United Kingdom with a granite memorial – over 200 have already been unveiled to clearly major effect https://www.abct.org.uk/airfield-markers/marker-locations/, with hundreds more being planned.

Event details as follows:

Capel (Folkestone) Airfield

Friday 17 March 2023, 10.30 am, The Royal Oak, New Dover Rd, Capel-le-Ferne, 

Postcode CT18 7HY, What3Words: coverage.stunts.irritable 

Dover (Guston Road) Airfield

Friday 17 March 2023, 1 pm, Guston Church of England Primary School, Burgoyne Heights, Guston, 

Postcode CT15 5LR, What3Words: safety.ages.branded 

Whitfield Airfield

Friday 17 March 2023, 4 pm, Holiday Inn Dover, Singledge Lane, Whitfield, Dover 

Postcode CT16 3EL, What3Words: shave.saints.payer 

Dover (St Margaret’s) (Swingate) Airfield

Saturday 18 March 2023, 10.30 am, alongside Upper Road, north-east of Dover between town and St Margaret’s at Cliffe, south of Swingate 

Postcode (nearest) CT15 6HY, What3Words: sneezing.chatters.processor

Also see ABCT's extremely popular 3,500 pages website https://www.abct.org.uk and associated social media pages for further details.

Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust (ABCT)

For more information, contact: 

Telephone: 0141 483 8798 / 0141 483 8799 (if numbers not answered, leave an answer message and/or send an email to info@abct.org.uk)

Email: info@abct.org.uk
Website: https://www.abct.org.uk