Monument record MDO43237 - Bournemouth Airport, Hurn, Christchurch

A former World War Two military airfield known as Hurn, now an airport. After the war the airfield was used as a training and development centre by the British Overseas Airways Corporation and as an aircraft factory for Vickers Aircraft during the 1950s. In the early 1960s it was the home of the the School of Air Traffic Control. It is now Bournemouth-Hurn airport. The layout has subsequently been altered and a runway extended. The site is also home to the jet Heritage Aviation Museum.

Hurn airfield was digitally plotted from 1940s aerial photographs by the Dorset Stour NMP. Aerial photographs of 1946 show the airfield at a time of transition from military to civilian use but prior to subsequent major alteration and extension (1). Many World War II buildings and structures are visible; a small number of these are roofless, suggesting disuse by this time. Construction of larger hangars to replace existing hangars is already taking place by 1946 (1). The aircraft dispersals are of the loop form by 1946 but the parchmark of an earlier frying pan dispersal bay is visible on the northwest side of the airfield, overlain by the later loop form (1). On the northwest side of the airfield the loop dispersals are themselves being built over in places by the new construction taking place. Present within the dispersal areas on the north side of the airfield and also along the southern taxiway are a number of circular bays containing small circular points set in a circle with one central point inside these. These are thought to be aircraft tie down points for bomber aircraft. To the west of the wartime airfield, located in fields to the west of the main runway are structures and an access trackway considered likely to be associated with a radar station, possibly an approach radar for aircraft taking off and landing. Aerial photographs of 1954 and 1981 reveal alterations to the radar station site, which becomes amalgamated into the extended runway by 1988 (2-4). On the northeast side of the airfield a series of small ditches or trenches are visible in 1946 (1). These may be slit trenches or possibly bomb or blast shelters. These features are within the heathland on the northeast edge of the airfield and it is not clear whether these are contemporary with the World War II airfield or earlier World War I features. Also in this part of the airfield are a number of banked linear features and a possible banked enclosure showing up on current Lidar imagery (5). These may be associated with historic field boundaries and enclosures and not necessarily part of the wartime airfield. These are still within an area of open tree covered ground on current Google Earth imagery, although not visible beneath the tree canopy (6). Dispersed within the airfield are a number of banked structures with four interior compartments, un-roofed and with a single entrance (1). These may be blast shelters contemporary with the World War II airfield. Additionally, there are a small number of rectangular banked structures with curved roofs and a single deepset entrance; these may also be shelters of some form (1). Both types of possible shelters are also evident within a series of ancillary complexes (MDO 39677) to the east of the airfield on 1940s aerial photographs, also thought to be military in nature and possibly a military camp or part of the wider airfield complex. The features comprised within Hurn Airfield by the 1940s were digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

Record last edited

Dec 9 2023 7:57AM