This page is intended to provide information and memories of the local residents who remember RAF Cranage, the Vickers-Armstrongs factory and the general ‘goings-on’ in the area during the years that the airfield was in use.

 

Farmers daughter, Ascilla Bickerton, talks about her experience working at the Vickers Armstrongs Wellington Assembly Factory at Byley.

In the summer of 1942 I left school at the age of 14. Within weeks I started work at Vickers-Armstrongs Assembly Factory at Byley, this was approximately one mile from my home, Pear Tree Farm. I cycled to work which started at 8am finishing at 5-30pm until I was fifteen, then it was 6-30pm. My starting wage was £1-8-0d*, increasing to £1-10-0d* on my 15th birthday.

I worked in the Drawing Office, this was really a Drawing Store of all the plans to assemble the Wellington bomber, the masters were drawn up or updated at the Broughton Factory, a car brought daily news and amended drawings to us. My job was to fold, in a special way, number and record receiving them using a card index system, if a drawing was taken out on the shop floor the foreman had to sign for it. When  a new one came in I had to take these drawings to the foreman and make sure I collected the old ones to be shredded. There were hundreds of drawings filed in number order in racks, Bosses and Foremen came daily to look up something, sometimes leaving a real mess for me to tidy up, we had a ten minute break mid-morning and afternoon, a canteen was provided; I mostly cycled home for lunch. We assembled approximately two bombers per week which were towed across two fields to the Flight Shed near Byley School, they were given a final check, after which a Test Pilot would fly them two or three times, when  satisfied they were flown to the required R.A.F. Stations. I was always interested in all stages of assembly, from the nearly empty Jigs to the testing of engines and final spraying of camouflage before they left the factory, as one more Wellington bomber. I had to leave on Doctors orders after about two and a half years of interesting work.

Ascilla Bickerton (Miss)

January, 2004.

 £1-8s-0d would be £40.21 today and £1-10s-0d would be £43.08. If you want to do some currency conversions of your own, use the following link http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid

 

Local farmer, Charles Yarwood, talks about the building of the RAF Cranage, the Home Guard and the return of the land to the farmers.

I was 19 at the time, about 1939, when the M.o.D. requisitioned the farm land; several acres were involved and several farm houses were demolished. Traction engines were brought in to pull up trees and to cart them away. Tom Ollier had three sets of horses and carts at Holly House Farm which were hired to the contractors (Jones from Wrexham) to move timber and the remains of the houses.

Things happened very quickly in those days and I remember my father being compensated for the crops on the land – we could salvage what we could at our own risk so we worked day and night on this. We did quite well.

As far as I can remember looking at the map, they made runway 16-31 first then 10-28 and then 06-23. It was a sort of metal mesh, the grass grew through it and looked like farmland. At the same time they were building the base, they never stopped working on that; they certainly put up a fence around the airfield.

Of course it was a Navigation and Pilot training base to start but with the outbreak of war it became a fighter unit – this was early 1941 – all sorts of aeroplanes arrived at this time but mainly Hurricanes of 96 Squadron.

It was about this time I joined the Home Guard. That was a ‘laugh and a half’ but everyone treated it treated it seriously. I was issued with a uniform and rifle and we had shooting practice in Shakerly Wood, we also learned to throw hand grenades there. We were expecting German parachutists to invade so one night in seven, after working all day, we had to stay up in Cranage Village Hall ‘on guard’ watching for incendiaries and parachutists. There were four of us on duty each night. We took the job very seriously and were in constant contact with the observation tower – that’s marked as ‘watch tower’ on the map. I did this for 3-4 years continuously and with Sunday morning parade, square bashing etc it was hard work.

Initially there were not many people on the camp. As time passed and the Hurricanes arrived the numbers swelled. Bicycles became sought after and Hector Foster who owned a bicycle shop in Middlewich, made a killing. He build Holly House Farm House in 1932 and it was requisitioned and used through the war as the CO’s residence. Many people walked to the local pub the Three Greyhounds, only a couple of hundred yards from the camp. There was the camp hospital behind the pub. Dances were held in Byley Village Hall – a First World War wooden shack not much different from how it is now. Eventually a gym was built at the camp which doubled as a dance hall. A few locals settled down with the airmen and similarly with the Americans who came later.

During the day training flights and at night the planes seemed to rattle the slates on the roof. The runways were lit up by lights which had shutters on them so they could only be seen from a particular angle. We had a few crashes, a Hurricane landed on top of an Anson as it came in to land. There was a crash in the Olliers corn field and one of the buildings whilst the family were in the front room. The well was poisoned by aviation fuel but no-one was hurt.

A few bombs were dropped in the area mainly in Racecourse Wood and Shakerley Woods; the airfield was never hit. A German bomber came down in Lostock Green. The two Germans were buried at Byley but were later taken to the war cemetery at Cannock Chase. There was a crash in which eight were killed, all of them pilots; they were all buried in Byley Churchyard

The camp was left more or less intact whilst the Americans used it after the war. The nissen huts and wooden huts were sold of by auction, Frank Marshall handled this. The wiring, and there was miles of it, was pulled up and sold for its copper value. Eventually the Americans left and there were only the pill boxes and shelters left. They tried blowing them up but they made a real mess of it so they left them as they are now. All the land was returned to its pre-war owners or their descendants, which is how I came to own so much of it.

 

Local farmer, Tom Clarke, a man of few words, but there are a couple of photographs.

I remember the Jacksons at Holly House.  I used to take loads of manure to them, from Earnshaw Hall.

Albert Jackson ran a market garden.

I learned to plough when I was 16, I liked the horses.  I wouldn’t like to be in farming today.

Grandma never recovered from being put off the farm (MOD took it to build the airfield RAF Cranage)

The Ward Family of Earnshaw Hall were my mother’s family, I lived there until I was 15.

The following photographs were supplied by Mr Clarke via Mrs Peters Rock.

Mr Clarke’s UnclesThomas Ward & Sons Steam TractorMr Clarke’s MotherUnknown woman and childFollowing communication with Mrs Sheila Thomlinson, I now know that this photograph was taken in the early 1930’s at the wedding of her Auntie Gladys [Baskerville] and Uncle Leonard Ward. It was taken outside Mrs Thomlinson’s house, Spring Bank in Cranage.<>

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