The German POW's, still in camp during 1951, were a friendly bunch, virtually everyone a football fanatic. One owned an Alsatian dog who could understand commands in German and English.

The bomb shelters on both sides of Forest Road fell into disrepair. These consisted of grass mounds, sometimes with the original brick blast screen at each end. The interiors were dark and very often smelly!

The dispersal bays were a delight to cycle off, if you dared, but a great breaker of front forks. The curved hangers could be climbed (just) with a running start, and they also provided quantities of 1-inch whitworth nuts and bolts, which were must the thing for filling with gunpowder. Two bolts, one nut which were thrown into the air with a large bang resulting upon reaching the ground.

Motor cycle enthusiasts raced up and down the runways, occasionally with disasterous consequences if others had removed manhole covers. The thrill of racing was not confined to the young. I know of one parent, who drove his car -a 1937 Chrsyler Q six cylinder 3 speed saloon, along the runways at high speed, said to be 60-70 mph, accompanied by his young son.

Model aircraft flew at the Airfield until closure in 1953. A man died whilst watching a modelling display. An Auster Autocrat made an emergency landing which is thought to have induced a heart attack. The modellers flew control models on wires, free flight and later radio control.

No.1 Communal Site used for community uses, one building was used as HQ by the 9th Ilford North Cub and Scout Group under leadership of George Seabridge who later married 'Rikki' -Valerie French. Later this became a permanent site for Gypsies opened by Yul Brynner.

P. T. Reid commenced gravel extraction.

The loss of amenities, the destruction of flora and fauna, an adverse effect of birds and wildlife, not to mention a substanital increase in the amount of local traffic, in my opinion, this is not the place for a racecourse.

When their operations were completed, the site was infilled and later became a popular Country Park known as Fairlop Waters, with golf course, a lake and sailing school, constructed on the site within the original airfield boundary.

4- 6 September 1990. Rehearsals of the Battle of Britain 50th Anniversary Fly-past, the leaders practice the flypass route as far as Fairlop.
15th September 1990. Battle of Britain 50th Anniversary Fly-past. Two Hawks from RAF Waddington fly a weather check as far as Fairlop.

May 2000. Plans for an all weather racing track. Not a suitable use for the land, in my opinion.

The Queens Golden Jubilee Flypast over Fairlop June 2002

Compilation of the Jubilee Flypast over Fairlop.

If only they could fly as close as this, the sight and sounds would be tremendous, although not as pleasurable if they all had Merlin engines! The spacing of elements given at 2nm at 280kts. Minimum altitude for the flypast route to be 1500ft. The flypast was planned to be over Fairlop at 1753 but because of delays with the procession they did not fly overhead at Fairlop until 1823 local time.
Formation Leader - a C-17 provided by 99 Squadron RAF Brize Norton
Second Element -a Tristar with 2 Tornados GR4s provided by 216 Squadron Brize Norton and 31 Squadron RAF Marham
Third Element -Sentry AEW1.
Fourth Element -VC10.
Fifth Element -Nimrod MR2.
Sixth Element -BAe 146.
Seventh Element -Eurofighter.
Final Element -Concorde GBOAD (210) and the Red Arrows from British Airways and RAF Scampton

Further original photographs to come.

From the private collection of David Martin.

A Jaguar from either 10 or 101 squadron Brize Norton taken from a VC10 from 6 Squadron RAF Coltishall.

The aircraft shown were the fourth element of eight which flew over the site of RAF Fairlop on 4 June 2002 as part of the Queens Golden Jubilee Flypast.

Further air to air shots of the flypast to appear soon.

© RAF - Crown Copyright Reserved. Photograph reproduced with permission.

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