Katharine and I had a lovely walk yesterday to a local nature reserve called Clifton Backies. It was long an informal place for recreation, but in 2002 York city council took a 125 year lease on the site and it has been enhanced and developed as a nature reserve since then.
Some of the site was part of Clifton airfield during the Second World War. Some of the aircraft hangers were just outside the site, and were only recently demolished. Within the nature reserve there are a number of concrete paths, and the ruins of various brick structures.
This shot shows the entrance to one of the surviving blast shelters.
Clifton Airfield was not a front line base, but a maintenance centre, specialising in maintenance of Halifax bombers. After the war, most of the Halifax bombers were dismantled here. Following years of disuse, redevelopment of the airfield for housing, offices and a shopping centre began in the 1980s.
Thank you for all your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
Yoland (@yoland) asked if these blast shelters were ever used - well, York escaped much of the bombing endured by other more industrialised cities, but there was a major air raid in the early hours of April 29th 1942, when the railways and airbase were attacked. I have no doubt they would have been well used then!
I think it is an exageration to say the blast shelters have been preserved. They have simply been abandoned. A few are in quite good condition but many are in a poor state, being damaged by vegetation that has grown in and around them.
Thank you for all your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
Yoland (@yoland) asked if these blast shelters were ever used - well, York escaped much of the bombing endured by other more industrialised cities, but there was a major air raid in the early hours of April 29th 1942, when the railways and airbase were attacked. I have no doubt they would have been well used then!
I think it is an exageration to say the blast shelters have been preserved. They have simply been abandoned. A few are in quite good condition but many are in a poor state, being damaged by vegetation that has grown in and around them.
Ian
You are welcome - I have a strong desire to understand the places that I visit, and get to know some of their history.
Ian