History

Estate

The estate which is now the site of Hunsdon Airfield  was once owned by the crown & in Tudor times King Henry VIII spent a lot of time at Hunsdon, hunting deer across the site of the airfield.

 After Henry's death, Edward VI granted the manor to his sister Mary & she lived there for much of the time until she became Queen. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth The First, the estate was granted to Sir Henry Carey, who became the first Lord Hunsdon, & ceased to be a royal residence.

The barn where the club stores some of its aircraft is said to date from the Tudor period, but there is likely to be a strong element of "Trigger's broom" in this theory.

More about the history of the village can be found on the Hunsdon Village website & an interesting detailed history of the estate, itself written in 1912, can be found here.

Hunsdon House

Airfield

A sizeable area of farmland to the east of Hunsdon was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1939 to provide for additional fighter air defence of London. Construction began in October 1940 and involved removal of significant areas of woodland and field boundaries, as well as the Old Turkey Cock pub and a number of cottages in Acorn street. The base became operational in May 1941.

Sorties from the RAF Hunsdon provided a major contribution to the Battle of Britain and, once the threat of attack to London had diminished, the primary role turned from defence to attack. The DeHavilland Mosquito became the mainstay of its fighter bomber role and contributed to many significant attacks during the later stages of the war. Operation Jericho - the precision bombing raid on Amien Prison to release French Resistance fighters on the eve of their execution - was flown from Hunsdon on 18th February 1944.

At its height more than 2000 personnel were stationed at RAF Hunsdon, and the lives of the service personnel and of village residents became wholly entwined. Operations from Hunsdon ceased within days of VE Day in May 1945, although it was used to receive personnel and materiel returning from Europe until June 1946. Post war it was returned to agriculture, passing through a number of landowners up until its present owners - Ropemaker Properties Limited, the property investment arm of the BP Pension Fund.

More information on this period & lots of pictures can be found on Denis Sharp's excellent website.

In 2004 The Hertfordshire Airfield Memorial Group (HAMG) started work on a long overdue memorial to recognise the service of all those who served at RAF Hunsdon  during the Second World War, The Memorial was dedicated at a ceremony on the 22nd May 2005. For more information visit the HAMG website.

RAF Hunsdon memorial (© HAMG)

Microlighting

Microlight flying started at Hunsdon (although not at its present site) in the early 1990's. Phil Lee, trading as the HVA Partnership, operated the airfield which by 1997 had moved to the current location with two runways in the North East corner of the RAF site running alongside the remains of the old wartime runways.

In 2001 Phil decided to move to France. After a period of uncertainty, Jay Madhvani, a microlight instructor who ran a flying school near St. Albans, arranged with the landowner to take over the lease. The airfield operated under Jay's management until March 2007 when Jay was killed in a tragic accident. Hunsdon Microlight Club remains forever indebted to Jay - without him we wouldn't have the airfield today.

A third runway was added in 2003, forming a triangle with the existing two, which gives pilots plenty of options in windier conditions.

The airfield is now run by the club on a not-for-profit basis, with training operations carried out alongside those of the club.

Jaysukh "Jay" Madhvani 1953-2007