Thornaby

Foggins Field, a 194 acre site near Middlesbrough, opened as a stopover between Catterick and Marsk in 1914. By 1930, when RAF Thornaby was opened, flimsy hangars had been built and the control tower was still a hut. During the expansion programme prior to WWII, Thornaby became a bomber base but almost a year to the day before war was declared, Thornaby passed to Coastal Command. The 1300-1800m runways were concreted during the war and additional hangarage was provided.

Air-Sea Rescue operations begun before WWII ended were continued and after the fixed-wing Warwicks departed, 275 Squadron A Flight arrived in Nov 1954 with its Sycamore HR.13 and HR.14s. But the writing was on the wall, and the station immortalised by the Thornaby Bag - a device for holding life-saving supplies dropped to downed aircrew - was closed in 1958.

By 1963 the land had been sold to developers. By 1985 it had almost completely been covered with housing. The road names on the housing development all bear an aviation theme, such as Havilland Road, Lancaster Way and Trenchard Avenue.