>
MARWELL HALL
Back to Main List
E-Mail me!

Lat/Long 50 59 26N/01/16/55W .Grid ref SU 510210 .Approx 130 feet ASL.About 3.5 miles N of Eastliegh

RUNWAY:Grass.East/West,total take of run not known but probably about 1000 yds.
WW2 era information states 3 runways of 1600,900 & 700 yds

Marwell Hall airfield - the site in the late 1940s .The B2177 road was previously the A333.Marwell Hall is now a zoological park.The area within the red line is believed to be the approximate area used for the runway.The Hall itself is just out of the image NW of Hurst Farm
.
Opened in September 1941,Marwell Hall airfield was located in the grounds of Marwell Hall,the home of Mr R Hayes,the Managing Director of Cunliffe Owen Aircraft.The airfield handled aircraft modified at the company's Eastliegh Factory.About 20 hangars were built among the trees surrounding the airstrip.Among the types to use the airfield were Spitfires,Bostons,Hudsons,Halifaxes,Blenheims and Aircobras.

In March 1944,Cunliffe Owen ceased using Marwell Hall,and Air Service Training took over,initially for servicing B-25s and P-51s then later using the buildings for design work,but there was little flying.In 1944 the Ministry of Aircraft Production offered Marwell as temporary accommodation for reserve naval aircraft,however this use did not happen.After the war ,Willmot and Mansour Experimental Aircraft used the buildings for a short time for the development of towed target gliders and powered target drones .The land was quickly returned to agricultural use.Today the site is used as a Zoological park.Several of the hangars remain in use as farm buildings.

A near identical view of the site 60 years later.
Aircobra
One of the types using Marwell Hall was the Bell Aircobra.
Back to Main List