Article about: Thats a great result and to hear you've pulled plenty of bottles is a very good sign you're definately on track. Were they beer bottles with perhaps a few table spoon marked medicines and pl
In 1940, following the evacuation of Dunkirk, the area was purchased by the Air
Ministry and construction of the airfield began. This appears to have involved
the levelling of considerable mine waste and associated buildings as well as a
number of the Bronze Age barrows.
In April 1941 Trevellas Airfield opens, with a single squadron (Squadron 66) of
12 Spitfire Mark II split into two flights based at the north end
of the airfield. In September 1941, 118 Squadron arrived at the airfield, followed
by 130 Squadron in December (both spitfire squadrons). By 1942 a more
offensive role was undertaken with fighter sweeps across the channel to
northern France.
In 1943 extensions to the runway, a new operations room and control tower are
constructed and the mine buildings at Cligga Mine are lowered to improve visability.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday having a good look around.Iv walked the coast path alongside many times,even cut across the airfield and ran down the runway,but never spent a great deal of time investigating what is left.Unfortunately i left my camera at home,however i did make a couple of ground finds that you may find interesting.I found a piece of pottery around the crew room area,as its marked '42 thought this a pretty good start.i noticed a small quarry area that had a track leading off from the airfield.It had a lot of demolition waste at the bottom presumably from when the site was decommissioned,i thought this piece of glass was interesting?Finally walking along a perimeter path i caught a glimpse of something green amongst the gravel,i couldnt help but think,i wish i had a metal detector!
Last edited by cornishboy; 05-28-2011 at 09:59 PM.
Nice surface finds for your first real search of the site with the old Mark one eyeball. I would suggest the quarry with the rubble in it is well worth a poke around in, purely because it is also likely to be the base dump. You piece of glass is from one of the smaller batteries that would have been in use on the site.
Nice spent 303 round as well. If that was on the surface it perhaps shows that no-one has ever run a metal detector over the site. This obviously needs doing !!!!
thanks steve i love your enthusiasm!! The site is covered with low gorse bushes so im guessing thats probably put a lot off.also there are a few mine shafts (now capped) along with the cliffs,that may have been a first port of call for unwanted goodies.
Last edited by cornishboy; 05-28-2011 at 06:18 PM.
Hi Cornishboy,
Well done what a great start, I agree with Steve the find id's are spot on and your airfield does look like it hasn't been searched before. There could be an aladdins cave of finds just waiting to be rescued .
Often with the dumping of waste the easiest solution was chosen, I agree it's possible it could have gone over the cliff, but only if it was easily accessable and safe to approach with a small lorry or tractor with trailer and the local fishermen didn't complain. If it was used there might still be evidence near the edge or at the bottom but take care. With the old mine shafts wouldn't they have been capped before the airfield became operational? for the base crew safety and even aircraft coming down off the runways.
For me the best bet is still the quarry it was probably the easiest and safest place to dump the waste and therefore most likely. But be prepared it can be hard work digging through the building rubble but dont let it put you off, start by looking for clearer areas around the edges and have a dig there heading if possible toward the quarry middle. You'll soon know if the domestic and if you're lucky technical/aircraft waste is there.
Good luck with your return and do take lots of photo's. Fingers crossed you'll get some interesting finds.
LUCKYSTRIKE
well i managed to get over there today for a short while,just had to have a further look at that dump.i managed to shift about a tonne and a half of rubble,but didnt find anything significant,well not in my eyes.thought id show some pics
Looking very promising. These dumps were often 'filled in' with a couple of feet of rubble so I am not surprised you didn't find anything this visit. You need to try and dig down beneath the rubble, from the edge of the dump if you can. Looking at your first picture, the ground looks very much like the sort of thing you see at these old dump sites. The black 'stick' in your second picture lloks like a searchlight element, a common item to find in a dump !!!
Hi steve,thanks for your continued injection of excitment,makes it worth the bother. im a little annoyed my camera took some cool pics but im experiencing some difficulty downloading,these above were all that i could manage (bloody kodak) actually this means i'll have to go again......thanks kodak! i pulled out heaps of bottles,unable to get any dates. i wasnt going to bother to go again but think i'll try again.the first pic is of an uncapped mine,from my preliminary scout it looks to be the only one.now where did i put that climbing rope!
If you're finding lots and lots of bottles, trust me, you've found the dump !
These dumps can be an inch below the surface or 3 feet below the surface, depending on how lucky you are. Once into the top layer, a dump used for 6 months is usually about 3-4 foot deep, and, (if a domestic dump), is made up of rusty tin cans, bottles, crockery and, intermixed with these, absolute stonking finds ! With you finding bottles already I'd guess at a domestic dump.
You need to rope some friends in to come help you dig
iv taken a pic of those bottles.the worse thing that can happen is someone else continues to dig where i started and gets to those goodies before i do! i'm going to have to go back soon.
Trevellas Airfield (RAF Perranporth)
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wow cool place, have you ben in thos shafts? there must be alot of stuff laying around
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