Hi all,
I live up in Northumberland and have quite a few abandoned/derelict WW2 airfields within 10 - 30 minutes driving time from my house, so after reading Steve T's "Searching Tips" thread recently I decided to start researching a couple of sites that are nearest (RAF Morpeth/Tranwell and RAF Eshott) with the plan of going detecting on them. I know RAF Morpeth quite well (or thought I did) because as a kid I often used to knock about there with a friend of mine who lived nearby and much of the site is now covered by woodland.
I got in touch with the RAF museum by emailing their Department of Research and Information Services in London and managed to get photocopies of wartime plans for both Airfields sent to me for a small fee - I was shocked to find that the base is VAST, it spreads far beyond what I thought was the boundaries, literally miles!
The plans consist of a scaled map and also lists the original use of each building on the map with the use of a key, which now is mostly just mounds of rubble.
The problem is - I just don't know where to start, do I just get stuck in and hope for the best using what I think is a good spot on Google earth or would anyone recommend a starting point, for example near barracks, store, mess etc...?
I know there is no general rule but if I can find the site dump (which is unfortunately not listed on the plan) It would probably bring up loads of goodies.
I would appreciate any advice or pointers from anyone who has any past experience with digging bases in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter,
Thanks in advance,
Chris.
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