Final Days of Ford
Headline in the Worthing Gazette, Wed. 24th. 1958
FINAL DAYS OF FORD – ONLY ONE SQUADRON LEFT
The closing down of the Royal Naval Air Station at Ford is reaching the final stages; all flying was expected to cease at the end of last week. The station’s Press officer, Lieutenant-Commander E. T. Genge, told the Gazette on Wednesday that the run-down would almost certainly be completed by the beginning of 1959.
Only 700 Squadron now remains at Ford; the other squadrons have been leaving during the past few months. The majority of the Service personnel on the station will have left by the end of this month, leaving a skeleton staff to handle the final arrangements.
The School of Photography however, will remain at Ford indefinitely. Some of the station’s civilian staff have already left to take up employment elsewhere; the remainder will probably have departed by the end of the year.
Ford was first used as an airfield by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War but at that time it was known as Yapton Aerodrome and consisted of an area of 85 acres adjoining the village of Yapton.
German P.O.W.’s constructed the hangers and buildings at the western side of the airfield in 1916 and these were occupied a year later by the United States Army Air Force.
AM
Jan. 2007
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