Letter: Previous Organised Resitance to Wisley Airfield Development Appears Expunged from History

Published on: 8 Sep, 2024
Updated on: 8 Sep, 2024

A photo of a VC 10 in front of the original war time hangers at Elm Corner, Wisley Airfield, in 1962

From K Marshall

In response to: The Story of the Former Wisley Airfield

From 1976 to 1982 I lived near Hatchford End, about 200-300 yards from the runway of Wisley Airfield.

The official history of the airfield seems to have been carefully rewritten, in true Orwellian 1984 fashion, to omit any reference to the proposed development of the airfield in the late 70s by interests including the then owner of Fairoaks Airfield.

There is no doubt that, sited equidistant from both Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and with a radar beacon marking the southern edge of the Heathrow exclusion zone, it could have made an excellent transfer connection between the two main London airports as well as being a well-placed and easily accessible third airport serving London.

However this would have been contrary to the guarantee given at the time of sequestration that the site would be restored as farmland and returned to the original owners when no longer required by BAC for testing the VC10 aircraft after 1972.

In the late 1970s, possibly to avoid that guarantee and instead permit the transformation to a working airfield, the then Government/MOD, moving at uncommonly supersonic speed, exchanged contracts, completing the sale of the site within 24-hours.

This upset the local Ockham residents, who fortunately included many retired senior civil servants, judges, or lawyers – still with good “connections” – who set up SWAT, the Save Wisley Airfield campaign, and successfully took on the Government and would-be airport developer.

Strangely there is no history of this worthy effort in the Wikipedia entry for Wisley Airfield or, seemingly, anywhere else on the internet.

Sadly any 1700-house development of such a site would just be another step in the utter destruction of one of the last semi-rural parts of North Surrey still trying to escape annexation by Greater London.

Perhaps the “peasants” can successfully revolt once more?