NEW FOREST WALK : RAF HOLMSLEY SOUTH (NEW FOREST NATIONAL PARK)

Join me and my dog, Logan, as we continue our series of walks in the New Forest. In this episode we explore the site that was once RAF Holmsley South (now a disused WW2 Airfield in the New Forest). During our walk we visit the "New Forest Airfields Memorial", discover a Battle Command HQ escape hatch and find other evidence of the site's former existence.
Map courtesy of Google Maps.
Aerial pictures courtesy of Google Maps.
Music from the KZbin Audio library.
Historic Maps NLS Maps 'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland' maps.nls.uk/in...
Information Sources: Wikipedia, Historic England & British History Online.
For further videos in the series, please go to: / @daveford
or my website at daveford5966.w...
Facebook: / davescountrysidewalks
I use an AKASO V50Pro Action Camera with an ISteady Gimbal together with a Canon SX 400IS.

[@jillageinthevillage8481]

We love watching your videos and our Scottish terrier loves watching Logan

[@DaveFord]

Thanks Jill. Glad that you are enjoying the series. Thank you for watching.

[@gloriastagg2351]

Enjoyed this. My father was an RAF meteorologist and was stationed at Holmesley South and Stoney Cross. He used to tell me tales of forecasting leaflet drops over Europe and gliders into Holland

[@DaveFord]

Thank you Gloria. How lovely to learn about your Father's connection with the airfield.:)

[@mikerandall3819]

Have been visiting since the mid eighties, lovely spot, incredible history, will always return. Heart remains here.

[@DaveFord]

Yes Mike. It is great that there is still some evidence there, keeping the memories alive.

[@Micky-yo3ng]

Visited many times, mostly camping with family. The old runway can be quite an eerie place in the evening. And I’ve read that Tin Town was Avery rough neighbourhood.

[@DaveFord]

Yes..I can imagine that it could be a little "atmospheric" at night! Thanks for watching.

[@wendycarter5973]

I’m used to live in one of the huts in holmsley in the early 1950 s then called tin town it was a lovely place to be as a child poor but the families all helped each other we moved out when I was five and went to live in purewell I still live in the area I’ll never forget holmsley happy days

[@DaveFord]

Thank you for sharing your memories of the area Wendy.

[@IHZ3185]

My Grandmother Nora lived there, she was housed in Edward Road at Somerford when it was a brand new house.

[@cornwall_in_Squares]

Brilliant really informative, my granddad was stationed there in 1945 an air frame fitter. Camp many times there the site did have some of the original buildings dotted around the aprons. Lots of great memories

[@DaveFord]

Thank you Martin. Sad that so little remains there now.

[@cornwall_in_Squares]

@@DaveFord As you said they are an important part of our history and it would be nice to have preserved them. Sadly too late now.

[@MikeofDorset]

I'm sure you're correct about the concrete plinth being for a cloud height projector lamp. Projected vertically to the cloud base, the beam of light's angle would be determined from the Watch Office (control tower), and thus by trigonometry (presumably), the cloud base height would be determined.

[@DaveFord]

Thanks Mike. I wasn't 100% sure of it's origin. Thank you for explaining how it worked.

[@lambrettascooter]

Great video as usual My memories of the airfield go back to when I was 8 or 9 in the 1960s and my Mum learning to drive there on the old runways ! Also my brother and I stupidly chased a herd of cows away 😮 We did the walk during lockdown, very wet and muddy All the best Alan and Michelle

[@DaveFord]

Yes, I think it was a very popular area in those days for folk learning to drive for the first time.

[@jensoboleski]

Thank you for this video! I came across it while researching my family tree. If I've found the right John J. Odell, Jr, (my grandfather's brother), and I'm correctly putting together details from multiple websites, then it appears that my great-uncle was stationed at Holmsley South for all of 4 days before he was killed in a bad-weather crash in Porlock in Oct 1942. I really appreciated your walking tour and the interesting historical tidbits you provide to help me get a feel for where my great-uncle may have spent the last days of his life. Thank you!

[@DaveFord]

Thank you. Sad to learn about your Great Uncle. Glad that you found the walk interesting - especially with your family connection.

[@TrexplorerUK]

Hi Dave, just re-watching some of your older videos this evening. It occurred to me I’ve not seen you and Logan online for a while so hope you’re both ok. With the weather on the up, if you fancy a stroll or perhaps a pub lunch on me soon do say.

[@DaveFord]

Hi Marc. Yes Logan & I are both fine - we are still publishing a new video every Friday. Having done over 75 New Forest walks, we are doing more in the rest of Hampshire, Dorset and West Sussex. Hope to see you at the Boldre exhibition in June.

[@TrexplorerUK]

@@DaveFord Glad to hear it! Hope to see you soon too :-)

[@jordansymmons9809]

What a lovely video. And I'm going with my dad to Homsley tomorrow...

[@DaveFord]

Thanks Jordan. Hope you have a lovely walk there and weather holds (looks like it will be dry!).

[@jordansymmons9809]

@@DaveFord hi I really enjoyed the walk at Holmsey South on Thursday. We walked on the old Campsite where the taxi rank used to be for the planes to take of from and we also saw the concrete block where the landing lights used to be. And more concrete on the runway and me and my dad thought that maybe the runway was concrete back then and just over grown with grass as time went on. And we also saw the Battle Headquarters block there too... I'm gonna take my dad to Stoney cross Airfield next time... Many Thanks Dave Ford for your lovely videos of the new forest..

[@badneck1947]

Again Great video and history. Camped often in Holmsley and knew it was RAF station but interesting to have the historical in-fills. Have ordered the Leslie White book. Thanks v much

[@DaveFord]

Thank you. I think that you will find the Leslie White book very interesting - it is well written with some lovely drawings - and it gives a fair bit of detail about the support buildings to the South West of the site.

[@MrNas42]

A delight, as always Dave. You are always so lucky with the weather!

[@DaveFord]

Thanks Nigel. To be honest, I always try and wait for A) a dry day & B) a "Non-Windy" day!

[@dee-anneworsdell8459]

I've been using holmsley camp site for around 50 odd years. I know I've seen alot of changes to it. Also a photo of my brother and I was use on a new forest map in the early 1970s. Now my granddaughter enjoys it as myself and my daughter's did and still do. My auntie lives just down the road in bransgore.

[@DaveFord]

What a lovely post. You must be very fond of the area.:)

[@dee-anneworsdell8459]

@@DaveFord yes that's for sure. I have always felt that I have come home and am very relaxed as I am around the new forest. In fact it is in a way as we use to spend holidays weekends and day trips which I remember taking forever to get there getting up early hours nothing like now day's. I explained another part of my life in the boulderwood video. When you next speak to your historian friend could you ask if the Romans marched through the camp site as at separate times myself and others who have stayed have seen and heard in the early hours of the morning a battalion of Roman soldiers marching through the middle of the camp site. I know that they was around the area but that's all I have found out. I know that a lot of people don't believe this sort of thing, but I've been seeing this sort of thing since very small. The others that have seen this didn't know at the time about the other family members sightings until not that many years ago. Take care.😘

[@vikkibramshaw-official]

Thank you Dave, your videos are very informative. Do you happen to know the year that the nearby Wilverley Plain was first militarised? I know it was identified quite early on for military use, but I can't find evidence of an actual date anywhere! Here's hoping! :D

[@DaveFord]

I am not sure when that area was first used by the military. The area Long Slade Bottom was certainly in use in 1942 (see link).nfknowledge.org/contributions/colour-photos-of-the-43rd-battalion-royal-tank-regiment-33rd-brigade-on-exercise-in-the-new-forest/#map=10/-1.63/50.81/0/24:0:0.6|39:1:1|40:1:1

[@philredmond4619]

Really enjoyed watching your VT , i used to walk my dog up there . Live closeby in Burton . Thanks

[@DaveFord]

Thanks Phil. I enjoyed going back there...it is a lovely part of the countryside.

[@rosewhite---]

Are the old runways still there? I'm interested in knowing how much soil and grass has accumulated on them in the last 75 years.

[@DaveFord]

The concrete has been removed from the main runways (apart from a small section on private land) but you can easily make out where they were located as very little scrub / gorse has grown back.

[@rosewhite---]

@@DaveFord Hi Dave, Thanks. But I need an overgrown concrete one to measure. There was a video on KZbin a few years ago about about abandoned bomber base that had not been driven on since closing in 1946 and clearly showed grass had grown in from both sides. But then the video was taken down over copyright. Most of ones up here in Yorkshire have been dug up or developed for industry. I'll keep looking.