Monument record TQ 57 NW 53 - Joyce green aerodrome (site)

Site of Joyce Green Aerodrome, est 1911 by Vickers Aircraft Co for the test flying of their aircraft, fabricated on site from components that had been built at the Erith Works. Site developed around the Long Reach Tavern and its jetty. In 1914 the army took over the site and Vickers occupied two hangers at the far end of the airfield site (c TQ 5391 7689). The army constructed additional hangars, workshops and other buildings but vacated the site along with Vickers in 1919. After some brief use by a gliding club in the 1930s the buildings were demolished in 1939, the Long Reach Tavern in the 1950s. (1). Site photographs (2-24).

Location information updated following work by Bexley Young Archaeologists' Club on the Home Front Legacies Project (August 2018).

The area near the confluence of the Darent and the Thames is a large flat area of agricultural land which formed part of Dartford Salt Marshes. This was the site of Joyce Green Aerodrome. Prior to the First World war it was used by Messrs. Vickers Ltd for the testing of prototype planes. Vickers had bought the site in 1911, and started aircraft testing in the same year, but the runway was never more than a grass surface. This marshland site couldn't have been less suitable as an aerodrome. Vice Marshal Gould Lee wrote the following comments about it: To use this waterlogged field for testing every now and then was reasonable and to take advantage of it as an emergency landing ground for Home Defence forces was credible, but to employ it as a flying training station was folly and as a Camel (i.e. Sopwith Camel aeroplane) training station was lunacy. A pupil taking off with a choked or failing engine had to choose, according to wind direction, between drowning in the Thames (half a mile wide at this point) or crashing into the Vickers TNT (explosives) Works; or hitting one of their several high chimney stacks; or sinking into a vast sewage farm; or killing himself and numerous patients in a large isolation hospital; or being electrocuted in an electrical station with acres of pylons and cables; or trying to turn and get back to the aerodrome. Unfortunately, many pupils confronted with disaster tried the last course and spun to their deaths. The airfield wa closed in 1919. (25)

<1> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Joyce Green and Vickers Ltd' L Pilkinton (in Flight in Kent, Meresborough 1985) (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<2> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9410.

<3> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9643.

<4> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9677.

<5> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9678.

<6> 1945, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9688.

<7> 1945, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9711.

<8> 1945, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9712.

<9> 1945, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9713.

<10> 1945, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9716.

<11> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9718.

<12> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9764.

<13> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9765.

<14> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9766.

<15> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9770.

<16> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9771.

<17> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9781.

<18> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10044.

<19> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10049.

<20> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10051.

<21> 1944, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10054.

<22> 1988, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10754.

<23> 1988, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10755.

<24> 1988, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX10756.

<25> Peter Higginbotham, Higginbotham, Peter. 2000. The Workhouse. (Website). SKE53741.