21 replies to this topic

[fuzzi]

Hello Folks

My search for speed event courses has thrown up another mysterious place.

Selsey Airfield in Sussex was apparently used for a couple of sprints in May and November 1969 by the (now defunct) West Sussex Motor Sports Club. It was not listed in the Blue Book for 1969, so they may have been informal affairs. The airfield has been ploughed up and what runways there were have gone so it has also physically disappeared into the mists.

Does anyone know anything about speed events at Selsey?

Edited by fuzzi, 16 December 2010 - 12:31.

[bradbury west]

I suspect Mike Lawrence might be your man for this sort of stuff.
Roger Lund

[Macca]

There was no airfield actually at Selsey - the nearest was a wartime-only airfield at Merston which has indeed been ploughed under, so it's probably Thorney Island which hosted bike racing around that time.

Paul M


edited with the name I meant to say...............

Edited by Macca, 18 December 2010 - 11:29.

[CoulthardD]

Plenty of references to Selsey Airfield on the net.

DC

[Doug Nye]

I seem to recall Thorney Island aerodrome sprints taking place, but by 1969 the temporary base at Selsey had long gone. I suspect it would only ever have been a grass aerodrome, probably uprated through intense use by perforated steel or mesh tracking... You would not enjoy a sprint on such a surface. Are you sure the sprints recalled were not 1949 rather than 1969 and on one of the adjacent hard-surfaced aerodromes, for instance Merston?

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 16 December 2010 - 17:52.

[Patrick Sumner]

Southsea MC & Chichester MC jointly held sprints at Thorney Island called the Argosy Sprint. First held on 9/7/67, then 7/7/68 & 20/7/69. Not sure what happened after that. Got the results for the first two as I had class win in '67 & FTD in '68 (pouring rain) for which they awarded the Chichester MC Bugatti Trophy in the form of a Bugatti radiator which you were not allowed to keep! Cannot remember Selsey so it can't have been much, since as a local boy I would have expected to know about it, probably grass track?

[Allan Lupton]

At about 50 44 30.59 N by 0 47 33.38 W on Google Earth there is a field with what looks like a trace that an E-W runway was once there. Can't work out how to show you the image directly, or I'd do so.
My earlier editions of OS and other maps date from the time when airfields were deliberately not shown, so no help there.

[RAP]

At about 50 44 30.59 N by 0 47 33.38 W on Google Earth there is a field with what looks like a trace that an E-W runway was once there. Can't work out how to show you the image directly, or I'd do so.
My earlier editions of OS and other maps date from the time when airfields were deliberately not shown, so no help there.

I'm fairly sure the airfield was to the east of the B2145 Chichester Selsey road with its southern boundary being Rectory Lane which is runs east at the Nature's Food place and goes down to Church Norton. The land in the V created by these roads still looks "old airfield" through as has been said there are no signs of runways or buildings.
RAP

Edited by RAP, 16 December 2010 - 20:38.

[IanMH]

Check out the aerial photos on DC's link above if you are confused. There's nothing to see on the latest google maps. It doesn't look like it could ever have been used for what we could consider a 'tarmac' sprint event. Cheers Ian.

[Terry Walker]

The east-west "ghost runway" is in the centre.

[fuzzi]

Thank you gentlemen. That seems to settle it.

Just what I needed, I will leave it out.

I already have some information on Thorney Island and Ford (aka Climping/Yapton) where some sprints and speed trials were held in the 60s/70s.

I did come across some interesting photos of the Speed Trials at Ford yesterday (http://www.flickr.co...N08/5086196096/) - especially if you like Bentleys, and an iteration of the Sunbeam Tigress with a Napier Lion Aero engine. Plus there is a photo of the E-type lookalike Special seen at the Crystal Palace sprint this year.* (Can't get at the programme my wife's still asleep and the box file is on the landing just outside the bedroom).

* Now had a look in the Crystal Palace programme - it was the Owen Jaguar Special

Edited by fuzzi, 17 December 2010 - 09:41.

[Allan Lupton]

The east-west "ghost runway" is in the centre.

Yes that's what I was on about: thanks Terry.
However RAP's location is where "satellite" and "Earth" appear in the top right of that Google Earth image. Also the link DC gave refers to Church Norton which is along that road (Rectory Lane).
Of course both sites could have been aerodromes at the same time, as there were many cases of closely located pairs - e.g. (and quite near what we're discussing) Westhampnett and Tangmere only a couple of miles apart and Ford perhaps five miles away.

[Allan Lupton]

I did come across some interesting photos of the Speed Trials at Ford yesterday (http://www.flickr.co...N08/5086196096/) - especially if you like Bentleys, and an iteration of the Sunbeam Tigress with a Napier Lion Aero engine. Plus there is a photo of the E-type lookalike Special seen at the Crystal Palace sprint this year.

IIRC Bentley Drivers Club ran a meeting at Ford which those photos must be of. Volatile memory says they went there when Firle was no longer available.

[RAP]

How interesting. It made me Google and I found this which shows the runways pretty much as I described
http://worldwar2airf.../p38827563.html

It also mentions a plaque which I had forgotten but I feel sure is along Rectory Lane as I dont know how else I would have seen it - I should explain that one of my interestes is bird-watching and Rectory Lane takes you down the the Pagham Harbour which is one of the top sites in Sussex just in case anyone is curious !!

RAP

[IanMH]

If you look at this pic selsey1944 , the area where there appears to be the remains of a runway amongst the mobile homes had nothing on it in 1944. If there had been two airfields they would have been less than a mile apart. The cleared strip among the caravans is roughly 1000yards long , so maybe was a small private landing ground for light aircraft post-war? Cheers Ian.

RAP The plaque is on Rectory Lane near where the 31 is on the photo.

Edited by IanMH, 17 December 2010 - 13:22.

[bradbury west]

... Plus there is a photo of the E-type lookalike Special seen at the Crystal Palace sprint this year.* (* Now had a look in the Crystal Palace programme - it was the Owen Jaguar Special

Are you really sure?. I have not checked that thread but I thought the red car at the Palace meeting was not this car on flickr. The one shown is the special bodied XK140 which, IIRC, David Hobbs drove at one stage years ago, and which appeared at the Revival 3 or 4 years ago in a nice metallic blue colour. ISTR it is in one of the Jaguars in Comp type books and is a well known car.
Roger Lund


edit
http://forums.autosp...;hl=Owen Jaguar

Edited by bradbury west, 17 December 2010 - 13:49.

[Allan Lupton]

Are you really sure?. I have not checked that thread but I thought the red car at the Palace meeting was not this car on flickr. The one shown is the special bodied XK140 which, IIRC, David Hobbs drove at one stage years ago, and which appeared at the Revival 3 or 4 years ago in a nice metallic blue colour. ISTR it is in one of the Jaguars in Comp type books and is a well known car.
Roger Lund


edit
http://forums.autosp...;hl=Owen Jaguar

Look further down that thread and you'll see the car it is - the ex-Hobbs XK140 TAC743 rebodied by Owen, not 15YPG which is the all-Owen car originally Triumph-powered which was at the Palace.

[BRG]

Southsea MC & Chichester MC jointly held sprints at Thorney Island called the Argosy Sprint. First held on 9/7/67, then 7/7/68 & 20/7/69. Not sure what happened after that.

Thorney came and went depending on attitude of the camp commander. It is a Royal Artillery depot I believe. It was used for single venue rallies and sprints in 1980s/90s.

I did several rallies there which were always good craic. One of my fellow club-members managed to go off on the southern perimeter road and hit the only structure for hundreds of yards in any direction. It was a wooden shed and he emerged still running while the shed collapsed behind him in best silent film style!

[La Sarthe]

Selsey was what was called an Advanced Landing Ground. These were the most temporary of airfields and were devised to support the D Day landings. They generally consisted of a pair of grass runways, reinforced with a steel mesh called Sommerfeld Track. They usually had four Blister hangars (corrugated iron arches) and very few buildings, most of the accommodation being in tents. There were 24 of them distributed along the south coast, from Hampshire to Kent. Some were used by the US 9th Air Force, whilst the rest were used by the RAF.

A few like Selsey were built and brought into use in 1943 as a trial for 3-4 months, but were then decommissioned over the winter months and brought back into use in April 1944. They typically held three fighter squadrons each - in Selsey's case these were RAF Spitfires. Post D-Day these squadrons soon moved into similar temporary airfields in France and so the track was pulled up, the tents removed and the fields returned to farmland. On the ground they are very hard to detect, although you can see where hedges have been removed and replaced later with wire fences on the line of the runways.

Suffice to say there was no peritrack or runways on which to hold motor racing post-war.

Edited by La Sarthe, 20 December 2010 - 13:22.

[Macca]

Here is a location map for RAF Merston:

http://www.atlantikw...html/page02.htm

Paul

[Rupertlt1]

Here is a location map for RAF Merston:

http://www.atlantikw...html/page02.htm

Paul

 

Chichester Speed Trials, Southsea M. C., 20th September 1947

See Motor Sport, October 1947, Pages 297-298.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 08 January 2024 - 08:42.

[Rupertlt1]

27 May 1956.—Southsea M.C. Timed trials, R.A.F. Station, Thorney Island, near Emsworth, Sussex, 2 p.m.

1957: Southsea M.C.—The club is unable to hold the timed trials at Thorney Island, Emsworth, Hampshire, which are on the R.A.C. calendar for 26 May, as the course is not available on that date. It is hoped that the trials can be run later in the year, possibly in July.

1958: Southsea M.C.—On 25 May timed trials will take place at the R.A.F. Station, Thorney Island, Sussex. There will be classes for saloon, sports and racing cars. Entries to Mrs. B. E. Greaves, Lilac Cottage, Horndean Road, Emsworth, Hampshire, by 16 May. Fee £2 2s, late entries 10s extra.

See also ref Selsey autocross: https://forums.autos...2#entry10721621

Warner's Farm, Selsey, was owned by John Barnes, the hill climb racer, and instigator of the West Sussex Motor Sports Club.

Autocross event: 30 August 1964 

RGDS RLT 

Edited by Rupertlt1, 16 September 2024 - 15:03.