7 replies to this topic

[ehagar]

I am interested in finding information on currently running and defunct Canadian circuits. One circuit caught my eye...

http://www.silhouet....s/harewood.html

Doing a google search there are a few pictures of the place, and some results. Is there anyone on TNF that has actually been there?

One thing I find puzzling... the location is 'five miles SE of Jarvis, Ontario'. I gather the place was an abandoned airfield... looking at a VFR map of the area that would place the location somewhere around Peacock Point or Selkirk along the shores of Lake Erie. Nearby there is a abandoned airfield 3 nm north of town (Hagersville) and 8 nm east is a drag strip.

What kind of airfield was it? How many runways? I can't make it out from the few pictures I have found.

Anyone have any info?

[Gerr]

I've been there, for races, years and years ago. It was built during WWII as an RCAF operated bombing and gunnery school for the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. There were paved airfields in all directions (it is a huge place) and huge pock-marked concrete walls used for gunnery training.
It was one of many RCAF and BCATP areodromes that were used for motor racing, such as Abbottsford BC, Greenacres (Port Albert) Ontario, Gimli Manitoba, MacDonald Manitoba, Edenvale Ontario, etc.
It was leased (from the Department of Defense?) in 1956 by the BEMC, and had the first races that year. The last racing was September 27, 1970. It was bought by an oil company (to build a refinery, I think). The closest town is Jarvis.

[ehagar]

Thanks Gerr...

Can I pick your brain some more?

You mention it bought by a refinery, I notice on the VFR map there is a refinery and a generating plant 4-5 miles south of the town. Guess the aerdrome is no more.

Checking a book my grandfather gave me on the RCAF...

No. 1 B&GS (Bombing and Gunnery School) Jarvis, Ont. Flew Anson, Battle, Bolingbroke, and Lysanders.

Interestingly, There are several defunct WWII airfields still visible in the area. Hagersville and Dunnville are the closest. From the same book Dunnville and Hagersville were Service flying training schools.... Harvards and Yales.

You say runways run everywhere... Do you mean the standard triangle field configuration of most Commonwealth airfields?

Eg. Dunnville:

http://www.dunnville...port Aerial.gif

Looks like Yorkton...

http://www.vac-acc.g...p/Images/10.jpg

Any idea how long the runway lengths were?

Just wondering from the track diagram what parts of the circuit were runway and what parts were newly paved sections.

[Gerr]

ehagar, IIRC, The refinery is owned by Imperial Oil. There are/were BCATP all over southern Ontario, built for different types of training (eg. Port Albert was a navigation school). At Jarvis/Harewood the RCAF trained bomber crews (the bombing targets floated in Lake Erie).
Hagersville and Dunnville were for pilot training.
The BEMC ran races only a couple of weeks after getting the lease signed. I don't think they would have had any time to do paving. With all of the runways, taxiways and parking areas, it seemed larger than the photos of Dunnville and Yorkton.
I'll try and dig up more info.

Where are you in Canada?

[Vitesse2]

Might be worth asking the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum if they have any details.

[ehagar]

Originally posted by Gerr

Where are you in Canada?

At the moment BC. I'll make a visit to an airforce museum to see if I can get some pictures. Doubt it though... there were literally hundreds of aerodromes made during the war.

According to a book of mine there were four Bombing and Gunenry Schools in No. 1 Training command (Ontario region). Included Jarvis, London, Mountain View (Hamilton), and Picton. The airport design was quite varied and Picton is actually very small.

I get the feeling looking at the racing circuit diagram that it was probably 3 runways in a configuration similar to Victoria International, but who knows...

The few photos I have found show an abundance of haybales.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

I'll have a chat with my cousin who raced his novice year in 1970 in FV and ran some events at Harewood Acres. He'll be able to provide some insights into the layout. I'll get back to this thread when I've got some data. Also, I went to two events in the last season, including the last ever in the fall of 1970 as mentioned by Gerr.

[ehagar]

Spent a day looking through an Air force library and didn't find much other than a few words about the place. Then again... the library has over 26,000 photos many uncatalogued so there might still be something in there that I didn't find. Found a lot of wartime pictures of various Canadian airfields... but alas none of Jarvis.

Anyone have any pictures? Racing or showing the background of the track?

There is one picture of the parade square with a tad of the airfield on the net....

http://www.grade3onl...ges/jarvis1.jpg

Apparently... a movie called Captains of the Clouds was filmed (in part) at 1 B&GS Jarvis, Ont. (March 1941)