LONGCROFT
WIRELESS HUT, NEAR RNAS ANTHORN
The
remote village of Anthorn, sited on a blunt peninsula 13 miles west
of Carlisle, was once home to a busy, thriving Naval air-station.
Originally a WWI landing-strip in the vicinity of the now-demolished
Solway House, the site was reinstated by the RAF at the start of
WWII as an Emergency Landing Ground for RAF Silloth.
The
Royal Navy bagged the site in December 1942, building RNAS Anthorn,
eventually being commissioned in September 1944, and given the title
'HMS Nuthatch' . RNAS Anthorn operated well past WWII as No:1 ARDU
(Aircraft Receipt and Dispatch Unit), and the last 'official' aircraft
left the runway in November 1957. The base was put into 'mothballs',
finally closing down in March 1958.
There
are still the remains of electrical lighting conduits and fittings
within. Building construction is typical MOWP pattern (Ministry
Of War Production), but constructed of red tiled bricks, rather
than the conventional method of stretcher-bonded regular bricks.
The asbestos roof and end-vents are the same as on the standard
MOWP hut. Most of the windows have been bricked in. The angle-iron
tower support bases are still visible, and it is possible to see
where the wooden tower was felled.
There
is a similar building at the other end of Longcroft.
Russell
W. Barnes
Defence
of Cumbria website »
This
building at Longcroft Farm, Nr. Anthorn, is owned by my family and
you my be inerested to know the story of how we came to own it
The
land that it is built on was compulsorily purchased by the Admirality
from the Dugdale Family.
The
building and it's associated masts, tower and ariel wires were built
and used by HMS Nuthatch untill the station closed.
The
Admirality approached my Father, from whom the land was originally
purchased and tried to sell him the land back and charging him for
the building that you see in the picture.
Fortunately
for the Dugdale Family, my Father still had the original paperwork
drawn up by the Admiality at the time of the compulsory purchase
and in this paperwork it states that when the admirality were finished
with the land it had to go back to the original owner at the price
that was payed for it. ( I think the price was somewhere in the
region of £200.)
If
I remember rightly the Admirality were wanting to charge my Father
£2,500 for the return of the site with the building. However,
my father put it to the Admirality that the site had to be returned
to the origional owners for the price that it was purchased for
and that the site had to be cleared back to it's original state.
As
the clearing of the site would have cost the Admirality a lot more
than the £2,500 they were asking my Father to pay, and in
view of the Paperwork held by my Father they finally agreed to leave
the building up and sell him the site back for £200 complete
with masts and building.
Mr.
H.B.Dugdale
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