Old military remains, Lincolnshire...

[Shaun Haselden]

Battle scars on the landscape. One of countless airfield remains on the countryside in Lincolnshire. This is at a place called Kelstern. Love these old places. So much 'atmosphere'. I was born and I grew up in Lincolnshire surrounded by these old remnants.

 

[Tony Warren]

Hi Shaun. I lived in Lincolnshire for may years, in Cranwell south of Lincoln. Known as "Bomber County" so many Lancaster squadrons were based there in WWII, many of them on the edge of the escarpment between Grantham and Lincoln so that taking off into the west with a full load they had some height to lose as the gained speed I would imagine! Your image captures the mood so well. the old concrete taxi-way leading the eye to the stacked straw bales that could be an old military building. The barbed wire gives it that added touch and the monochrome, heavy sky all add to the mood. Lovely result.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Hi Shaun. I lived in Lincolnshire for may years, in Cranwell south of Lincoln. Known as "Bomber County" so many Lancaster squadrons were based there in WWII, many of them on the edge of the escarpment between Grantham and Lincoln so that taking off into the west with a full load they had some height to lose as the gained speed I would imagine! Your image captures the mood so well. the old concrete taxi-way leading the eye to the stacked straw bales that could be an old military building. The barbed wire gives it that added touch and the monochrome, heavy sky all add to the mood. Lovely result.

Tony, thank you for your comments. Since being a child in the north of Lincolnshire I have been drawn to these historic sites. I had a family member with connections to RAF Grimsby before it was even a Royal Air Force station. So much history, so much to say. For me it is not about blue skies and fluffy clouds because they are so rare. For me it is about the reality of rain and mud. This place is grim and those airmen had to face death every day they lived and flew. I want to show how barren Lincolnshire is and how hopeless their situation was. Black and white then ? Definitely. Grey, grim clouds ? Definitely. High contrast/high sharpness. Definitely.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Here is the latest in my project covering old military/airfield images. This is one of the old runways at what was RAF Kelstern. Once again, I am always emotionally connected to the sheer loneliness of the place. How can somewhere once so noisy, busy and horrific now be so deathly quiet..? It is as though the land is still healing.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Here is the latest in my project covering old military/airfield images. This is one of the old runways at what was RAF Kelstern. Once again, I am always emotionally connected to the sheer loneliness of the place. How can somewhere once so noisy, busy and horrific now be so deathly quiet..? It is as though the land is still healing.

I have just sat and looked at this image and it has a striking resemblance to the old French battlefields of WWI. Not intended by me though.

 

[Tony Warren]

Tony, thank you for your comments. Since being a child in the north of Lincolnshire I have been drawn to these historic sites. I had a family member with connections to RAF Grimsby before it was even a Royal Air Force station. So much history, so much to say. For me it is not about blue skies and fluffy clouds because they are so rare. For me it is about the reality of rain and mud. This place is grim and those airmen had to face death every day they lived and flew. I want to show how barren Lincolnshire is and how hopeless their situation was. Black and white then ? Definitely. Grey, grim clouds ? Definitely. High contrast/high sharpness. Definitely.

Coincidentally I lived in Grimsby before moving the Cranwell. RAF Grimsby would be the airfield where the nueclear response missiles were based I guess. North Cotes I believe. Your comments regarding the brave men who flew in those lumbering bombers struck a chord. An uncle of mine was a tail gunner in a Lancaster and was killed over Holland.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Coincidentally I lived in Grimsby before moving the Cranwell. RAF Grimsby would be the airfield where the nueclear response missiles were based I guess. North Cotes I believe. Your comments regarding the brave men who flew in those lumbering bombers struck a chord. An uncle of mine was a tail gunner in a Lancaster and was killed over Holland.

Tony, the nuclear missiles you refer to were Thor IRBM's and were based all over Lincolnshire at places such as Caistor and Ludford Magna. The finest, best preserved of these is easily the one at Caistor. North Cotes housed Bloodhound's which were for the defence of the then V Bomber bases. I think Bloodhound missiles were also at Barkston Heath.

Deeply sad to hear of your uncle. Brave men who had no choice. So many in so many countries. My uncle was James H Haselden who learned to fly out of what was then Waltham aerodrome. He then joined the Civil Air Guard also at Waltham but when this became RAF Grimsby he moved to Brough as an RAFVR. During a flight in which he was tutoring a student pilot at Brough, another pilot in the area flew into them. That pilot died straight away, James died a few days later but the student survived dying years later.

 

[Tony Warren]

That was a tragic accident Shaun and cost three lives. Simply awful. Thanks for putting me right about the airfields and missiles. It has brought it all back for me - it is 50 years ago that we lived there - I had completely forgotten about Waltham. And I can picture the missiles at North Cotes and they were too small to be the ones I said. Spiky things, all pointing out to the east.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Another study done recently. The old abandoned remains of what used to be RAF Strubby in Lincolnshire.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I actually have no idea where Lincolnshire is, or even Grimsby - sorry about that - so I’m looking at a more universal reading of the images, which to me have a deeply humane quality, not restricted to a time and a place. Oh, the futility of war! All for what? How many people and animals have died in the history of war? Yet life goes on.

It’s good to have such beautiful (in its widest sense) photos to turn the mind occasionally to such a subject. I don’t think we’ll ever change.

 

[Tony Warren]

Another study done recently. The old abandoned remains of what used to be RAF Strubby in Lincolnshire.

Hi Shaun - another nostalgic shot for me. Strubby is still used I believe, or was when I used to to go to the gliding club there. My friend was an instructor and there was a helicopter operation serving the gas fields in the North Sea.

 

[Shaun Haselden]

Taking things in turn; Tony, my first ever flight in a glider was at Strubby back around 1983. Loved it and hated it . My first ever flight in a Cessna 172 was at Kirmington. Loved it more.

Rob, I am so with you on the words you speak. War is totally pointless and achieves very little. It kills and destroys all kinds of creatures with very little positivity. It is so good that you have no knowledge of the places I photograph as it gives you an independence of opinion uncoloured by childhood memories and associated romantic notions. I am not so fortunate having family connections through history based on the locality of Lincolnshire. I have a glorified, romantic outlook on all this historic aviation related stuff due to the fact that from my earliest memories my Mom would sing her head off virtually every day; Songs from the 40's of course and would recall her memories of the local 'yank' base at Goxhill where lots of folk would go on a Saturday evening to dance their worries away.

My photography is very probably controlled by this romanticism and very probably displays it but my main aim is to try to show loneliness and solitude. Lost time and lost places; a notion referred to as 'Hiraeth' or a feeling of grief for a place or time that you were never actually part of. How could I have been ? I was born in 1959.

My photography has nothing to do with flag waving and it never will. My photography is about grief and loss. My photography is about empathy and love.

Very best wishes to all.

 

[Tony Warren]

My first powered and unpowered flights were both from Strubby. Did you know Roy Patington? I flew both in his care. Possibly it was a few years before your date.
I echo the comments about war and derring do in general. But if you grew up just after WWII I'm afraid it was hard to avoid. Age brings the wisdom we can now see I'm afraid.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

1959 - a vintage year!

 

[Shaun Haselden]

1959 - a vintage year!

For whisky maybe.

 

[Pete Askew]

Another fabulously evocative set, Shaun, reinforced by your thoughts and the general dialogue. This is why I still prefer a forum over a simple image sharing platform.