Ponteland in World War Two: The Airfield on the Doorstep

The quiet countryside around Ponteland has a dramatic wartime past. During the Second World War, the fields to the west of the village echoed to the sound of fighter aircraft, as one of the North East's key air-defence stations was built almost on the doorstep. Here is our guide to Ponteland's role in World War Two, centred on the airfield at RAF Ouston.

RAF Ouston

Construction of RAF Ouston began in late 1940, on farmland between Ponteland, Stamfordham and Heddon-on-the-Wall, and the station opened on 10 March 1941. It was designed as a permanent Fighter Command station for the air defence of Tyneside and the industrial North East, taking over as a Fighter Sector headquarters within No. 13 Group. Three hard runways were laid, joined by a perimeter taxiway.

Best for: The aerial photograph above shows the outline of the former RAF Ouston runways, still visible in the landscape.

Spitfires and Hurricanes over Northumberland

For much of the war, Ouston was home to a succession of fighter squadrons flying Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires, with as many as eleven RAF squadrons operating from the airfield across the conflict. Their job was to defend Tyneside's shipyards, factories and docks, prime targets for enemy bombers, and to train and work up new units. The skies over Ponteland would have been a familiar sight of fighters climbing to patrol the coast.

The home front

Like every Northumberland village, Ponteland lived the war on the home front too, with rationing, the blackout, evacuees and the Home Guard part of daily life. The proximity of a busy fighter station brought the conflict especially close, with servicemen and women a constant presence in and around the village.

What survives today

RAF Ouston closed as an RAF station after the war and is today used by the British Army as Albemarle Barracks, so the site is not open to the public. But its wartime past is still legible in the landscape: the outline of the runways, wartime buildings and defensive pillboxes survive as reminders of the years when Ponteland stood on the front line of Britain's air defence.

Best for: Note: Albemarle Barracks is an active military site and is not open to visitors.

Explore more

For more of the village's history, see our guides to the lost buildings of Ponteland and the churches of Ponteland.

Have family memories or records of Ponteland in wartime? Get in touch.