This is an aerial Photo of Burscough airfield which was situated 2 miles north of Ormskirk in Lancashire, England.
It was a Royal Naval Air station and the last to be built during WWII.It is believed that this airfiled was earmarked for the RAF however it was built with the normal Navy plan incorporating 4 runways and not 3 as was normal for an RAF station. The runways were also only 30 yards wide as opposed to an RAF runway which were usually 50 yards wide.
The base was designed to accomodate 80 aircraft.
Like all Fleet Air Arm (FAA) bases Burscough was named after a bird and formally commisioned as HMS Ringtail on 1st Sept 1943.
Its role was to accomodate day and night fighter, torpedo fighter, fleet requirement units and a radar school.
The first unit to arrive there was 808 Squadron from the carrier HMS Hunter who had been involved at the battle of Salerno whilst being embarked on HMS Battler. 808 Sqdn were equipped with Seafires.
The base was eventually closed in 1957 but was not completely demolished until 2004.
This is a very short description taken from a book I have just aquired called [i]'Lancashire Airfileds in the second World War'[/i]
