View source for 1944 Stocken Farm Airfield

[[File:Plane on Airfield.jpg|thumb]]
'''WW2 AIRFIELD, STOCKEN FARM   reported by [https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Doug_Tilbury Doug Tilbury]'''
[[File:Centre of The Airfield.jpg|left|thumb|Hedge removed from centre of airfield]]
On Saturday June 6<sup>th</sup> 1944 at 6 pm, bulldozers arrived to make an airfield for Air Chief Marshall ‘[https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Bomber%E2%80%99_Harris Bomber’ Harris], of [https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Bomber_Command Bomber Command], [https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Walters_Ash Walters Ash].   45 acres of the flat grazing land of the farm were to be taken.  The fields of the farm were bulldozed to make the airstrip.  The first plane took off three mornings later.

A hedge was removed, two clumps of horse-chestnut trees and a clump of lime trees were felled and [https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Nanny_Coopers_pond Nanny Coopers pond] was filled in.

A blister hanger was erected behind the school to house the American Stinson plane of Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris.  Local lads, including [https://laceygreenhistory.com/w/index.php/Gordon_May Gordon May] used to help push the plane into the hangar.

'Bomber' Harris ordered Andrew Oliver To inspect every Spitfire which came down in England.   He used Harris's private plane, to fly to the crash sites to see if the accident was due to a fault in the wood/ glue manufacture.
[[File:Old Hanger Sports Field Spectators.jpg|left|thumb|Sports Club spectators. Hanger storing straw in background]]
After the war the hanger was used by the farm, until the land on which it stood was compulsarelry purchased to enlarge Lacey Green School grounds.   {{Social Snapshot
|Year=1944
|Village=Lacey Green
|Author=Doug Tilbury
|Theme=Airfield at Stocken Farm
|Socialperiod=Category:1940's
}}