RAF Cowden was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

bombing range A bombing range usually refers to a remote military aerial bombing and gunnery training range used by combat aircraft to attack ground targets (air-to-ground bombing), or a remote area reserved for researching, developing, testing and evaluatin ...

, near to the village of Aldbrough,

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, England. The site was used by the RAF and other air forces between 1959 and 1998, though the land part of the site was used by the army for training in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Since closure,

explosive ordnance disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the militar ...

(EOD) teams have had to visit the site on numerous occasions due to erosion of the cliffs by the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

revealing old practise bombs.

History

The

Yorkshire coast The Yorkshire Coast runs from the Tees estuary to the Humber estuary, on the east coast of England. The cliffs at Boulby are the highest on the east coast of England, rising to above the sea level. The North York Moors National Park extends u ...

has been home to at least five aerial bombing and gunnery ranges; one during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

at RAF Marske, one at

Skipsea Skipsea is a village and civil parish on the North Sea coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south of Bridlington and north of Hornsea on the B1242 road at its junction with the B1249 road. The civil par ...

, which was brought into use in the 1920s, short-lived bombing ranges at

North Frodingham North Frodingham is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south-east of the town of Driffield and lies on the B1249 road. The civil parish is formed by the village of North Frodingha ...

and

Roos Roos is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated east from Kingston upon Hull city centre and north-west from Withernsea, and on the B1242 road. History The de Ros family originated from the villa ...

during the Second World War, and the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

range at Cowden. Land at Great Cowden was requisitioned in 1940 for Aldbrough RAC tank range, which involved the permanent removal of some residents. The buildings left in the villages of Great and Little Cowden were then destroyed as part of the creation of the range. The range was used extensively for training during the Second World War, becoming abandoned later, but then, in 1953, the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

purchased over of land to develop the range. The site totalled , and used between 1959 and 1998 as a bombing range by the Royal Air Force and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

air forces. Cowden was equipped with two target railways, and various static targets on land and on the area of the range out to sea. However, the railway was believed to only have been used for tank training. Pilots would often run south eastwards over RAF Cowden, using

Hornsea Mere Hornsea Mere is the largest freshwater lake in Yorkshire, England, and lies to the west of Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The mere was used as a base for the Royal Naval Air Service and then latterly, the Royal Air Force during the Fi ...

as a landmark and waypoint to guide them onto the range. The range was equipped with four "reinforced concrete quadrant towers", located at , , , and . By 1992, only one of the towers was still standing, and was deemed to be at low risk of destruction. However, the rate of erosion at the site was between June 1994 and July 1997. During the 1980s, the

Building Research Establishment The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former UK government national laboratory that was privatised in 1997. BRE provides researc ...

, had a test centre for piles at the site. The test bed was into the ''lowland clay

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

''. Erosion of the cliff edge forced the closure of the site in 1998. As the site is being eroded by the action of the North Sea, the beach is often closed whilst Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams deal with the bombs. The RAF had an EoD team based permanently at the site until 2013, when regular visits were instituted instead. In April 2001, the site was also investigated as a possible depository of ash from burnt carcasses of cattle who had contracted foot and mouth disease. Also in 2001, claims were made by military veterans and local people that

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU; also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy or D-38) is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope than natural uranium.: "Depleted uranium possesses only 60% of the radioactivity of natural uranium, hav ...

(DU) shells were used by A-10 Tankbuster aircraft on the range. The

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

denied this stating that only two locations in the United Kingdom had been used to fire DU; Eskmeer in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

and

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; sco, Kirkcoubrie; gd, Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The town lies southwest of C ...

in Scotland. At the same time, there was a desire to convert the site into a nature reserve, which required

No. 5131 (BD) Squadron RAF No. 5131 (BD) Squadron was an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squadron of the Royal Air Force. First formed in 1943, 5131 Bomb Disposal Squadron was the Royal Air Force’s explosive ordnance disposal capability for 77 years. Its technicians wer ...

to start a long programme of deactivating and destroying ordnance left at the site. In February 2021, a private company was awarded a £1.5 million contract to clear ordnance from the site over a four-year period. The contract was the first of its kind awarded to a civilian company by the

Defence Infrastructure Organisation Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is an operating arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom, which is responsible for the built and rural estate. Its Chief Executive is Graham Dalton. History The DIO was formed in 2011 ...

(DIO). By the May 2021, they had cleared over 10,000 items or ordnance, with an expected 650,000 items still awaiting disposal. The site is set to be disposed of from 2022.

Accidents

In March 1961, a

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

of No. 1 Squadron stalled on an approach run over the range. It crashed into the sea, and the pilot was killed. The airframe (XE604), was written off.

Names

Whilst being used by the Army during the Second World War, the site was known as Aldbrough RAC. When it was being used as an air weapons range, it was known variously as RAF Cowden, RAF Cowden Sands, RAF Great Cowden, RAF Cowden AWR, AWR Cowden, Cowden Air Range, and Cowden Range.

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Video of EOD team in actionPlan of the range (page 9)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowden Bombing ranges Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire