RAF Jurby

Royal Air Force Station Jurby or more simply RAF Jurby was a former Royal Air Force station built in the north west of the Isle of Man. It was opened in 1939 on 400 acre of land acquired by the Air Ministry in 1937, under the control of No. 29 Group, RAF. During World War II the station was used for training as No 5 Armament Training Station, No 5 Air Observer School, No 5 Bombing & Gunnery School, and the Air Navigation & Bombing School, in addition to a variety of operational squadrons.

Jurby was originally a grass airfield but was later equipped with hard runways. Operationally it helped protect Belfast and Liverpool from German air raids. RAF Jurby closed in 1963.

The main East/West runway is bisected by a road, from when the runway was extended. As the existing road was in the way, the runway was extended over it. To facilitate its use, barriers were placed across the road and the road was closed whilst the runway was in use.

During the 1950s and 60s the No 1 Directorate of Initial Officer Training (DIOT) was based at RAF Jurby, jokingly referred to by the trainee cadets as the "Camp on Blood Island".

History
09/39 to 02/44, No 5 Bombing and Gunnery School with Fairey Battle, Bristol Blenheim and Wallace aircraft.

07/41, Renamed No 5 Air Observer School, with Avro Anson, Hawker Henley and Handley Page Hampdens. 307 Sqn Boulton Paul Defiants here autumn 1940.

01/41 to 03/42, 258, 302 and 312 Sqns with Hawker Hurricanes.

08/41 to 03/42, 457 Sqn with Supermarine Spitfires, these were also detached to RAF Andreas.

02/44 to 09/46, Air Navigation and Bombing School with Ansons and Vickers Wellingtons. 5/45, Renamed No 5 Air Navigation School, moved to RAF Topcliffe.

09/46 to 10/47, No 11 Air Gunnery School from Andreas. Airfield then on care and maintenance.

04/50 to 07/53, No 1 Initial Training School.

09/53 to 09/63, Officer Cadet Training Unit from Millom.

02/64 to /72, After RAF closure used as a diversion airfield for RAF Ronaldsway.

Post-RAF and Current use
The airfield is in part still usable. Many of the buildings on the northern side of the Ballamenagh Road were demolished in the mid to late 2000's and only the road and path layouts exist alongside foundations. During the early 1970s this area was used as a training camp for the Territorial Army. One of the original wooden buildings that formed the officers mess survived until December 2009. Having been built in 1938 to last for just 10 years it was converted in the 1960's to a hotel, the Jurby Hotel.

Many of the original hangars can still be seen on the south side of the Ballamenagh Road though have been re-clad with more modern materials. This area received a new main entrance and resurfaced roads in 2008 and is known as the Jurby Industrial Estate. Other buildings including the Control Tower and the increasingly rare timber buildings survive in various states of disrepair, some of which date back to 1939. In September 2013 planning permission was submitted for the timber clad and asbestos roofed Old Guards House to be developed into a cafe and restaurant. The planning includes replacing the exterior to look like-for-like and replace the interior except the male urinals.

In late 1982, a newly demerged airship company (Wren Skyships) relocated to Jurby airfield from Cardington in Bedfordshire. The firm began work on a new design, the Advanced Non-Rigid (ANR). Wren Skyships became the Advanced Airship Corporation (AAC) in 1988. Construction of the prototype ANR was commenced, but envelope problems delayed its completion, and AAC went into liquidation during the early 1990s recession. The prototype gondola was moved to a site in Shropshire after liquidation of AAC and now exists in a museum in the Netherlands. Some parts were stored fomr some time in a hangar on the iarfield site and more recently re-located to the Manx Transport Museum which opened in Jurby in 2009. The large hangar built for the airship was removed and the base of the building is now home to a go-kart track.

The Isle of Man prison was re-located to Jurby Airfield in 2008 from a delapidated Victorian building in Douglas.Minister opens new prison at Jurby - Isle of Man Public Services The prison is built within the airfield site with the entrance road cutting through the otherwise untouched western taxiway.

The airfield was used for an annual airshows until the early 2000's. The airfield is now home to the popular annual Jurby Festival of Speed which takes place on the middle Sunday of the Islands Grand Prix fortnight. Although not an airshow, the 2012 festival received a flypast from a Spitfire and a C-47 Dakota in 2013. The main events of the day are a bike rally and friendly races around the "course" which takes in sections of the runway, taxiway and perimeter track.

One of the re-clad original RAF hangars (one of a trio of RAF Bellman hangars) is home to facilities of Excalibur Almaz whos office base is in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. In 2007 the company bought two Soviet Spacecraft for temporary storage with the intention of launching passenger trips to space by 2013 (launching from a former CIS-state rather than the Isle of Man). The craft were imported into the Isle of Man in 2011 and are Reusable Return Vehicles which, as their name suggests, are designed to be used more than once.

Another of the re-clad Bellman hangars (Hangar 230) has been home to the free-entry Jurby Transport Museum since 2010. The museum is home to many buses and trams that have formed part of the islands public transport network for many years. In keeping with their aviation surroundings, there are the airship parts (mentioned above) a spitfire replica and a glider kept in pieces in the back storage yard.

It now has mixed purposes as storage, vehicle/lorry repairs, a racing circuit, karting track and now the new Isle of Man Prison. Development of the village of Jurby has also encroached on to parts of the airfield.