Wisley Airfield is in Ockham, Surrey near to RHS Wisley. Its history is well documented on other websites and the purpose of this page is to visually document its recent history. Taylor Wimpey have now purchased the airfield intending to build thousands of new homes there along with Highways England making improvements to the A3 and M25 J10, the landscape is changing forever.
Originally it was farmland however in 1943 the fields were requisitioned by the RAF as a grass strip airfield to support the Vickers factory at Brooklands where Wellington bombers were constructed. The concrete runway and hangers were built in 1952 and flying continued for Vickers-Armstrong with the airfield used for testing the VC-10 aircraft amongst others. Flying ceased in 1973, the hangers were demolished and the airfield returned to agricultural use in 1980 however the concrete remained.
Since then the airfield has been used for farming and is regularly used by people for leisure purposes such as walking, cycling, horse riding, bird watching and flying model aircraft however the airfield was also plagued by antisocial use of motorbikes and cars which led to barriers and blockades being constructed across the runway. The airfield has also been used as a filming location.
As the plans to develop the area into a large housing estate progressed, so did changes to the landscape. 2020 saw a considerable amount of archaeological test pits dug across the site. A small Saxon settlement was discovered to the east of the runway however it was not significant enough to halt the development. 2023 has seen more changes to the airfield with the old hangar area being used as a storage area for materials for the Wisley Lane bridge and A3 improvement scheme. The area to the NW of the airfield adjacent to the A3 has now been hard landscaped as a road leading from the new Wisley Lane bridge has been constructed along with a small bridge.