Historic airfield for sale (From Mid Devon Star)

Historic airfield for sale

8:34am Tuesday 11th April 2006 in News By Jean Tilley

A PIECE of Historic land on the Somerset/Devon border is being put up for sale.

The former Second World War airfield at Smeatharpe is scheduled to go under the hammer at the Castle Hotel, Taunton, on Wednesday, May 17.

Two lots of land are being put up for auction by neighbouring vendors, making a total of 390.38 acres of land of considerable agricultural and historical importance.

The first lot is 181.85 acres and is the site of Gotleigh Farmhouse with accompanying pasture and amenity land, a range of modern farm buildings and Gotleigh Moore, and area of conservation land designated a Site of Special Interest.

It has a number of Second World War buildings including an air traffic control tower, parachute folding house, barracks and range of associated offices.

The second site is Smeatharpe Airfield and is around 208 acres of productive arable and pasture land, as well as the major part of the Second World War runways.

Smeatharpe Airfield (known as Upottery Field) has an important military history and was a vital strategic centre during the Second World War.

The 500-acre site was requisitioned by the Government specifically to support the planned D-Day landings in 1942-1943, which turned out to be the largest military invasion in history.

It was at Smeatharpe on the night of June 5, 1944, that paratroopers from the American 101st Airborne Division boarded their C-47 transporters bound for Normandy.

The division was part of the allied push into Germany and its exploits were made famous by the television series Band of Brothers.

The sites are being sold by Greenslade Taylor Hunt.