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Post by corsair67 on Apr 30, 2007 12:30:54 GMT 12
Just thought I'd share these shots I took at Wigram recently. The Officers Mess - now called Wigram Manor. Control Tower: Number 2 and 3 hangars. Number 4 and 5 hangars. Number 6 and 7 hangars.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 30, 2007 13:51:07 GMT 12
I had a good wander around there last year and took similar photos plus lots more, which i intend to eventually put up on my stations page, but I find it hard to look at them.
Which DC-3 is that? Does Pioneer still have one? Or is that ZK-AMY on her way home to Ashburton?
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jb
Squadron Leader
Posts: 132
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Post by jb on Apr 30, 2007 14:03:19 GMT 12
I had the good fortune to visit Wigram last year and had a great time, the museum was just fantastic, and it’s a great idea to have guided tours of the reserve collection/restoration hangars.
But can somebody tell me what the current use is of the base? And what is in store for its future? I recall that it pretty well surrounded buy industry new housing developments.
I know I should have asked during my visit but…
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Post by Bruce on Apr 30, 2007 14:11:26 GMT 12
AMY is currently living at Wigram until the new hangar is built - lovely aeroplane. in the same picture note the original WW1 barracks block temporarily stored at the end of the nearest hangar - would be great to see these restored (which is the plan)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 30, 2007 15:18:00 GMT 12
Thanks Bruce, I didn't realise AMY still lived at Wigram.
JB, the current use of the base is multiple. There';s the museum of course which has 1,2 and 3 Hangars and No.s 1 and 2 Stores plus anciliary buildings.
The airfield is still used for private flying at the moment, and a number of users are based there including Pioneer Airway with their Convairs which are a freight company handling the Chethams run. Also a parchuting school. And there used to be joyride place with a Tiger Moth and Stearman, I don't know if it still operates.
The land was donated by the wondeful Government to the Ngai Tahu tribe inthe mid-1990's and so most of the base buildings have been demolished and there is now a sea of houses where historic buildings once stood.
Wigram Manor (formerly No. 1 Officer Mess) is a posh private hotel. No. 2 O's Mess could have served a similar purpose as it was equally as nice in character, but the developers flattened it and now dog-box homes stand where it was.
The Gymnasium, which when i visited last year was in a terrible state!!, is used by a local polytech or something now.
Frances Briars Block (the Waffery) was used as a hostel for a while but I hear it has been ripped down too.
A and B Block, the best barracks the RNZAF ever built, are now private apartments and when I visited last year I was pleasantly surprised to see they'd been cleaned up fairly well. Not long after Wigram closed the tribe made them into slum accommodation for losers and there was a drug related murder there. I could not believe how filthy the place looked when it was on the news. Now they're tidy again and almost as good as when the RNZAF had them.
No. 7 Hangar is now used by some farming school. There are loads of John Deere tractors parked between 6 and 7 hangars and i was told that their presence was probably going to close the airfield at one stage because they kepy putting fences up across the grass!
When I was there in 2004 and again in 2006 I was told both times by museum staff they didn't expect to have an operational airfield in a year's time as housing was to be expanded all over the airfield. This still doesn't seem to have happened thankfully. Let's hope it never does. An airfield that close to the city is a huge asset and the Christchurch City Council should be shot for not taking the airfield when it was offered to them to have as a second civil areodrome to Harewood.
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Post by corsair67 on Apr 30, 2007 17:17:36 GMT 12
Dave, I have to admit that I find it a bit depressing going to Wigram now too, and I imagine that in 10 years or so I probably won't want to go there anymore at all.
There's a little chapel next to the Officers Mess/Wigram Manor: is that an original building?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 30, 2007 20:43:57 GMT 12
Yes, that was the base chapel, St Marks, and was moved to that spot when the base closed. There's a plaque in the museum about this along with two of its stained glass windows that were removed when it shifted.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 30, 2007 20:50:52 GMT 12
Does anyone know where the other seven were built? I know there was a chapel at Hobsonville (since shifted), Whenuapai, Woodbourne and Ohakea. Where were the other three?
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Post by flyjoe180 on May 1, 2007 11:56:26 GMT 12
I seem to recall Principal Chaplain NZDF John Neal saying a while ago that the Hobsonville Chapel went to Papakura Army Camp.
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Post by skyhawkdon on May 1, 2007 15:33:53 GMT 12
I have recently bought a house in one of the new housing developments on the airfield side of 7 hangar (its great to be back after 20 years!). The reason further development hasn't happened on the Wigram land is because the Christchurch City council is concerned about a stormwater/flooding problem they have in several new subdivisions to the east of Wigram (Broken Run/Aidenfield/Milns Estate/Halswell). The whole area is a flood plain (it is the source of the Heathcoat River after all!) and since they started building more and more houses, every time it rains they have surface flooding. As all the Wigram land drains into the Aidenfield/Halswell area the council is (rightly) worried about adding to their already significant flooding problem by having even more stormwater coming from any new developments on the Wigram land. At least the airfield land (as it is) soaks up the rain, where-as roads and roofs need to be drained into a stormwater system and the only place for it to go is into the Heatcoat River system which is already a problem. I don't think there is an easy or cheap solution so I can't see any more development happening for a while. As an aside I just love walking around the old base and being so close to an active airfield is hog heaven! A couple of weekends ago we had Mustang ZK-TAF doing joyrides out of Wigram and it was taking off right over my house every time - very cool!
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 1, 2007 16:08:53 GMT 12
That is brilliant news. Mother Nature saves the airfield! Long may it rain in Christchurch.
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Post by corsair67 on May 1, 2007 17:08:35 GMT 12
Bugger, I wish I'd known - I could have popped in for a coffee! ;D
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jb
Squadron Leader
Posts: 132
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Post by jb on May 2, 2007 2:01:38 GMT 12
I had no idea during my visit, that the housing development was actually right on top of what was the base or that most of the remaining buildings had been turned over to the private sector, I assumed they were all still part of the base.
It would be a real shame if housing consumed the remainder, but I can see the attraction.
I actually thought it was a fairly sympathetic integration, but I had no reference or history of the base before my visit.
Would anybody care to give me a potted guide to the history of the base? Or point me to a URL?
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 12:46:58 GMT 12
JB, there is an excellent book giving the history of the base by Paul Harrison which was released in 1995. Try your local library, or try Trademe as a copy was listed there the other day.
Basically Wigram was the most historic airfield in New Zealand. it was the first ever purpose-built aerodrome, and was originally called Sockburn. In WWI Sir Henry Wigram's Canterbury Aviation Company began training pilots for the RFC. Along with the Walsh Bros at Kohimarama, it was the first purpose flying training school.
Wigram was a politician, and a damned good one. For years he tried to convince the Govt to invest in aviation. They were as useless as today's parliament, so in the end he built up aviation in NZ practically by himself.
In 1923 he dontaed his airfield and company, plus the money to buy NZ's first new fighter plane, to the Government and people of New Zealand. At that point the airfield changed to become known as Wigram, in his honour.
The NZPAF and NZAF used the airfield, as well as the Canterbury Aero Club and Union Airways, etc, up till WWII. A major expansion began in the mid 1930's with the first of four concrete hangars being added.
It was the country's only military flying training base. Hobsonville being the other base in NZ was more operational and was a combined land and flying boat base. Wigram was also operational with the No. 2 General Reconnaissance Flight (four to six Vildebeests), which covered the southern defenive region, and from 1938, the NZTAF with their Baffins and Vincents.
In 1939 the Flying Training School became hugely important, producing fighter and bomber piltos. Later Wigram concentrated on bomber pilots while Woodbourne teained fighter pilots.
Through the war Wigram trained thousands of airmen in all sorts of trades. It was the senior station for the region too.
After the war training there continued with the pilot Trainign Squadron, Central Flying School, No. 2 Technical Training School, No. 3 Technical Training School, Command Staff College and other units there.
Also the base for No. 3 Squadron Detachment's Iroquois's for mountain rescue, etc.
The RNZAF museum was established there as an unofficial entity in about 1975 or 76, and officially in 1979. The museum opened to the public properly in 1987. Now it's the only RNZAF link on the base except the recruitment office which occupies the old RNZAF Police guard house.
In 1991 National decided either Wigram or Woodbourne had to close. Virtually everyone in the RNZAF hoped and prayed it'd be Woody, we were told officially by senior officers it'd be Woody. It made so much more sense to close Woody. But some dimwit in Wellington chose the wrong base.
The Govt wanted the Christchurch City Council to take the aerodrome on as a second airport. That too made sense. it had a brand new runway, six usable hangars, all the facilities, was already zoned as an aerodrome, etc. The council didn't want it. So the Govt in their infinite wisdom gave the land away - not sold - gave it away to the local tribe. There wasn't even a claim on it. it was just handed over.
Again we were told be senior officers (Base Commander and AOC) that legally they had no right to close the base due to several caviats left by Henry Wigram and Lady Wigram. But high class lawyers were brought in to sideswipe their wishes.
Right into the 1990's two of the original WWI hangars and several other exrraordinarily historic prewar buildings still stood on the base. They've all been demolished. When i lived there in the 1990's I could look at a 1942 photo and recognise every building. it was prefectly preserved. I used to marval at that fact, and the fact so few new builidngs had had to be added. Now it is a shadow of its former glory. Extreme history wiped from the map.
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Post by phil82 on May 2, 2007 15:38:34 GMT 12
Just a couple of points on Wigram. The oldest and most original building is the "Belfast Truss" hangar, "A type of aircraft hangar from the closing years of WWI either of steel or wood utilising a type of lattice work roof support known as a Belfast Truss, which features diagonally interlaced pieces of thin pine. The roof appears as a smooth curve". I forget what it was used for when I was there [it's a while ago!] but it is or should be an historic building in New Zealand, and I think there will be a preservation order on it. I would be interested to learn what it is used for today!
The No.1 Officers Mess, [as opposed to N0.2 which was for Officers under training], is standard RAF pattern as approved by the Air Ministry for construction during the period 1935-39, and some 84 of the type were built in the UK, plus three in New Zealand at Wigram, Ohakea, and Whenuapai. The Clock towers were optional! Anyone visiting any of the permanent RAF stations of the war years, and some in use today, would recognise the three RNZAF Messes.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 16:08:09 GMT 12
Colin, that Belfast Truss hangar has been demolished. I was astounded when i learned the Museum and the Historic Places trust stood by and allowed it to be removed, but there you go. I think it was the Chippie shop when i was there. Another of the original hangars that stood next to it had been modified and was from memory No. 3 Store. Also demolished! They stood next to the swimming pool and water tower, which have also been demolished.
You'd think if you were creating a new community of housing, you'd keep things like a perfectly serviceable pool, the Base Institute (like a town hall), eyc. But no. All gone under the bulldozer. Total F*ckwits the lot of them. Excuse my language, but it's true.
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Post by flyjoe180 on May 2, 2007 16:14:42 GMT 12
The language used to describe what they have done could be a lot worse and be justified Dave. They have no consideration for any historic value of any thing at all (except a marae meeting house or whatever). Farcanal, to quote Mr Homewood.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 16:23:19 GMT 12
It isn't too easy to get perfectly matching angles but these two show how very little had changed in 50 years: Early 1940's Early 1990's A recent Google Earth photo after the demolition derby Note the absense of the historic hangars. There are some great photos and at least one very lovely Maurice Conly painting of those original hangars with Avros and de Havillands etc using them. It's sad the Museum boudary didn't extend to encompass them.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 2, 2007 16:32:27 GMT 12
Not the Conly painting I was thinking of (which appears in Portrait of an Air Force) but here the hangars are again depicted by him I forgot to mention in the potted history that Wigram was NZ's first ever international airport, being where the Southern Cross first touched down after the first Tasman corssing
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Post by flyjoe180 on May 2, 2007 16:35:46 GMT 12
Very nice stamps there, they were issued in 1987 to mark the RNZAF 50th Anniversary werent they?
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