RAF Penrhos

52.8739, -4.4739 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Penrhos, on the Llŷn peninsula in Gwynedd, opened in 1937 as an armament-training station, home to bombing and air-gunnery schools that flew types such as the Fairey Battle, Bristol Blenheim and Avro Anson over the surrounding ranges. Its construction was bitterly contested: the demolition of the historic Penyberth farmhouse to make way for it provoked a famous arson attack by Welsh nationalists in 1936. Flying ended in 1946. The site has since been given over to a caravan park and other leisure use, and was long home to a Polish community.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Penrhos — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Penrhos — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Pen-y-Berth caravan park - geograph.org.uk - 26173 — Pen-y-Berth caravan park. On the site of the former RAF Penrhos airbase this is now a caravan site, 9-hole golf course and farmland.

ⓘ licence & credit
Alison Pryce / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pen-y-Berth_caravan_park_-_geograph.org.uk_-_26173.jpgView source & full licence →

Memorial at Penyberth - geograph.org.uk - 356855 — Memorial at Penyberth Part of the monument to the three nationalists. Penyberth was a farmhouse at Penrhos,which had been the home to generations of patrons of poets, but destroyed in 1936 in order to build a training camp and aerodrome for the RAF.

ⓘ licence & credit
Alan Fryer / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memorial_at_Penyberth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_356855.jpgView source & full licence →

Llosgi'r Ysgol Fomio - The Burning of the Bombing School - geograph.org.uk - 356846 — Llosgi'r Ysgol Fomio - The Burning of the Bombing School In September 1936 Saunders Lewis and two other Plaid Cymru members, Rev Lewis Valentine and DJ Williams set fire to the construction hut of a new aerodrome and bombing school being built in Penyberth as part of Britain's build-up to the war. Saunders Lewis, President of Plaid Cymru opposed the site for nationalistic, pacifistic and environmental reasons, saying that the English government was intent upon turning one of the essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom and literature into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare.

ⓘ licence & credit
Alan Fryer / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Llosgi%27r_Ysgol_Fomio_-_The_Burning_of_the_Bombing_School_-_geograph.org.uk_-_356846.jpgView source & full licence →

A tiny corner of Wales forever Poland - geograph.org.uk - 619079 — A tiny corner of Wales forever Poland At the end of WWII RAF Penrhos became a base of the PKPR (the Polish Demobilisation Corps). It later developed into a Polish village with a home catering for disabled and elderly Polish ex-servicemen and women. For many years now the village which has 165 residents has been run by the Polish Housing Association.

ⓘ licence & credit
Eric Jones / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_tiny_corner_of_Wales_forever_Poland_-_geograph.org.uk_-_619079.jpgView source & full licence →

"Prang" Ridge - a 100 ridge at the end of the runway - geograph.org.uk - 647054 — "Prang" Ridge - a 100 ridge at the end of the runway More than one Whitley, Anson and Fairey failed to clear this ridge on the north side of RAF Penrhos.

ⓘ licence & credit
Eric Jones / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Prang%22_Ridge_-_a_100_ridge_at_the_end_of_the_runway_-_geograph.org.uk_-_647054.jpgView source & full licence →

No people are cross-referenced to this airfield yet. Links appear as squadron postings, crews and service records are added.