Former RAF Catfoss

Across the flat, exposed landscape of East Yorkshire, several miles west of Hornsea, lie the remains of RAF Catfoss, a former military airfield whose history spans some of the most dangerous and secretive chapters of twentieth-century Britain. Today, much of the former station has returned to agricultural and other uses. Its wartime activity has largely disappeared from view, but the surrounding countryside retains a remarkable collection of supernatural traditions. Catfoss began operating in January 1932 as an armament training station. Aircraft crews practised bombing and aerial gunnery over nearby ranges, including the coastal training area around Skipsea. As Europe moved towards war, the station's importance increased. During 1940, Spitfires from No. 616 Squadron were deployed to the airfield, while its facilities were expanded to accommodate larger numbers of aircraft and personnel. In October that year, No. 2 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit was established at Catfoss, preparing aircrews for the demanding work of Coastal Command. The station became particularly associated with the Bristol Beaufighter, a powerful twin-engined aircraft used for fighter, strike and maritime operations. Training was hazardous, especially during darkness and poor weather. On 21 April 1943, a Beaufighter identified as T4757 stalled while attempting a night landing approximately 400 yards west of the airfield. The aircraft crashed, killing both men aboard. They were Flying Officer John Gerald Rappoport, aged 28, and Sergeant John Henry Hicken, aged 21. Their deaths are documented in specialist aviation accident records and illustrate the dangers faced by aircrews even before reaching an operational squadron. Other incidents followed. On 18 August 1943, another Beaufighter, JM349, suffered engine failure shortly after take-off. The pilot managed an emergency landing near the Brandesburton side of the airfield, but the aircraft caught fire. Both crew members escaped. In November that year, aircraft returning from a bombing operation were diverted to Catfoss because their own airfield was obscured by fog. A surviving airman's account describes the bleak, rain-soaked station and the exhausted crews who found themselves sheltering there. Following the war, RAF Catfoss closed in November 1945. But its story was far from finished. During the Cold War, the abandoned airfield was selected for an altogether different military purpose. A substantial concrete installation was constructed to accommodate the American-designed PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile. Operated by No. 226 Squadron RAF, the missile station became operational in August 1959. These weapons formed part of Britain's nuclear deterrent arrangements during an exceptionally tense period of East–West relations. The missiles were withdrawn in March 1963, and Catfoss closed for a second time. For a remote corner of Holderness, the transformation was extraordinary: a pre-war gunnery school had become a Cold War nuclear missile base. Yet the surrounding landscape possessed a reputation for strange encounters long before aircraft or missiles arrived. In his 1890 book Folk Lore of East Yorkshire, John Nicholson recorded several supernatural traditions from the coastal settlements east of Catfoss. Between Atwick and Skipsea, travellers were said to encounter a headless horseman riding at extraordinary speed. Near Atwick, a spring and pool beneath the church were associated with the Halliwell Boggle, a mysterious supernatural presence. At Skipsea Brough, local tradition described a white-clad apparition known as Awd Molly, supposedly capable of being summoned by walking seven times around a particular pit. Another tale concerned a headless White Lady whose nocturnal movements allegedly destroyed obstacles placed across her route. These accounts belong to nineteenth-century folklore rather than verified eyewitness investigations. They are associated with identifiable places in the surrounding district, not directly with RAF Catfoss. Nevertheless, they demonstrate that the Holderness countryside had acquired a reputation for uncanny encounters generations before the airfield was built. The juxtaposition is striking. A landscape once associated with boggarts and phantom riders later became the setting for fatal aviation accidents, military secrecy and nuclear weapons. What makes Catfoss compelling is the extraordinary history concealed within an apparently ordinary landscape. Beneath the quiet fields lies the memory of aircraft engines, desperate emergency landings and nuclear missiles prepared during the Cold War. And beyond the former perimeter, the older stories of Holderness continue to describe a countryside in which travellers once feared encountering something that was not entirely human. Reported Phenomena: → High Strangeness, UFO's, Glowing Orbs/Plasma Balls → Historically documented fatal flying accidents at RAF Catfoss → Night-time aircraft operations and emergency landings → Former Thor nuclear ballistic missile installation → Headless horseman traditionally reported between Atwick and Skipsea → Halliwell Boggle associated with a pool near Atwick → Awd Molly apparition tradition at Skipsea Brough → Headless White Lady folklore near Skipsea