Joyce Green, at Long Reach, near Dartford, was one of the first Royal Flying Corps (RFC) airfields. It was established in 1911 by Vickers Limited (the aircraft and weapons manufacturer) who used it as an airfield and testing ground. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the RFC followed and established a base. Subject to frequent flooding and a reputation as being unsuitable and too dangerous for training, it was eventually replaced by a more suitable site at RAF Biggin Hill.
There were two parts to Joyce Green's military operations; the RFC, and the Wireless Experimental establishment. The latter were the first to move out in 1917 (after exhaustive searching south of London) when they found an ideal site on a farmer's field near the village of Biggin Hill; the RFC were soon to recognize the new site's suitability for flying and its strategic location, and soon followed, transferring there on 13 February 1917. The RFC took with them their Bristol Fighters, leaving Joyce Green with only a pilots pool and ground crew. Once the RFC had moved out of the aerodrome, Vickers continued their testing work, until moving to Brooklands aerodrome. Following the Armistice with Germany the airfield was closed by December 1919.
The site Joyce Green farm, a cattle farm to the north of Dartford, lent its name to the largely uninhabited area downstream of London Bridge, located between Dartford and the River Thames. The aerodrome itself was on part of a plot once known as Franks Farm, on ground reclaimed from the Dartford salt marshes.
The only habitation in the area, apart from the odd farm, was the isolated "Long Reach Tavern", known for organized bare-knuckle boxing matches in the 19th century, notably Tom Sayers who fought there between 1851-1854, and a ferry to Purfleet on the opposite bank of the Thames. A 'reach' is a length of a river between two bends and the longest reach on the Thames is 'Long Reach' hence the name of the Tavern. The surrounds of the tavern were to become the RFC encampment.
1:62260/1:50000 OS map sheets 171/177 : (51): OS survey grid reference: TQ 542774. County: Kent, Area : 121 acres : 1200 x 1000 yards. Slightly below sea level.
The airfield consisted of a grass landing field, slightly below sea level, criss-crossed by ditches covered with boards; a site, 1200 x 1000 yards of low-lying marshland below mean tide level, bordered by the River Darent to the west, the Thames to the north, the tavern's access road "Joyce Green Lane" (running north to south) to the east, and the grounds of the Joyce Green Hospitals to the south.
Further to the west of the tavern across the estuary of the River Darent was the Thames Ammunition factory. Along the river to its east was the nearby Long Reach Hospital, where the three smallpox isolation hospital ships had been moored on the Reach; they had been scrapped in 1904 leaving just the adjacent land-based hospital facilities intact. Further to the south and east were the Dartford salt marshes.
Also in the area to the south were the Joyce Green and Orchard Hospitals with a small military (Army) unit attached to them. The hospitals were set up for the isolation of smallpox patients from London. Further to the south the main A206 road gave access to London. It is two miles from Dartford railway station and 1½ miles from Erith railway station.
The RFC buildings and camp were at the north end by the Thames, grouped to the immediate south and west of the Long Reach Tavern. The RFC had six hangars in total; three aeroplane sheds, 80 x 60 feet, as a treble unit, and another three sheds, 80 x 50 feet, as a treble unit.
Vickers 1910-1919
The site was first used in 1910 by Hiram Maxim who in conjunction with Vickers had built a biplane at Crayford, and at Joyce Green unsuccessfully attempted a test flight; without funds to continue developing his ideas, Maxim parted company with Vickers to form a new company with Louis Bleriot and Claude Grahame White.
Vickers were to persist with aircraft development and establishing an (Aviation Department) in 1911, and promptly built hangars and workshop facilities at Joyce Green for testing the aeroplanes constructed at their Erith works. Vickers had factories at nearby Bexleyheath, Crayford, Erith and Dartford. The Vickers hangars and buildings were grouped at the south end of the site near to the entrance gates.
Once assembled aircraft were stripped down piece-small and moved by road from Erith, through the streets of Crayford to Joyce Green and returned the same way.
Vickers' first monoplane was tested at their new airfield in July 1911, using an under-license French-built rear fuselage and engine designed and made by the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie (hence R.E.P.) (the rest of the components being Vickers-built), it made its maiden flight, piloted by Captain Herbert F. Wood, the manager of Vickers' aviation department.Andrews and Morgan 1988, p. 35.
Development of the aircraft was rapid; the No. 8 monoplane was built by 1913 at the Erith factory. However the Army Manoeuvres in the autumn of 1912 proved disastrous for the type: four RFC officers were killed using monoplanes, and this led to a suspension of the type by the Military Wing.
Shortly before the war started, among the many designs initiated by the Drawing Office was one known as the 'Hydravion', based on the notion that an aeroplane should be able to take off from water as well as from land. Floats, made of Duralumin at the Dartford works, were tested in the nearby River Darent. Archives at the company headquarters imply that the Hydravion was to be constructed at Dartford, despite the factory only producing explosives and projectiles at the time.
In 1912 Vickers commenced work on a two-seat pusher biplane, the F.B.1 (Fighting Biplane 1), it was one of the first aircraft designed to carry a machine gun, the FB5 (fighting biplane) Gun Bus. The company abandoned plans for float planes at the start of the war and concentrated on land-based aircraft.
Vickers No. 8 monoplane at the Erith factory 1913.
In 1914, the company's works at Crayford took over the production of Vickers aircraft. Development of variants of F.B. series continued apace. The last of these variants the F.B.5, eventually emerged as the Gunbus; of the first batches two were sent to the RFC to be based at the airfield. Experimental work continued during the war evolving the basic Gunbus into the FB9, known as the 'Streamline Gunbus'.
During World War I it produced the Vimy heavy bomber; the FB27 Vimy Prototype built at the Vickers Crayford works was assembled and flown out of Joyce Green. The plane was found to be too large for the hangars; Vickers had to dig out the ground inside them, for them to fit. See photo, right.
This first prototype B9952 made its first flight on 30 November 1917 at Joyce Green, piloted by Capt. Gordon Bell. The company had planned to use a pair of Royal Aircraft Factory 200 hp 4d air-cooled V-12 engines, however they were not ready in time (production was later abandoned) and the plane was fitted two 200 hp Hispano-Suizas instead. By April 1918 it was decided use a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine instead. The aeroplane went into production that month and was at that point named the Vickers Vimy. Ironically, it was never used operationally in the First World War.
In 1919 Vickers moved their aircraft production from Crayford to Brooklands aerodrome at Weybridge in Surrey. The plane's main claim to fame was that on 14/15 June 1919, Captain Jack Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown in a converted Vimy (built at Weybridge), made the world's first non-stop trans-oceanic flight, across the Atlantic. Later at the end of 1919 Ross and Keith Smith flew a Vimy all the way to Australia, thus highlighting the possibility of organising scheduled overseas longhaul flights.
Vickers would soon by December 1919 move their test facilities to Brooklands in Surrey.
Royal Flying Corps 1914–1919
The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was established in May 1912. Initially the RFC regularly visited Joyce Green for testing and reviewing prototype aircraft. After the outbreak of war in 1914, Joyce Green became an ‘air defence’ airfield to protect London from bombing raids by Zeppelins. The airfield was to house a permanent RFC unit, under No. 6 Wing, and the first occupants were No. 10 Reserve Squadron with a variety of aircraft including Henry Farman's, Vickers FB5 and FB9, DH2 and FE8 machines. The role of this unit was to receive pupils from preliminary training schools for final training for their wings. Each course consisted of about 20 pupils and lasted two or three weeks. This included time spent at Lydd where aerial gunnery was practised at the Hythe range. On gaining their wings the young pilots would get a 48-hour pass before being posted to the Front.
It was decided that the aerodrome should house two FB5 Gunbuses, and they were transferred from Netheravon. No.6 Wing was appointed to oversee operations, and the training of potential pilots.
Concurrently the erection of hangars, workshops and ground staff quarters commenced at the northern edge of the landing field alongside the Long Reach Tavern.
On Christmas Day 1914, the field was to see its first action when 2Lt M. R. Chidson and gunner Cpl Martin were in a Gunbus were sent up in pursuit of a German plane, Friedrichshafen FF.29, a single-engined, two-seater float plane belonging to See Flieger-Abteilung I (Flyer department I) of the Imperial German Navy, based at Zeebrugge in Belgium. Unfortunately the gun jammed over Purfleet, and the gunner (having forgotten his gloves) found his hands too cold could not clear the mechanism, thus leaving the German free to drop two bombs on Cliffe railway station. Nevertheless, the Gunship did chase the German aircraft as far as the Nore sandbank. At the time the German plane was mistaken as a Taube monoplane it being an aircraft type that people knew (in the same way that Second World War German pilots always claimed to have been shot down by a Spitfire, when it was probably a Hurricane).
The airfield soon proved unpopular, being situated primarily on marshland.
Early in 1915, the construction of the Royal Flying Corps base at Joyce Green was completed and No.10 Reserve Squadron moved in. Equipped with Henry Farman, Vickers FB5 and FB9, DH2 and FE8 aeroplanes, the squadron's main function was to receive pupils from preliminary training schools for final training and qualifications for their wings. There were many accidents and quite a few trainee pilots were killed. The Long Reach Tavern, was closed, the Salmon family were moved out, and the RFC took it over as a canteen and used it for sleeping quarters.
On 19–20 January 1915 the Imperial German Navy mounted the first airship raid on Britain. Three Zeppelins (L3, L4 and L6) were despatched; one was forced to turn back with engine difficulties 90 miles from the English coast. The remaining airships bombed Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn, killing 2 civilians of Yarmouth and injuring 3, and killing 2 and injuring 13 civilians of King's Lynn. These were the first British Military casualties due to air attack.
The first night air defence sorties are flown by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Following the attack by Zeppelins L3 and L4, two Vickers FB5 Gunbuses of No.7 Squadron were ordered to take-off from Joyce Green and patrol over the southern outskirts of London, without result.
James Thomas Byford McCudden VC DSO (and Bar), MC (and Bar), Croix de Guerre, one of the most highly decorated air aces in the First World War, arrived at Joyce Green in March 1917 to take up the appointment of Wing Fighting Instructor. McCudden had shot down fifty-seven German aeroplanes by the time he was 22. His job involved teaching combat duties to the more advanced pupils.