Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome
About
Stow Maries is the most complete surviving First World War aerodrome in Europe, and it survives for an unglamorous reason: nobody wanted it afterwards. Opened in 1916 in the Essex fields near Purleigh as a Royal Flying Corps home defence station, it was abandoned in 1919 and the land went back to farming. Because no later air force reused the site, it escaped the interwar rebuilding and the concrete of the Second World War that erased almost every comparable airfield in Britain. What remains is a scatter of two dozen original brick and timber buildings standing where they were put up, in a grass landscape that has changed remarkably little.
The aerodrome was created in response to a genuinely new kind of war. German airships, and later Gotha bombers, were attacking London and the eastern counties from the air, and Britain had no organised answer to night raids on civilian targets. No. 37 (Home Defence) Squadron was formed to provide one, and Stow Maries became one of its stations. The pilots flew fragile machines — BE2cs and BE12s, later Sopwith types — at night, without radar, without reliable radio and with instruments barely adequate to keep an aircraft upright in cloud. Finding a Zeppelin in a dark sky was largely a matter of luck; landing again afterwards killed more airmen than the enemy did.
The surviving buildings map that life in unusual detail. Officers' mess, pilots' ready room, kitchen, workshops, motor transport shed, powerhouse, ammunition store, latrines and airmen's quarters all stand, most of them listed, several still bearing period fittings and markings. Walking between them gives a sense of an operational station as a place of work rather than a heroic abstraction.
The site came close to being lost to development and was rescued privately in 2009 before passing to a charitable trust, since when it has been progressively conserved and opened to the public. It remains a working grass aerodrome: vintage aircraft fly in, resident machines are maintained in two hangars, and air displays are held. Alongside are exhibition spaces, interactive cockpits, a museum shop and bookshop, the Airmen's Mess café and a woodland nature trail, and most visitors find three or four hours goes quickly.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday only, and closed on bank holiday Mondays — an easy trap when planning a long weekend.
- Allow three to four hours. This is a large site with buildings spread across a working airfield, not a single-building museum.
- Last entry is 15:00 and the cafe stops serving at 15:30, so arriving after lunch cuts the visit short.
- You will need a car. Public transport to Purleigh is very limited and the nearest stations are several kilometres away with no useful onward service.
- Wear proper footwear. Much of the site is grass and farm track, which becomes soft and muddy after rain.
- Children aged 10 and under go free, and the interactive cockpits, pedal planes and woodland trail make this work well for families.
- Flying is weather-dependent and never guaranteed on an ordinary opening day. If seeing aircraft airborne matters, check the events calendar for a display date and book ahead.
- Ask about the hangar tours on arrival — they are the best way to see the aircraft and the maintenance work close up.
Highlights
The Surviving 1916 Buildings
Around two dozen original buildings stand on the site, most of them listed, and together they form the completest group of First World War airfield structures anywhere in Europe. Officers' mess, pilots' ready room, mess kitchen, workshops, motor transport shed, powerhouse, ammunition store, latrines and airmen's accommodation all survive in their original positions.
The reason is simply that the RFC left in 1919 and nobody came back: no interwar expansion scheme, no Second World War concrete, no post-war disposal to a developer.
What visitors walk through is a station essentially as it was configured a century ago.
No. 37 (Home Defence) Squadron
Stow Maries was built for a squadron formed to solve a problem Britain had never faced: enemy aircraft bombing civilians at night. No. 37 Squadron RFC flew from here against Zeppelins and later against Gotha bombers heading for London, patrolling a sector of the Essex approaches.
The displays cover how the home-defence system was organised, how sightings were reported and relayed, and how little the technology of 1916 could actually do about a raider in the dark. The squadron's story is the reason every building on this site exists.
Flying at Night in 1916
The interpretation is unusually clear-eyed about what home-defence flying involved. Pilots took off in single-engined biplanes with no radar, no reliable radio and instrumentation that gave almost no help in cloud or darkness, climbed for the better part of an hour, and then attempted to find an airship or a bomber by eye.
Landing back on an unlit grass field was frequently the most dangerous part of the sortie, and accidents killed more Stow Maries airmen than enemy action.
It is a corrective to the popular image of First World War aviation as dashing individual combat.
The Hangars and Aircraft
Two hangars house the aerodrome's aircraft and are shown on guided tours, giving visitors access to machines and to work in progress rather than a roped-off display. The emphasis is on types relevant to the site's own period and on keeping aircraft in flying condition, which means visitors often see maintenance, rigging and engine work under way.
Because Stow Maries remains a live grass aerodrome rather than a static museum, the hangar contents change, and visiting aircraft frequently appear alongside the resident fleet.
That variability is worth understanding before arriving: no specific aircraft can be promised on any given day, and what is in the hangars on a quiet Friday will differ from an event weekend.
Collections
The primary collection is the aerodrome itself: approximately two dozen surviving Royal Flying Corps buildings of 1916, most of them listed, forming the most complete First World War airfield group in Europe, together with the grass flying field that remains licensed and in use. Buildings include the officers' and airmen's messes, pilots' ready room, workshops, motor transport shed, powerhouse, ammunition store and accommodation.
Two hangars hold aircraft maintained in flying condition, with types and visiting machines changing through the season.
Exhibition areas cover No. 37 (Home Defence) Squadron, the Zeppelin and Gotha raids on Britain, early night-flying technique and equipment, and the lives of the airmen and ground crew stationed here, supported by documents, photographs and interactive displays including sit-in cockpits.
Home Defence and the Squadron
Displays on No. 37 (Home Defence) Squadron RFC, the airship and bomber raids on Britain, and the organisation of Britain's first air-defence system.
The Aerodrome Buildings
The surviving 1916 structures themselves, interpreted in situ, showing how an operational Royal Flying Corps station was laid out and lived in.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.