They called it Slaughterhall. In 1942 alone, this Borders training airfield logged something in the region of 2,000 accidents, of which just under 200 were fatal. The crews were young men brought in from across the Commonwealth, sent to learn night fighting on twin-engined Bristol Blenheims and Beaufighters fitted with primitive interception radar. The weather over Berwickshire was unforgiving, the aircraft demanding, the schedule relentless. On 8 January 1943, an Australian Battle of Britain ace named Richard Hillary stalled his Blenheim on approach to Charterhall and was killed along with his observer Sergeant Wilfred Fison. Hillary had already survived being shot down in 1940, recovered from terrible burns to his face and hand, and written the celebrated wartime memoir The Last Enemy. He was retraining as a night fighter pilot when his airframe iced and his injuries made the controls too hard to manage. A memorial near the field, unveiled by the Duke of Kent in 2001, lists his name and Fison's and many others.
Charterhall began life much earlier, as a First World War landing ground called Eccles Tofts. From at least the beginning of 1917, the site served No. 77 Squadron, whose main base lay further north at Edinburgh. The squadron flew a mixed bag of reconnaissance and training aircraft: Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 variants, the B.E.12, the R.E.8, the Airco DH.6, and the Avro 504K. The airfield was a modest piece of farmland levelled enough to take off and land from, with no permanent infrastructure to speak of. By 1919 it had been returned to its agricultural use and forgotten. When the Air Ministry came looking for sites in 1941, the existing layout and the suitable terrain made Charterhall an obvious candidate for reconstruction.
The airfield reopened on 30 April 1942 as a satellite station, housing No. 54 Operational Training Unit. The unit's job was to teach airmen, many of them already qualified pilots fresh from the Commonwealth training schemes, how to operate twin-engined night fighters. The aircraft were not gentle teachers. Blenheims and Beaufighters were heavier, faster, and less forgiving than the trainers the crews had grown accustomed to. Some of the Blenheims carried aircraft interception radar, the early sets that pilots had to learn to read while flying in darkness. Others were dual-control machines for instructor work. From 1944, the de Havilland Mosquito began to replace the older types. The accident rate was appalling. Around two thousand incidents in 1942 alone, nearly two hundred of them fatal. The nickname Slaughterhall caught on among the airmen who flew there. The phrase was bitter but accurate. Training crews in this kind of aircraft, in this weather, on this schedule, simply cost lives at a rate the chain of command was willing to accept.
Richard Hillary's death is the one the airfield is most remembered for. He had been shot down in his Spitfire on 3 September 1940 during the Battle of Britain, baled out badly burned, and spent months under the care of Archibald McIndoe's pioneering plastic surgery unit at East Grinstead. His memoir The Last Enemy, published in 1942, became one of the defining literary records of the Battle of Britain. Hillary insisted on returning to flying despite his disfigurements and limited mobility. He was retraining at Charterhall on the Bristol Blenheim when, on 8 January 1943, his aircraft stalled on approach and crashed near the runway. Airframe icing was likely a factor, along with the difficulty Hillary had in controlling the aircraft with his injured hands. Sergeant Wilfred Fison, his observer, died with him. Hillary was twenty-three. After the war, the unit moved out, the RAF withdrew in 1947, and the airfield was closed.
Charterhall's second life began in 1952, when motor racing took over the empty runways and perimeter tracks. The smooth, wide concrete surfaces were ideal for car circuits in an era before purpose-built tracks were common. Formula Two, Formula Libre, and Formula Junior all raced here. Some of the great names of British motorsport competed at Charterhall in its racing years, including Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, and Sir Stirling Moss. The circuit closed in 1964. The Border Ecosse Car Club revived the site briefly with the Charterhall Stages Rally, which ran until 2013. Today the airfield is sometimes used as a private airstrip, but there are no refuelling or maintenance facilities, and its operational use is very limited. The site recorded a Scottish temperature of 34.8°C on 19 July 2022 during a heatwave, briefly the highest temperature ever measured in Scotland, before being surpassed the same day at nearby Kelso. The runways are still there, going quiet between the fields.
Located at 55.707°N, 2.376°W in Berwickshire, between the villages of Greenlaw and Duns. Best viewed at 1,500-3,000 ft AGL with the three-runway triangular pattern still clearly visible against the surrounding farmland. The site is occasionally used as a private airstrip but has no refuelling or maintenance facilities. The Richard Hillary memorial sits near the perimeter. Nearest major airports: Edinburgh (EGPH) approximately 38 nm to the north-west and Newcastle (EGNT) approximately 50 nm to the south-east. Kelso lies 7 nm to the south-west.