The record site plan legend below is for the 1950s period (above) The site 1 buildings were demolished in the late 1960s & the concrete bases taken up in 1986 Building number Description Building Type 1-23 Married Quarters Nissen 24/25 Not in Use 26-39 Married Quarters Nissen 40 Not in Use 41-52 Married Quarters Nissen 53 Post Exchange Nissen 54 Supply Building Nissen 55/56 Scout Function Nissen 57/60 Married Quarters Nissen 61 Admin AMWD Timber 62-66 Married Quarters Gerrard 67 Latrine Nissen 68 Boiler House Nissen 69-78 Married Quarters Nissen 79 No Building 80 Married Quarters Nissen 82 Not in Use 83-85 Married Quarters Nissen 86 Latrine and Showers Nissan 87 Boiler House Not Used Nissen 88 No Building 89 Latrine Not in Use Nissen 90-97 Married Quarters Nissen 98 Not in Use 99 Boiler House Not Used Nissen 100 Storage Nissen 101 Dependent School Classroom Seco 102 Latrine/Showers Seco 103 Dependant School Elementary 104 School Storage Seco 105 Dependant School Theatre Temporary Brick 106 Dependant School High School Seco 107 Dependant School High School Seco 108-112 Supply Building Nissen 113/114 Married Quarters Nissen 115 Gatehouse Number 1 116 Gas Meter Hut Seco 117 Storage Building Temporary Brick 118 Electric Kiosk Temporary Brick 119 Boiler Room Temporary Brick 120 Dependant School Classroom Seco 121 Storage Building Brick 122 Latrine Nissen 122A Not in Use 123 Water Tower 124 Transformer Plinth Concrete 125 Pump House Temporary brick. Site 1 – Communal Living Area (Colin Kelly Hall) Site 1 was located on the North East corner of the airfield. The main entrance (gate 1) was located on Burtonwood Road.

The site was constructed for the RAF in 1939/40. When the USAAF arrived in 1942 the site was enlarged and by 1943 91 nissan huts and 25 gerard huts had been built. Each living site was given its own name named after a famous American person (site being Colin Kelly Hall).

After World War 2 the 59th air depot USAF arrived at site 1 during 1948 and refurbished the site. During the 1950’s the site was used for the dependents base school and married quarters. During the LATE 1950’s the dependents school was relocated to BRD Site, into building number 8, just inside the main entrance.

The site became derelict by the end of the 1950’s and was demolished in the late 1960’s. Part of site 1 now lies underneath the Kingswood housing estate. Photo taken in September 1945 of the main entrance to communal living area site 1, Colin Kelly Hall

Burtonwood USAF Site 1 Dependant School England Site 1 was named after the famous B-17 Bomber pilot Colin Kelly, he is remembered as one of the first American heroes of the second world war, after ordering his crew to bail out of their badly damaged B-17 while he remained at the controls trying to keep the plane in the air before it exploded sadly killing him. The Burtonwood Dependants School at Burtonwood opened its doors on the 12 of September 1949 under the direction of Major Newton. B.Wilkerson, formerly school superintendent at Lubbock, Texas on hand in 1949 for the schools opening sessions were nineteen representatives of the British press.

And ever since the school has been the cynosure of both foreign and American eyes and many newspaper and magazine articles, newsreel shots, and a program over the BBC have had their origin there. The school is located at site 1 family communal living area at the North end of Burtonwood road, which was formerly cow lane and was the first school to be operated solely for children of the American military and civilian personnel in the united kingdom. Burtonwood Dependents School had its first newspaper in 1950, Miss Elsie Yaeger, the commercial teacher at the time, was a sponsor.

Although the school was very small the pupils were keen to have their own paper and devoted many hours to it.The pupils played football, baseball, and basketball and formed their own clubs. They traveled on sponsored tours from Burtonwood, not only to local points of interest but also to more distant parts of the United Kingdom. They also traveled to seven Continental countries to become acquainted with the land around them.

At the beginning of the 1956-1957 school year, everyone, from Freshman to Senior, had a burning desire to have some kind of yearbook. They discussed the matter with the Student Council, but all possible advisers had extremely full schedules, so there wasn’t much to do but wait. Then the news of a combined yearbook began to trickle in Burtonwood received additional teachers and Mrs.

Edna Leigh became the yearbook adviser the student’s dream of a yearbook had, at last, became a reality. The Dependants and their families living accommodations are spread across a number of dispersed communal sites of the airbase, also some families had private accommodation in the surrounding area and even as far as Altrincham. A school bus system is sponsored by the 3113th air base wing, the buses travel within a twenty-two-mile radius and average about 922 miles daily.

In 1948 site 1 was partially refurbished by the USAF 59th air depot wing, building 105 the auditorium was of the world war 2 temporary half brick design. These buildings were designed to have a life span of 10 years and were built of a single brick, without a cavity wall, with piers at ten feet intervals. The walls supported a light steel frame carrying asbestos sheeting or board and felt roofing.

Outside the brickwork was rendered with cement whilst inside the walls were painted in a variety of colors, the buildings had concrete floors. The other school buildings constructed on site 1 were of the Seco prefabricated type of buildings. All these buildings housed the Dependents School, High School, Elementary school, Chemistry lab, and Latrines and Shower blocks.

The line-shaded buildings on the record site plan indicate all the school buildings. 15 children were recruited into the junior air police, they are all under 16 and have been formed in an area police squadron. Their duties include keeping discipline among their fellow pupils giving first aid to children and enforcing road safety. All the boys and girls are the children of servicemen of the U.S. when on duty they wear an armlet and distinctive white helmets and berets.

The Dependents also had a youth center that was a Seco-type building on the other side of the airbase at site 6.June 1959, marks the end of the tenth year of School for boys and girls here, the ninth for senior high school pupils. At least one of us recalls September 1949, when one building housed elementary classes in the only Air Force school in Area 1 at that time. Many more recall recent years when classrooms bulged and our overall enrolment exceeded eight hundred.

During this decade more than ten thousand elementary and high school pupils have attended here, and forty-six seniors have already graduated. Many of us remember the scattered olive-green buildings where we attended until September 1957. Here at the large new school building that we have relocated to is building number 8 the former headquarters building at the BRD site, located at the South end of Burtonwood road.

Thanks to Earl J. Mahoney for his help and permission to use his photos. Earl attended Burtonwood USAF High School from 1951 to 1955.

“We are growing up as American teenagers at RAF Burtonwood. I have so many memories of Burtonwood in the period 1951 to 1955. I was the son of First Sergeant Jeremiah P.

Mahoney of the 1602-2 Air Transport Wing Detachment. We arrived there in February of 1951, after being in Germany for almost three years. I was 14 years old when we arrived and was 18 when I departed after graduating from Burtonwood High School.

We did not live on base, having found housing in Liverpool in 1951, Runcorn in 1953, and Great Sankey in 1954. In Great Sankey, we lived across the street from the Butcher’s Arms pub which seemed a wonderful thing to this teenage boy. One of the wonderful things is that I am still in current contact with five classmates from our tiny Burtonwood High School.

These pictures are some from my time at Burtonwood. When I look at them, it still surprises me to realize that the old friends still surviving, we are all in our mid 80’s now”This picture was taken in 1954 at Christmas time at our home in Great Sankey Warrington England just outside of Burtonwood AFB I graduated from Burtonwood High the following May. My ‘little’ brother there in the cowboy hat becomes eligible for Medicare next May

Captain Merill Murray is in command of 15 children in the junior Air Police. They are all under 16 and have been formed in an Air Police Squadron. Their duties include keeping discipline among their fellow pupils, giving first aid to children, and enforcing road safety.

The squadron is stationed at Burtonwood, the American airbase in Lancashire. All the boys and girls are the children of servicemen of the U.S. when on duty they wear an armlet and distinctive white berets and helmets. All photos were taken in 1955 Captain Merill Murray who is in charge of the junior air police gives instructions before they go on duty