Record Site Plan of Site 1

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

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. 

The first year that the
Burtonwood high school
opened in 1949

On the first day of opening at the
Burtonwood dependants school
on the 13 September 1949

The First Lesson was taken
By teacher Sgt Tracy

The Text Books Was Life
In Modern America

Toddlers line up waiting
to board the coaches which
take them to and from school

Behind the bus is building
123 that is the water tower

The text is on the photo
Photo credit to Earl J. Mahoney

The school's signboard

In the background is building
105 the Auditorium

Behind That is Building
123 & is the water tower

Photo credit to Earl J. Mahoney  

The photo (below) is from the 1953-1954
school year & it shows the entire
Burtonwood school staff

It was taken on the back side
of the Auditorium Building 105

Building 107 the high
school is in the background

The Burtonwood USAF youth center 

The youth center is located at site 6 on
the other side of the airfield from site 1

Photo credit to Earl J. Mahoney

Burtonwood Youth center with
a small fence that was added
to the front in the mid-1950s

Teenagers outside the Burtonwood
USAF youth club at site 6 during 1951
Photo credit to Earl J. Mahoney

A Photo sent to us by Earl J. Mahoney

The Lady who ran the Burtonwood
USAF site 6 youth center

Earl said that he can not remember
her full name, but they called her Miss Lulu

Burtonwood USAF
youth center Emblem

A Photo of the new school
building that was relocated in 1958
and is building number 8

It was at the former headquarters
building at the BRD site located at the
South end of Burtonwood road

USAF Burtonwood high school
the staff and students of the
school year 1952 - 1953

Earl J  Mahoney attended the
Unite States Air Force Site 1 high
school at RAF Burtonwood
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

All students except for our coach
Mr. Kenneth Nuttall the man
wearing the suit and tie.

Of these, I know for sure that
8 of us served in the Air Force
Navy or Marines  following in
the footsteps of our Fathers

School Friends Carol &
Loretta McGuigan

The Elementary
school bell

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

Three pretty young members
of the junior air police
wearing their distinctive
white helmets and armbands:

They are:

Bonnie Williams
June Garan
Dorothy Watson

Two members of the junior air
police are wearing their distinctive
white hats and armbands

They are:

Wayne Pittman of Alexandria
Louisiana and Carol Mc Guigan
of long island New York

Standing at the entrance to the
air base at Buttonwood are
the young boys and girls who
comprise of the junior air police

They all wear white
hats and armbands

Captain Merrill Murray who is
in charge of the junior air police
admires the armband worn
by Dot Hogul

The girls wear
distinctive white berets

Junior air police member Bob
Anderson from Everett Washington
is wearing a white helmet and
leather flying jacket

Part of the duties of the junior air
police is to see that the coaches
which take the children to and
from school get off alright

Here, 13-year-old Thomas
Thompson does some traffic
control watched by junior air
police girl Carol Mc Guigan

Junior air police member
Jim Pittman who comes from
El Paso, Texas, has got the
children safely aboard the coach

He is being kind when some of the
children start having an argument



A junior Air Police girl looks
after the young school
children on their school bus

(Lady in Photo - Unknown?)

At 13 years of age, Thomas
Thompson is the youngest
member of the Air Police

But he's always got an
answer to any of the tricky
questions he gets asked
by the Air Base children

The young Air Police also act as
Traffic cops when the buses
which take the children
to and from school

  Next to the bus is Young Air
Police girl Carol Mc Guigan from
Long Island New York

 
One of the chief duties of the Air
Police is to see that the children get
to and from school in the coaches
provided and that they behave
themselves on the way

Here Jim Pittman gets from
Capt. Merrill Murray the list
of children traveling
on the coach

He and his colleagues
will check them off

Elementary Children are
walking past their Uni
Seco-type classrooms

The school buses take the
children back to their
accommodation
living sites

The muddy
sports field 

Graduation program
Thursday 9th June 1955

Page from the Burtonwood
school year Book of 1953-1954  

Burtonwood high school
badge of 1957

Notice Board When Entering
Site 1 Communal Site During
the 1950's Lady in the
Photo - Unknown?

The Following Photos are the
Dependents at Burtonwood in
the 1950's & Their Teachers
in Their Classrooms

The United States Air Force
Dependents School at Site
1 Burtonwood 1953

Dependents Playing Within
The Communal Area

Extracts  from The Highway
Burtonwood American
School 1950's

P47 thunderbolts of the 8th
and 9th Airforce at the end
of world war 2 parked on
MAP type dispersals

Site 1 communal living site is
at the top right of the photo

The perimeter track on the
bottom left leads to the MAP
type north dispersal area



Aerial photo of site 1
communal living area

B17s parked  on MAP ministry
aircraft production 'Y' type
dispersals during WWII

Site 1 communal living site is
bottom right of the photo

More Pictures etc Coming
Soon Regarding Site 1 .....

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