NHER 12413 (Monument record) - Airship and military base, Pulham Piggery

Opened 1916.
Scene of various experiments with airships, base for pioneer long-distance flights etc. After World War One captured Zeppelins were stored here, tanks were used to open the hanger doors. Late 1920s. One hanger was moved to Cardington, Bedfordshire where it remains. Another is said to be on the Saddlebow Estate, King's Lynn, but this is probably not correct.
Used as storage in World War Two with no landing strip. Heavily bombed. Had railway connection which remained until around 1960. Narrow gauge railway inside base as well, closed 1958. Remains of several smaller buildings and cropmarks of hangers visible 1981.
Relics in RAF Museum, Hendon and RNAS Museum, Yeovilton
For full details see (S1).
E. Rose (NAU), 10 August 1981.

Newspaper cuttings (S2) in file, plus further details
Large rolled plan of layout in 1919.
Slide copy made of 1916 aerial photograph
Report on suitability of field for Handley Pages 1918 in file.
See NIAS survey on fiche.

6 August 1993. NLA Air photography.
Site of Pulham airship station visible as remains of smaller buildings and rough ground. Cropmarks or aircraft hanger not clear.
H. Clare (NLA), 5 February 2001.

This site has a special place in aviation history as it was the base for Britain's first airworthy rigid airship and was the location of the world's first permanent airship mooring mast. The site was also instrumental in setting up air traffic control in the UK, using Marconi radio beacon equipment, with one beacon located at this site and another at Croydon. Pulham was the chief research establishment for airships until the move to Cardington.
This was a full RAF site including parade ground, officers' mess and accommodation for men and officers. During and after World War Two the base was used as a storage depot for crashed aircraft from Eastern England, and the RAF had a test firing range here.
Information from (S4).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 31 October 2007.

(S4) in file summarises the importance of the site and adds that one of the hangars went to Karachi (destroyed 1980); one of the two first Marconi air traffic control beacons was here, and also a Chainholme radar station from 1939.
E. Rose (NLA), 25 July 2007.

October 2012. Field visit.
Areas of hard standing for hangars, tracks and a number of buildings survive. The buildings include one labelled as the 'Silicol plant' on (S6) and shown in a photograph included in (S7).
The extent of the site has been increased to cover the entire area of the military site shown on 1946 aerial photographs. The former mapped area is shown on a map included in the secondary file.
D. Robertson (HES), 15 October 2012.