RNAS Stretton HMS Blackcap Appleton Thorn Industrial Estate Appleton Thorn Trading Estate / Barleycastle/ HM Prison Tho

Royal Naval Air Station Stretton (RNAS Stretton, also known as HMS Blackcap), was an airfield situated in the village of Appleton Thorn, though named for the neighbouring village of Stretton, south of Warrington, in Cheshire, England. Although the main runway remains, the northerly part of the airfield is now HM Prison Thorn Cross, and an industrial estate. In the 1970s, the M56 motorway was built across the former air station.

The airfield was originally built in the Second World War for the RAF but when Luftwaffe tactics changed, it was surplus to requirements so command of the station was given to the Royal Navy in 1942. The airfield was used by the Royal Navy to ferry aircraft to aircraft carriers in the Irish Sea. Post war it was used as an aircraft maintenance, spares and disposal depot. After it was used by several RNAS squadrons in the 1950s, the air station was closed in November 1958.

Second World War

WRNS' checking a Vought Chesapeake at RNAS Stretton, 1943.