Chivenor Avenue on the post-war Ernesettle estate is one of the many streets there to be named after World War II RAF Airfields. Chivenor, on the Taw Estuary in North Devon, owed it existence a small pre-war grassed airfield that was proudly known as the Barnstaple and North Devon Airport. At the outbreak of war in 1939 the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and in no time at all had become an important operational base. Even the small planes doing the daily run to Lundy had been brought into military use and an area of the original aerodrome was being used to repair Tiger Moths.
Unlike most of its contemporaries, Chivenor continued to operate long after the war, establishing itself as an ideal training base, with Hunters training British and foreign crews. Whirlwind helicopters carried out their Air Sea Rescue service, which had started there in 1959, and Chivenor continued to fly the RAF Ensign until 1st October 1995 when the base was formally transferred to the Royal Marines.
