How to find Sheepcoates Farm.

The old runway is now gone with just a faint mark to show where it had been

See the last Google Maps photo of our old airstrip before it was ploughed up[Click here]

By road: from Heybridge, follow the Colchester road until Scraley Road on your right. Take Scraley Road (past the Heybridge Swifts football ground) and continue along is as it becomes Chigborough Road at a junction (left bend). About a hundred yards further on, follow Sheepcoates Lane straight ahead where the road itself turns right. The farm entrance is on your left before the HT power lines, marked with a footpath sign.

NB. Saxon Microlights no longer operate from this location, however you may enjoy the footpath walk down past Sheepcoates Farmhouse (it appears closed but it is a public right of way), turning left at the end via Sains Hall, then left again across the field to Scraley Cottage, following the road again back to Sheepcoates Farm. You may wish to extend your walk along Church Lane to the picturesque Little Totham Hall where you can find a footpath back to Sheepcoates Farm.

By air: Sheepcoates Farm is approximately 2 miles due north of Northey Island. The runway is no longer available, however you may still be able to identify its original location. The strip was originally used as a base for crop spraying aircraft in the 1980s and subsequently as a private airstrip for the farmer’s own aeroplane. It was closed in the late 1980s and resurrected by Saxon Microlights in 2004 for use as a microlight school. Planning permission was refused early in 2006 following a successful objection campaign led by Mr King of Krallis Tan, Sheepcoates Lane.

Pilots may enjoy looking for the crop marks near Little Totham Hall and others around the area.

[Click here] for a location map.

[Click here] for a sketch map.

[Saxon Microlights home page]