Originally a Royal Flying Corps station at the end of the First World War, the airfield was unused from 1920-1930, and a civil airfield from 1930-1936. Re-used as RAF Ford 1937-39, and operated by the Royal Navy 1939-40, it was allocated for Eighth Air Force tactical fighter units in 1943. It was used as an Eighth Air Force forward fighter base and emergency alternate landing base 1943-1944. In Royal Navy use in the post war period, it was partly demolished and reduced but otherwise developed as airfield and two industrial estates 1950s-60s. The site has partly been used as Ford Prison since 1960, with some use of the airfield in the 1970s.