Witherenden Airstrip

The closure was not due to a major incident, accident, or military conversion. As a private farm strip, the most likely reasons are related to the owner's personal circumstances, such as the cessation of flying activities, the sale of the associated property (Witherenden Farm), or the costs and effort of maintenance no longer being considered viable. This type of closure is common for small, private airfields.

The site of the former airstrip has been fully returned to agricultural use, consistent with the surrounding fields of Witherenden Farm. Current satellite imagery shows no remaining signs of a maintained runway, hangar, or other aviation infrastructure. The land where the grass runway was located is now indistinguishable from the adjacent pasture or crop fields.

Witherenden Airstrip had no major national or military significance. It was a classic example of a private 'farm strip' common across the UK countryside. Its operations were exclusively for private General Aviation (GA), serving the owner of the associated Witherenden Farm and potentially invited guests. It would have handled light, single-engine aircraft (like a Piper or Cessna) for recreational flying and personal transport. The ICAO designator GB-0989 was an unofficial code used in some non-governmental aviation databases to identify small airfields not listed in the official UK Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP).

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Witherenden Airstrip. Since the land has been fully reintegrated into agricultural use, re-establishing an airstrip would be a new undertaking, requiring significant investment, new planning permissions from the local authority (Rother District Council), and adherence to current Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations. There is no public information to suggest any intent to pursue this.