The site, which was once, one of the most famous airfields during the Battle of Britain is now home to Hornchurch Country Park. The airfield can trace its origins back to 1915 when the small and rather primitive landing ground was known as Sutton's Farm. The small site was purchased by the air ministry along with some adjacent land and opened as an RAF aerodrome on 1 st April 1928. The first squadron to use the airfield was No 111, which were equipped with Armstrong Whitworth Siskin III's in January 1929 the airfield became officially known as RAF Hornchurch.

At the outbreak of the war Hornchurch was a sector station in No 11 Group of Fighter Command, covering the important southeastern approaches to London. There were three squadrons based at Hornchurch during the early part of the war, these were No's 54, 65, & 74, all equipped with spitfires. Hornchurch had no runways as such, but a large open grass airfield, which allowed for three runs of 1,200, 850, and 830 yards.

Hornchurch soon gained a satellite airfield at Rochford and, in November 1939 another at Manston; both airfields were controlled from Hornchurch. During 1940 and especially from May onwards a number of squadrons arrived at Hornchurch to relive the hard pressed existing squadrons who could be rested, these included No's 19, 41, 92 and 222. Like other sector airfields Hornchurch came under attack from the Luftwaffe. The first raid came in the afternoon of 24 th August, which cut the telephone lines and left 85 craters. By the end of 1940 the airfield had sustained another 13 bombing raids.

By the end of September 1940 the various squadrons that had operated in the Hornchurch sector during the Battle of Britain had claimed 411 enemy aircraft destroyed with another 235 as probable victories. No 54 squadrons finally left Hornchurch in November 1941; they had served at the airfield longer than any other fighter squadron. During August 1941 the first commonwealth squadron – No 403 (Canadian) arrived at Hornchurch with its spitfire VB's. Before the year was out another Canadian squadron No 411 arrived and stayed for over three months.

The increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the airfield became apparent when No 313 squadron flew in during December; this was the third Czech fighter squadron to be formed in fighter command. During the next two years a free French (No 340) squadron, a Belgian (N0 350), an Australian (No' 433) and a New Zealand (No 485) squadron all became part of the Hornchurch wing. On January 21 st 1944 the airfield was bombed for the first for over three years.

The station was now under Northweald's fighter control as the sector Operations Room had been closed down. By this time, Hornchurchs days as a flying station were numbered. From November 1944 to June 1945 the airfield housed an Air Sea Rescue squadron, a Radar calibration squadron, and most unlikely, a fleet air squadron equipped with Vickers Wellington's.