A small and insignificant building, but I don't think this has ever been covered before. It was a chance find whilst looking for something else I thought was in the area, I'm always happy to check out random buildings I spot among trees on Google Maps. Once we arrived it became immediately apparent that 1) it was connected in some way to the former RAF Edgehill base and b) it was collapsing at an alarming rate. I only later discovered, through a random hand drawn map of the airbase on a Geocache site, that this tumbledown building was at one point the Officer's Mess, situated opposite the long-demolished communal facilities on the far western edge of the airfield.
RAF Edgehill was a Bomber Command training station opened in 1941, six miles west of Banbury. It was home to the Vickers Wellingtons, Hawker Hurricanes and Miles Martinets of 12 Operational Training Unit and 21 Operational Training Unit. In 1942 the airfield was used for flight testing of the Gloster E28/39, following it's maiden flights from RAF Cranwell. After the end of the Second World War, the base became an RAF storage depot, eventually closing as an RAF station in 1953. Following the closure, by 1993 almost all of the original buildings had been demolished, and it is now home to a gliding club, kart track and vehicle storage whilst a lot of it is now just open farmland.
It would appear that this building is all but completely forgotten about, and was at one point in time perhaps turned into a workshop where gliders were fixed or stored. I say this, because much to my surprise, there are the remains of two glider airframes and numerous other glider parts scattered around the building. A really unexpected thing to find, but cool nonetheless, and definitely made it a bit more interesting.
A lot of the structure is in a very bad way. It was one of those buildings where you didn't want to even brush up against anything, lest it all collapse.
That's the lot - not my worst random find by any means!
Cheers for looking etc.
RAF Edgehill was a Bomber Command training station opened in 1941, six miles west of Banbury. It was home to the Vickers Wellingtons, Hawker Hurricanes and Miles Martinets of 12 Operational Training Unit and 21 Operational Training Unit. In 1942 the airfield was used for flight testing of the Gloster E28/39, following it's maiden flights from RAF Cranwell. After the end of the Second World War, the base became an RAF storage depot, eventually closing as an RAF station in 1953. Following the closure, by 1993 almost all of the original buildings had been demolished, and it is now home to a gliding club, kart track and vehicle storage whilst a lot of it is now just open farmland.
It would appear that this building is all but completely forgotten about, and was at one point in time perhaps turned into a workshop where gliders were fixed or stored. I say this, because much to my surprise, there are the remains of two glider airframes and numerous other glider parts scattered around the building. A really unexpected thing to find, but cool nonetheless, and definitely made it a bit more interesting.
A lot of the structure is in a very bad way. It was one of those buildings where you didn't want to even brush up against anything, lest it all collapse.
That's the lot - not my worst random find by any means!
Cheers for looking etc.
