I have made many, many visits to Sculthorpe over the years and have seen all that can be seen. Except for this one little bit which sits on land on the old airfield side. I have passed it many times knowing what it was, but wondering what lay in it, not a lot I thought at first. I decided to give it a little look and see what it was like. It was actually nicer than I expected, and went back a second time. I have not seen any pics from in here anywhere. It consists of what looks like two pump houses for pumping the fuel to the pipes that feed the trucks. Was a sunken bit as well with metal walls and steps down, this had pipes running through it. I don’t know the ins and outs of how a BFI works, I reckon some of our more knowledgable members might know like Tigger or Martyn. I would guess the fuel was pumped from the main fuel storage tanks at Harpley Dams, this fed Great Massingham, West Raynham and Sculthorp. The fuel was maybe fed into the sunken part and regulated in the underground bulk storage tanks. This was allowed to settle to allow the muck to disperse. It would then be pumped via the little pump houses and put into fuel trucks to be taken to the airfield for loading the planes.
Sculthorpe began life as a world war two satellite airfield. If you know how many world war two airfields worked you normally had one main airfield and two satellite ones. So in the case off Sculthorpe it was number three down the list to West Raynham, the second being RAF Great Massinghsm. The runway was laid out as a bomber airfield so the runway was built longer than your standard runways. Constructed by Bovis who did a lot of Norfolk airfield construction. The runway sat at 6,000 feet. It was used by several squadrons during the war. In 1949 America took on the base for the 20th fighter bomber wing. Then later on the 81st bomber wing. Both these had massive nuclear capability. The North American B-45 tornados were the jet bombers that would deliver this pay load if war ever broke out. Each plane was capable of dropping five tactical nuclear bombs. With the cold war fizzling out in the late eighties the site closed in 1992 and the technical and domestic sites sold off. The MOD retained the airfield side for training. The runway is used by American special forces in the evening's from Lakenheath and Mildenhall. It's quite an impressive site in a nice evening seeing the hercs landing there or dropping parachutes. Sculthorpe was quite a secretive airfield and think a lot of stuff went on there and landed there that was kept under the radar. CND protested at RAF Greenham common but if only they knew of what was stored here. My aunt met an airman at Sculthorpe in the 50s and married him and moved to America. I know during the Suez canal crisis all planes were fully loaded and on standby ready to go and called off at the last min.
There are two big double gates, with what would have been double secure fencing surrounding the site.
Inside the furthest pump house. Someone has had the wiring away, maybe the local farmer as they still use the land even though it’s owned by the MOD still.
Outside each pump house is a shelter with a tank underneath.
It was nice to see the lights still in situ, outside and in the buildings.
Pipes and valves at the rear of the pump houses.
Another building sits in between the two pump houses, this had two plinths inside what housed some machinery.
The other pump house is an exact replica and more messy than the othe other one.
The sunken part was nice.
Just outside the installation is this large water tank. I am guessing it was connected to the installation. Maybe as water for use in a fire. Or could be a later thing for the farmers.
Sculthorpe began life as a world war two satellite airfield. If you know how many world war two airfields worked you normally had one main airfield and two satellite ones. So in the case off Sculthorpe it was number three down the list to West Raynham, the second being RAF Great Massinghsm. The runway was laid out as a bomber airfield so the runway was built longer than your standard runways. Constructed by Bovis who did a lot of Norfolk airfield construction. The runway sat at 6,000 feet. It was used by several squadrons during the war. In 1949 America took on the base for the 20th fighter bomber wing. Then later on the 81st bomber wing. Both these had massive nuclear capability. The North American B-45 tornados were the jet bombers that would deliver this pay load if war ever broke out. Each plane was capable of dropping five tactical nuclear bombs. With the cold war fizzling out in the late eighties the site closed in 1992 and the technical and domestic sites sold off. The MOD retained the airfield side for training. The runway is used by American special forces in the evening's from Lakenheath and Mildenhall. It's quite an impressive site in a nice evening seeing the hercs landing there or dropping parachutes. Sculthorpe was quite a secretive airfield and think a lot of stuff went on there and landed there that was kept under the radar. CND protested at RAF Greenham common but if only they knew of what was stored here. My aunt met an airman at Sculthorpe in the 50s and married him and moved to America. I know during the Suez canal crisis all planes were fully loaded and on standby ready to go and called off at the last min.
There are two big double gates, with what would have been double secure fencing surrounding the site.
Inside the furthest pump house. Someone has had the wiring away, maybe the local farmer as they still use the land even though it’s owned by the MOD still.
Outside each pump house is a shelter with a tank underneath.
It was nice to see the lights still in situ, outside and in the buildings.
Pipes and valves at the rear of the pump houses.
Another building sits in between the two pump houses, this had two plinths inside what housed some machinery.
The other pump house is an exact replica and more messy than the othe other one.
The sunken part was nice.
Just outside the installation is this large water tank. I am guessing it was connected to the installation. Maybe as water for use in a fire. Or could be a later thing for the farmers.
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honestly never know half the time
