Report - RAF west raynham 11.11.2018

[JDP]

Hi Mellyg. My workplace asked for anyone who was an ex cadet if they could supply a photo or two of then and now for this years forces day, so I started trawling the web for archive stuff as I had none myself and came across your comment. I was in the cadets at Raynham in the late seventees along with my three brothers. My mum and dad were on the committee for a while. We had a great time in the old air traffic control tower. Getting bussed in from Fakenham was fun. I don't suppose you were there when the Parker brothers were there were you? Anyway, would be good to swap sories, I'm sure we will know mutual people. Cheers.

 

[Dukefrisky]

This was an extremely quick visit as we rushed round the site and ended up being told to leave by a worker/security gaurd we werent going to question him, here is some history thanks to wikipedia.
History of AF West Raynham Opening in May 1939, Royal Air Force West Raynham was used by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. RAF West Raynham was an expansion scheme airfield with a grass landing strip and a Fort-type lookout tower. The lookout tower was replaced with a “Control Tower for Very Heavy Bomber Stations” later in the war. The headquarters and accommodation blocks were built to the west of the landing area and bomb stores to the south-east. In 1943 two concrete runways were built to replace the grass landing strip. One runway was 1.8km and the other 1.3km in length. The housing on the base was also expanded at the same time, providing accommodation for 2,456 men and 658 women. The station had a Rapier missile training dome, in which a 180 degree simulation could be projected onto the inside of the dome to simulate flight in a fighter jet. Many of the facilities were similar to those provided by the stations sister base RAF Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire, including the training dome. The station closed in 1994 but was retained as a strategic resrve. The site laid derelict until the RAF decided it was surplus to requirements in 2006 and was sold to developers in 2007. Part of the site has been used as a new housing estate, and the land around the main runway is now a solar farm.

I was the last person based there to remove the standard, (which I passed on to a former serviceman). Such a shame to see the place in the state it is.