RAF Lincolnshire.

[Avro683]

Wow that is a sad site to see.. so much history... I like the frying pan parking lot.. wonder if the land owners would be up for someone to metal detect around the frying pan area?? Bet you would find some goodies..!

[Hihonyr8811]

I've answered my own question, the mystery building in the Swinderby photos is the gas chamber apparently.


I can't seem to find any reasons for the demolition of the control towers, other than they were just derelict (and probably in the way ).
The original CT and the 3rd 'J' Hangar were demolished in 2009 from what I can gather.

Cemex own the airfield site (as far as I can tell) and the whole site will be used for a quarry and cement works at some point.



I'd like to take a metal detector to all these sites

The tower might also be a central heating station, if you look at plate 30 on page 28 of this site it is similar, although I am sure I saw an old station we detached to once that was used for parachute training that had a tower to hang and dry the chutes:

http://www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/RAF-Tangmere.pdf

I searched for RAF parachute drying buildings in google and if you are still considering publishing there are a lot of web/PDF sites like the one in the link above that could give you some good ideas to document the history through photos you have gathered to date, which as others have said could be a worthwhile venture.

I must admit to being a bit of a ignoramus when it comes to some of the history of the county I was born in and spent a large part of my working life in and now back to living/working here. oh well when I retire and can still get about I might follow your footsteps and see the county as you have photo'd it.

Funny you should mention a central heating station, in researching Swinderby, I've just seen a photo of one there and it's definitely similar (I can't get PDFs to open/work any more ).

[Ipso]

Cemex own the airfield site (as far as I can tell) and the whole site will be used for a quarry and cement works at some point.

This used to be RAF ibsley before Amey roadstone removed it from the map.

[Sooty655]

The junction of runway 11/29 and what ever the other one is (01/19? perhaps??).

According to the Swinderby page of the RAF History website, the main runway was 07/15 and the other two were 11/29 and 02/20.

[Mayfly]

I was at Swinderby yesterday Helen I didn't see you but I see you did take a picture of our car!!!

Sad sight isn't it. Did you go through the Witham St Hughs and get some from the other side?

[Hihonyr8811]

I was at Swinderby yesterday Helen I didn't see you but I see you did take a picture of our car!!!

Sad sight isn't it. Did you go through the Witham St Hughs and get some from the other side?

how funny
We were in my mum's friends car so when we left she went into the co-op and I walked over to the bench/info board and that was it. Got a quick snap of where the main gate was but she wanted to get home. It really is sad

Normally I plan these trips a couple of days to a week in advance so I know where to go, but because it was sprung on me at the last minute it wasn't till I got home and started doing research that I see how much has gone just wiped off the map

Cemex own the airfield site (as far as I can tell) and the whole site will be used for a quarry and cement works at some point.

This used to be RAF ibsley before Amey roadstone removed it from the map.

That's pretty much what's happened to Woodhall Spa too and presumably Swinderby will go the same way.

The junction of runway 11/29 and what ever the other one is (01/19? perhaps??).

According to the Swinderby page of the RAF History website, the main runway was 07/15 and the other two were 11/29 and 02/20.

Well I wasn't far off Thanks
Although I suspect it would be different if it was re aligned today as it's different to Waddington's 20/02 (That's why I came up with the numbers I did).

The 07/25 one must have been changed too, probably not long before it closed, as Google earth still shows the numbers as 24/06

And I found the actual number 11 , but someone had parked their stall on top of it so I didn't get a photo.

[Yorkie]

I'll be interested to see what you find at Skellingthorpe.

Ps. Yorkshire's good for old airfields...!

I may try and attack the York ones soon, now i'm back working.....

Might join you in that endeavour, if you wish. Can certainly give you a headstart with Elvington..

Cheers

I have just started my new job and start on shifts soon, so will have 4 days to myself a week .

Will do rufforth first as access is not an issue, then acaster (same reason), Elvington can be a bloody pain (airfield side) but may be able to come in from heslington end (is the crash gate still there?)

I can get onto Linton anytime so thats easy.

Theres loads around York

[Blue_2]

I shall PM you chap, rather than taking over Helen's Lincs thread.

[Hihonyr8811]

I had a wonderful afternoon at the Metheringham airfield visitors centre open day, still can't believe I've never been till today, even though we must have passed it thousands of times over the years, anyway.
I took me two attempts to upload these photos, because I must have pressed the wrong button or something and deleted all 115 photos that took 2 hours to upload so after another 2 hours, here's the album.

https://plus.google.com/photos/11759264 ... 6500609553


IMPORTANT!
To view the photos from today you need to scroll all the way down till all the photos are loaded. The photo before the 2 photos of the water tower is where the photos from the open day/airfield tour start!


Some of the photos are not great as I was taking them through the bus window on the airfield tour, which was brilliant!! (thanks for the tip Pam ).

The BBMF Lancaster flypast topped off a lovely afternoon.

[Avro683]

Lovely pictures Helen! It is a shame what happened to the tower.......

[Ray C]

Great stuff Helen....you were stood just in the right place for the Lanc vid...

[Hihonyr8811]

Thank you



The tower is in very good hands I can't for the life of me remember his name, but he flies the Lincolnshire Air Ambulance (that I didn't know till yesterday). It is being restored to it's former glory (as his house). Next too it he's also restored the signal square, will be rebuilding the fire tenders shed and there will be a nissan hut (with a prefab inside) which will be used as a one room hotel.

The guide we had, Dick Roberts who is the managing director of the centre (I think I have his title right, apologies if I have it wrong), told us that the Tower is in that condition because people tried to get at the steel, but the concrete was so tough that it defeated them and they left it in the condition it is now.

[Ray C]

Just looked at some Metheringham control tower shots, I've done some small restoration jobs,
but he's taking on a BIG one, hope the (Planners) cooperate...!

Good luck to him & what a nice spot for a home...

[Hihonyr8811]

At first they did laugh him out of the planning office, but he has full support from the visitors centre and the chap who drove us around in his 'vintage' bus helped him out and I believe he now has all the planning approved He was there yesterday working on it (although we didn't go over there).
He's also going to have a little museum room set up.


You know you're getting old when the bus that used to take you to school is now classed as vintage

[Mayfly]

Helen I looked for you but didn't see you!!

The guy with the tower is Tim Taylor - I would have asked him if you could go look round he was there yesterday.

I love the airfield bus tour I did last year and both days this year, again when I went round I jumped off the bus when they stopped if we had done the same tour you could have joined me.

Dick is one of the Trustees.

Edit: Just looked at your pics very good. The £3 entry to the event is well worth the bus tour alone, as I said some of the photos you can only get once a year.

Helen if there is room in the September issue of the FOMA Newsletter I am hoping to do a collage of the old airfield and I may ask you nearer the time I if can use some of your pics.

[Mackrick]

Thanks Helen lovely video

[Avro683]

Thanks for the update Helen! It is a big job but kudos to him for tackling the tower..

[Hihonyr8811]

I'm debating whether to over come my phobia of people and join the church memorial service for this



But anyone who knows me knows how shy I am and so I'll probably lurk for the flypast but not the service.

Helen I looked for you but didn't see you!!

The guy with the tower is Tim Taylor - I would have asked him if you could go look round he was there yesterday.

I love the airfield bus tour I did last year and both days this year, again when I went round I jumped off the bus when they stopped if we had done the same tour you could have joined me.

Dick is one of the Trustees.

Edit: Just looked at your pics very good. The £3 entry to the event is well worth the bus tour alone, as I said some of the photos you can only get once a year.

Helen if there is room in the September issue of the FOMA Newsletter I am hoping to do a collage of the old airfield and I may ask you nearer the time I if can use some of your pics.

I used to joke that I had an invisibility cloak
We got there quite late and got straight out of the car and onto the 13:05 airfield tour, so we didn't wander around a lot, so that might explain it.


Thank you for the info I had a feeling it was Tim something.

Agree about the £3, fantastic value

Feel free to help your self if you need the full size copies let me know

[Mayfly]

I did the 15.30 tour yesterday. You must have only just got back in time for the Lanc.

Go to the service Helen I'm sure you won't regret it I always find them very moving. I would have gone to Woodhall but we booked 2 nights at the Dams for the flypast before they released the offerings at Woodhall.

[Hihonyr8811]

As promised I just about managed to get in a trip to RAF Skellingthorpe between rain showers on Friday.
I make no apologies for how many photos I'm going to post
I went there not expecting to find much, so was pleasantly surprised at what we found

First of all I'd like to say what a good sport my friend, Alie, was.

Here we are (me on the left, Alie on the right) sat on top of one of the ramps (I hate having my photo taken btw ).

She was the one who found the first "find".

We started off at the bomb stores on the SE (Birchwood) side of the A46, then moved on to the Nature reserve. Then the Memorial and timeline. Then we returned to the A46 to do the rest of the bomb stores on the NW side, as there was no way in hell we were able to cross over on foot, it was so busy.



Alie saw this before I did I genuinely didn't know these were still here as I haven't seen any photos of them.









Then we went here.





To find this

I always thought it was a dispersal but when I planned this in February I realised it's actually the concrete where the runway caravan would have sat.




The runway was behind me the peri track was in front of me.

I also went looking for this






Then we went off to the community centre to see the memorial and the time line. I would have gone inside to see the museum room, but it was shut by the time we got there.




There are 208 poppies (we counted them just to make sure ) to represent how many aircraft (Lancasters, Manchesters and Hampdens) were lost from RAF Skellingthorpe.








Then we went back to the bomb stores to the other side of the A46 (there are laybys on both side).




Some blast walls. It was too over grown to find any foundations inside.



The most impressive feature were the Incendiaries and pyro stores. At Woodhall the buildings are intact but the blast walls have been levlled, well now I know what it would have looked like.





Sadly there's not much left of the buildings inside, but enough to identify them






Part of the ceiling


Flooring.




At this point we got lost I lost the concrete track.

I did find the foundations of a general store though.




We did eventually find the bomb stores I was looking for.









And as we headed back to the car we found my favourite find of the day.



The foundations of the latrine

It had started to rain at this point but we had one more thing to look at.

Component store.






I climbed up on the blast walls.







Phew. So there are a lot more I haven't posted. As always, here's the link to the album.

https://plus.google.com/photos/11759264 ... 9973010673

There is a lot more to explore I think. I missed out a lot due to the weather and even though she was very interested I had my friend to think of. So I may go back at some point and look for the other incendiary store (Birchwood side of the A46).

Thank you for looking

[Mayfly]

Excellent - I lived at Skelly for 6 years and never knew half of that was there - Lincolnshire has so much history going for it.

I would love to see a website to show case all your photos and a personal blog. I know there some sites out there on the subject but your pics have an innocent charm about them.


PS: those first 2 look shady characters!!

[Hihonyr8811]

We probably did look quite shady lurking in the woods actually

I had no idea half of that was there either. There were a few bits that I've seen on other sites, but all the bomb store bits were a nice surprise. It's a shame that it was all covered in graffiti, Alie said she thought it was a disgrace, I'm inclined to agree with her She wanted to know why these historic sites weren't looked after, I didn't really have an answer for her

I'm going to have a go at writing another blog post tonight, I seem to have neglected it

[Sploosher]

excellent stuff Helen...............

looks like iconic has its very own `Time Team`..........

[Gaz]

Love, love, love, love, love it!!

[Mackrick]

Blog bookmarked so get posting Helen
Keep up the good work.