Obscure uses for airfields

mawganmad wrote:

RAF Nuneaton - possibly one of the more interesting ones as it is the MIRA testing ground, still rertains its original tower aswell, but next to impossible to get in!

Spent a lot of time at MIRA and it never crossed my mind that it was RAF Nuneaton... many thanks for pointing that out.

Raf Hemswell
antiques centre, trading estate, sunday market, car boot sale, oh and farming of course, it seems that nowadays one of the hangars is open on sundays as an indoor market, bit of a chance for a looksee inside.

There are also Harwell which was handed over to the UKAEA, i think. Woodley now a housing estate,Portsmouth and Croydon s industrial areas. Abbingdon,Bassingbourn,South Cerney and Thorney Island army barracks.Plus Moreton in the Marsh now a fire school.

Upper Heyford - Car park
Davidstowe Moor - in the fifties anyway, the first Formula 1 racing
Cleave camp (just north of Bude) GCHQ radio
Finnmere - Car Boot sale/market

Bradwell Bay - Nuclear Power Station but no longer in use does this count?

Hatfield Aerodrome - University of Hertfordshire, Business park, Leisure Facilities and also used for filming Saving Pvt Ryan and also the Band Of Brothers TV Series.

RAF Fairlop - Golf, Sailing and Canoeing.

High Ercall, Shropshire Used by the RTITB (Road Transport Industry Training Board) for training for certification for jobs in the motor trade, transportation and haulage industry. If I remember correctly, and I have lived in the USA since '92, I read somewhere that there was a big scandal just a few years back and some stff prison time when certificates were fraudulantly issued.

St Merrryn , Cornwall. This RNAS station close a few years after WW2 and has been a holiday village since then.

RAF Hornchurch, housing estate and country park. Chingford,(WW1) now under a reservoir. North Benfleet (WW1 emergency landing ground) A13/A130 junction + boot sale venue.

RAF Desborough is used for skid pan training

Not sure we can count this one, Langley (Parlaunt Park) site of the Hawker Siddley aircraft factory
which became Ford Iveco Trucks and now a housing estate.