During WW2 this was a Black propaganda site and home to the Aspidistra Radio transmitter.
In the early 1980s the Aspidistra bunker was stripped out and converted into a 3 level deep RGHQ which was subsequently sold to Sussex Police in 1992. They still own the site today and use it as a training centre.
Below are some photos from an organised visit to the RGHQ in may 2024:
The rest of the site still contains many of the WW2 buildings in various states of repair, Its primary use now as a Police training facility has taken its toll on the buildings and they show the battle scars from many years of Police exercises.
One especially interesting building is the orignal Aspidistra radio broadcasting hall, it was designed by an architect known for his cinema design which can clearly be seen in it.
Alconbury Airfield was originally a WW2 RAF bomber base which the USAF took over in 1942, In 1995 the USAF left the Airfield but continue to operate from the rest of the site. I’m not going to bother regurgitating the history of Alconbury as it is well documented online already.
In the early 2000s I worked on the airfield for a company in Hangar 15 and was very lucky to visit most of the empty airfield buildings. Unfortunately I lost most of my photos when a HDD failed on me (incidentally this is the reason I love my NAS drive) so many have been lost forever. What I do have I have posted below, however be aware that some are incredibly low resolution.
I will do a separate post for Magic Mountain, Dragon Mountain, Building 210, Hardened Avionics Building/bunker (or whatever you wish to call it) which I originally visited it in 2006, the only photos I have are from a visit in 2023.
Some General photo’s of the airfield and buildings 2005-2007:
HAS 3001, A few photos from building 3001:
On October the 16th 2007 Hanger 4001 which was occupied by Excel logistics at the time Burned to the ground.
Rex Keegan emailed me this at the time “4001 was the first TR-1 Shelter, (called Weather Shelters), constructed and delivered. Prior to these 5 shelters, all TR-1 work was accomplished in Hangar 15 or in part on Hangar 94. These shelters were built to launch aircraft from and had a small back door for the tow vehicle to drive through when towing the aircraft inside, (the TR was towed backwards) and also for the exhaust to pass through when the engine was running. The same concept was used in the hardened shelters for launch. The front door was a bi-forcated overhead contraption with three huge hydraulic pistons. (a maintenance nightmare) The 4 shelters shown were built on the West side of the Old North Runway, near runway side. The 5th shelter was built on the East side of the Old North runway overtop of the old burn pit/dump. 4005 was used as a fuel repair and corrosion control facility, and had an AFFF fire defense system. The four shelters were never used for real world missions. Only training missions were ever flown from them, because Hangar 15 had all the equipment and power necessary for preparing a TR-1 for a particular mission. These continued to be generated and launched from that area until the hardened shelters were able to be utilized. In spite of a lack of facilities and a shortage of equipment, the TR-1 missions flown during their time at Alconbury were deemed highly effective and so technically well advanced over that of our adversaries that their success greatly contributed to ending the cold war.”
Finally for now some photo’s from Hangar 15 when occupied by ELP an Events, TV and Broadcast Lighting company:
RAF Barnham was home of the 94th Maintenance Unit, this was where the payload of the UKs first Nuclear Deterrent the “Blue Danube” was maintained. The payload had a very short half-life so every few weeks returned here via truck from the southern V-Bomber sites for maintenance.
There was a sister site at RAF Faldingworth that maintained the northern airfields but this is the only complete example remaining more information can be found here https://rafbarnham-nss.weebly.com/
In 2022 with permission from the site owners we took a couple of hundred 360 photos, I’ve used a small selection to create a virtual tour of this amazing location, please enjoy.
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