How old is RAF Bentley Priory?
RAF Bentley Priory
The station incorporated Bentley Priory, which was originally built in 1766. The house was significantly extended in 1788, by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. It was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. Afterwards the building was used as a hotel and girls' school before being acquired by the RAF in 1926. The site includes a Grade II* listed Officers' Mess and Italian Gardens. These, together with the park, are designated a Registered Garden Grade II. The land south of the house is the Bentley Priory Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest maintained by Harrow Heritage Trust.
Pinley Priory
The site of the priory is now occupied by the lands and buildings of Pinley Abbey Farm, and only traces now survive of the original priory buildings. The present Pinley Abbey Farmhouse, a Grade II* listed building, dates from the mid 15th century with later alterations. It incorporates part of a wall believed to have been part of an earlier monastic building, that also extends beyond it. To the north-west there is a cottage, originally 14th century but also later altered, that was probably once the priory guest house, also Grade II* listed. Various surviving earthworths, and re-used bits of masonry worked into later buildings, give further clues to the original complex.
RAF Portland
RAF Portland is a former Royal Air Force and ROTOR radar station on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Located close to the Verne Citadel and East Cliff, the station was established in the 1950s as part of a nationwide air defence radar system built by the British Government during the Cold War. The station became a scheduled monument in 2004 and now the site of Fancy's Family Farm.
Air Historical Branch
The branch moved from RAF Bentley Priory to RAF Northolt in 2008 after the closure of the former. The Air Historical Branch is tasked with the maintenance and preservation of the history of the RAF. It is part of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies and is headed by Sebastian Cox.
RAF Bentley Priory
In the Spring of 1940 Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, by then a widower, lived a very quiet domestic life with his sister Hilda at a house called Montrose (no longer standing) in Stanmore. He rarely went out socially and with an immense work load was happy to forgo all but duty functions. Every morning he would walk through the grounds to his office in the Priory. Dowding would often meet General Frederick Alfred Pile, who was the General Officer Commanding Anti-Aircraft Command, who was walking from his home, Glenthorn. The pair, who were firm friends, would use the time to talk about the war and other subjects. Dowding left visits to other stations in Fighter Command to his Staff Officers as he was much occupied with the work in his Priory office. However, he did pay regular night-time visits to research establishments and the air defences around London when The Blitz started in earnest in September 1940. These visits often followed periods of up to 48 hours at his desk leaving Dowding exhausted. Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill made Dowding unwillingly relinquish command of Fighter Command on 24 November 1940 after he only approved some recommendations in a report to improve night air defences created by a committee of enquiry chaired by Sir John Salmond.
Bentley 3 Litre
The oldest surviving production Bentley is 3 Litre chassis number 3. The first Bentley sold, it was delivered to its original owner in 1921. Bodied by UK coachbuilder R. Harrison & Son, chassis number 3 has engine number 4 and UK registration AX 3827. In 2011 it sold at auction for $962,500 including buyer's premium.
Bentley BR2
This was the last type of rotary engine to be adopted by the RAF – later air-cooled aircraft engines such as the Cosmos Jupiter and Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar being almost entirely of the fixed radial type. With the BR.2, the rotary engine had reached a point beyond which this type of engine could not be further developed, due to its inherent limitations.The type selected as the standard single-seat fighter of the post-war RAF, the Sopwith Snipe, had been designed around the BR.2, as had its ground attack version, the Sopwith TF-2 Salamander. A number of other experimental and minor production types were either designed for, or otherwise fitted with this power plant during the late "war" years and into the early 1920s.A Bentley BR.2 is on public display in the Science Museum (London), another forms part of the aero engine collection at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford.
Stanmore
The wealthy businessman James Duberley commissioned Sir John Soane to design a large mansion house north of the original Bentley Priory in 1775. This house was added to throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by various owners. It was significantly extended in 1788, again by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. The Priory was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. In 1882 Bentley Priory was acquired by the hotel millionaire Frederick Gordon, who turned it into a country house hotel for wealthy guests.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
On the night of 11/12 June 1940, the Whitley carried out Operation Haddock, the first RAF bombing raid on Italy, only a few hours after Italy's declaration of war; the Whitleys bombed Turin and Genoa, reaching Northern Italy via a refuelling stop in the Channel Islands. Many leading World War II bomber pilots of the RAF flew Whitleys at some point in their career, including Don Bennett, James Brian Tait, and Leonard Cheshire.
Unlike the Hampden and Wellington, which had met Specification B.9/32 for a day bomber, the Whitley was always intended for night operations alone and thus escaped the early heavy losses received during daylight raids carried out upon German shipping. As the oldest of the three bombers, the Whitley was effectively obsolete by the start of the war, yet over 1,000 more aircraft were produced before a suitable replacement was found. A particular problem with the twin-engine aircraft was that it could not maintain altitude on one engine. Whitleys flew a total of 8,996 operations with Bomber Command, dropped 9,845 tons (8,931 tonnes) of bombs, and 269 aircraft were lost in action.
RAF Great Ashfield
Legacy
Bentley Priory Nature Reserve
The grounds and house were separated when the house became RAF Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Second World War. The grounds are now maintained as a nature reserve by the Harrow Nature Conservation Forum, a sub-committee of the Harrow Heritage Trust.
Bentley
All Bentleys produced from 1931 to 2004 used inherited or shared Rolls-Royce chassis, and adapted Rolls-Royce engines, and are described by critics as badge-engineered Rolls-Royces.In preparation for war, Rolls-Royce and the British Government searched for a location for a shadow factory to ensure production of aero-engines. Crewe, with its excellent road and rail links, as well as being located in the northwest away from the aerial bombing starting in mainland Europe, was a logical choice. Crewe also had extensive open farming land. Construction of the factory started on a 60-acre area on the potato fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine rolling off the production line five months later. 25,000 Merlin engines were produced and at its peak, in 1943 during World War II, the factory employed 10,000 people. With the war in Europe over and the general move towards the then new jet engines, Rolls-Royce concentrated its aero engine operations at Derby and moved motor car operations to Crewe.
Bentley
Before World War I, Walter Owen Bentley and his brother, Horace Millner Bentley, sold French DFP cars in Cricklewood, North London, but W.O, as Walter was known, always wanted to design and build his own cars. At the DFP factory, in 1913, he noticed an aluminium paperweight and thought that aluminium might be a suitable replacement for cast iron to fabricate lighter pistons. The first Bentley aluminium pistons were fitted to Sopwith Camel aero engines during World War I.
Bentley Priory Nature Reserve
The London Loop goes through Bentley Priory, There is access from Common Road, Priory Drive, Aylmer Drive, Embry Way, Old Lodge Way, Bentley Way and Masefield Avenue.
Bentley Priory Nature Reserve
Bentley Priory has a number of woods, including Heriot Wood. Its dominant tree is hornbeam, a species characteristic of ancient woodlands, and it probably dates back to the end of the last Ice Age, the Younger Dryas, 11,500 years ago. To the east is a private deer park.
RAF Belton Park
RAF Belton Park was established in 1942 as the Royal Air Force Regiment Depot, for training RAF Regiment personnel in airfield defence. Belton Park is located north of the centre of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The site of the Depot was on farmland on the opposite side of Londonthorpe Lane from the Park.
RAF Bentley Priory
The corps was created to provide a system for detecting, tracking and reporting aircraft over Britain. During World War II it was complementary to and often replaced the radar system in that it provided an 'over land' element while radar handled the 'over water approach' requirement. In 1955 the detection and reporting of nuclear blasts and fall-out was introduced. By 1965 the aircraft role was no longer needed and the corps formed the field force for the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) until both organisations were disbanded after the Cold war ended.
Bentley Priory
In 2013 an appeal was launched to turn the priory house into a museum commemorating its role in the Battle of Britain. The Bentley Priory Museum was formally opened to the public in September 2013 by Prince Charles. It commenced full public access in January 2014, managed by The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust. The grounds are now Bentley Priory Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
RAF Bentley Priory
Ironically, it was an aircraft of Bomber Command that came closest to destroying the Priory. A Wellington bomber of No 311 (Czech) Sqn returning to its base attempted to land on the lawns in front of the Priory. It narrowly missed the Priory and crashed outside the Sergeants' Mess; there was one survivor.
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Fighter Command, under Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding with Air Commodore A D John Cunningham as his Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) and Air Commodore N J Gill as Air Officer Administration (AOA), consisted of 76 officers, 71 airmen and 84 civilians (including the 70 Observer Corps personnel).
Bentley Priory Nature Reserve
Bentley Priory was an Augustinian priory of Canons in the Middle Ages, but it ceased to exist before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. In 1775 Sir John Soane designed a new house which stood north of the original priory, also called Bentley Priory. Edgware Brook, a small stream which ran through the grounds, was dammed to form Summerhouse Lake, which was named after the lakeside gazebo of Queen Adelaide, the widow of King William IV, who spent the last years of her life there in the 1840s.
RAF Bentley Priory
On the evening of 21 June 1979 at 8:27 pm, smoke was seen coming from the Priory. The London Fire Brigade fortunately arrived in good time and tried to fight the fire. Several teams went inside and tried to get the fire under control. Unfortunately, the electricity had not been switched off and as the firemen advanced to the seat of the fire, they were surrounded by great sparks and had to beat a hasty retreat. The firemen spent the next morning damping down the smouldering remains and looking for the cause. It was quickly established that the fire was an accident and not arson.
Butley Priory
Ranulf founded the house in 1171 for 36 canons under a prior, for whom he selected Gilbert, formerly a precentor at Blythburgh Priory. Ranulf endowed it with the churches of Butley, Capel St Andrew, Bawdsey, Benhall, Farnham, Wantisden, Leiston and Aldringham, and a fourth part of the church of Glemham, together with various lands in Butley. Ranulf and Bertha also founded a leper hospital at West Somerton in Norfolk, for three lepers, dedicated to St Leonard, and placed it under the governance of Butley Priory.
RAF Henlow
After the First World War, Henlow was home to four aircraft squadrons; No. 19 Squadron RAF, No. 23 Squadron RAF, No. 43 Squadron RAF and No. 80 Squadron RAF. Between 1932 and 1933, Sir Frank Whittle was a student at the RAF technical College on the base. He later spent some time in charge of aero engine testing on the base before being sent to Cambridge.
Alexandria, Louisiana
Across the street from the venues is the Hotel Bentley. The Bentley was built in 1908 by lumberman and local eccentric Joseph A. Bentley. The Bentley's heyday was during the 1940s and 1950s, when senior military officials, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower, stayed for extended periods. The Bentley, which was closed on December 12, 2004, was once one of only two four-star hotels in Louisiana. The hotel was set to reopen in August 2007, in time for the 100th anniversary of its construction, but was prevented by funding issues. The current owner, Michael Jenkins, purchased the Bentley for $3.4 million. His plan is to keep the older portion of the building to remain a hotel and turn the 7-story tower portion into luxury condominiums, and also to reopen Bentley's restaurant and Mirror Room lounge. The hotel and all of its components were to have been opened by the summer of 2013, but the hotel remained unfinished as of November 2014.
RAF Woodbridge
Constructed in 1943 as a Royal Air Force (RAF) military airfield during the Second World War to assist damaged aircraft to land on their return from raids over Germany it was later used by the United States Air Force during the Cold War, being the primary home for the 79th Tactical Fighter Squadron and the 78th Tactical Fighter Squadron and squadrons of the 81st Fighter Wing under various designations until 1993. For many years, the 81st Fighter Wing also operated from nearby RAF Bentwaters, with Bentwaters and Woodbridge being known as the "Twin Bases".
Ancient Priors
The Ancient Priors is a medieval timber-framed hall-house on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It was built in approximately 1450, partly replacing an older (probably 14th-century) structure—although part of this survives behind the present street frontage. It has been expanded, altered and renovated many times since, and fell into such disrepair by the 1930s that demolition was considered. It has since been refurbished and is now a restaurant, although it has been put to various uses during its existence. Secret rooms, whose purpose has never been confirmed for certain, were discovered in the 19th century. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance, and it has been described as Crawley's "most prestigious medieval building" and "the finest timber-framed house between London and Brighton".
Bentley Priory Nature Reserve
The name Bentley is believed to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word Beonet, a place covered in coarse grass, which remain a feature of much of the site today, which includes traditional grassland which has never been treated with fertilisers, and hence is rich in wild flowers. The dominant grasses are common bent, red fescue and Yorkshire Fog. Uncommon wild flowers include greater burnet, great burnet and spotted orchid. There are many birds including buzzard, spotted flycatcher, and bullfinch
RAF Bentwaters
During the postwar years, the RAF retained Bentwaters for flying various aircraft, including first-generation jet aircraft, before finally closing the facility on 26 August 1949 when it was placed into 'care and maintenance' status.
RAF Bentley Priory
"Apart from the question of discourtesy, which I do not wish to stress, I must point out the lack of consideration involved in delaying a proposal to this nature until ten days before the date of retirement. I have had four retiring dates given to me and now you are proposing a fifth. Before the War, as I told S of S, I should have been glad to retire: now I am anxious to stay, because I feel that there is no one else who will fight as I do when proposals are made which would reduce the Defence Forces of the Country below extreme danger point."
Bentley Priory continued to act as the Headquarters of Fighter Command throughout the Second World War. It assumed additional importance as the Air planning headquarters for D-Day as the planning for the full operation was conducted at HMS Dryad near Portsmouth with Montgomery Eisenhower and Churchill attending a nearby church the evening before the assault. Much of the detailed air planning work was carried out at Kestrel Grove just a few hundred yards away (this building still stands and is now a retirement home). On D-Day, the landings were monitored by King George VI, Winston Churchill and U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Allied Expeditionary Air Force War room in the Priory's underground bunker. The German artillery binoculars on display in the Dowding room were brought back on the C-in-C's orders, having been captured from positions overlooking the beaches in France.
RAF Kenley
Although few of the remaining buildings survive and the control tower was demolished after a fire in 1978 along with the remaining hangar, Kenley is thought to be the best preserved of all Second World War RAF fighter stations, with the runway still in its original configuration. English Heritage (in 2000) identified Kenley as "The most complete fighter airfield associated with the Battle of Britain to have survived". The respective councils of Croydon and Tandridge have designated the airfield site as a Conservation Area (2006).
Butley Priory
Sir Guy Ferre the younger acquired the manor of Benhall with its patronage of Butley Priory and Leiston Abbey in or soon after 1290 (confirmed 1294), from Sir Nicholas de Crioll. He had trouble with poachers there in 1292. He had held this title (as from the Honour of Eye) for more than 10 years when de Crioll's death in 1303 prompted his widow Margery (daughter of Sir Gilbert Pecche (died 1291), patron of Barnwell Priory), who remarried, to assert her right in dower, and she for herself and her heirs quitclaimed it to Sir Guy for £100 in 1304. Between 1292 and 1303 the priory asserted its rights in its benefice in the City of London, the advowson of St Stephen, Coleman Street.
Aero-engined car
Even after the period in which they were competitive in the quest for the world land speed record, there has been continued and renewed interest in piston-driven aero-engined cars. One of the earliest cars created during this revival era is the Napier-Bentley, which was built by Peter Morley and David Llewellyn in 1972 in the spirit of the aero-engined cars that raced at Brooklands. The Napier-Bentley consists of a 1929 Bentley chassis and a Napier Sea Lion aircraft engine, which produces and of torque. The car has been raced regularly, and was once involved in a crash that hospitalized Morley for a few weeks. In 1998, the Napier-Bentley was sold to Chris Williams. Williams has also designed and built the Packard-Bentley, which he envisioned as a tribute to the interwar aero-engined racing cars that competed at Brooklands. Built over a period of seven years, the car, which is nicknamed "Mavis", made its debut at the 2010 Cholmondeley Pageant of Power. The Packard-Bentley is made up of a Bentley 8 Litre chassis and a , V12 Packard engine taken from an American World War II torpedo boat. The engine gives the car at 2,400 rpm, while allowing it to achieve a top speed of approximately and a fuel efficiency of per minute. The Packard-Bentley is valued at around £350,000.
RAF Bentley Priory
Prior to the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Priory underwent many changes. Chief among these was the hurried adaptation of the two largest rooms (now the anteroom and the Ladies room) into the Operations Room and the Filter Room - moved from its original location in the Crypt bar; the classrooms in the east Wing were converted into accommodation. Externally, brown and green paint were sprayed over the outside of the building including the clock face, and many of the windows were blacked out.
RAF Bentley Priory
The service was drastically reorganized with the creation of Bomber, Coastal, Fighter and Training Commands. The existing ADGB was dissolved and RAF Fighter Command emerged on 14 July 1936. It left Hillingdon House, at RAF Uxbridge on this date and moved to Bentley Priory with its first Air Officer Commanding Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. Fighter Command Headquarters remained at the Priory until its merger with the other operational commands in 1968.
RAF Barton Hall
Royal Air Force Barton Hall or more simply RAF Barton Hall is a former Royal Air Force station situated between the villages of Barton and Broughton, near Preston, Lancashire, England.
Barton Hall, which replaced an old manor house, was built for the Shuttleworth family in about 1750. In 1939 part of the estate was requisitioned for military use. During the Second World War, the Operations Centre of No. 9 Group RAF was housed there in three buildings (Operations Room, Filter Room and Communications Centre), which were partially buried for protection, in a similar way to buildings for No. 10 Group RAF at RAF Box, No. 11 Group RAF at RAF Uxbridge, No. 12 Group RAF at RAF Watnall, No. 13 Group RAF at RAF Newcastle and No. 14 Group RAF at Raigmore House in Inverness.
Operations room ()
The operations room, responsible for directing RAF aircraft in the No. 9 Group area, was located in a bunker on Langley Lane, Goosnargh, 1 mile (2 km) east of Barton Hall. After the war the Royal Observer Corps 21 Group Headquarters and the Western Sector Control of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation took over the bunker. In the bunker was the standby national control of the famous "Four-minute warning" air raid warning system for the UK. The ROC and UKWMO were disbanded between 1991 and 1995 and the bunker was closed.
Filter room ()
The Filter room, responsible for filtering large quantities of intelligence on enemy activity before it was passed to the operations room, was located in a bunker on the south side of Whittingham Lane, a little further east. The Filter room contained a map table showing the British coast from north Wales through western Scotland. One of the WAAF officers in the Barton Hall Filter Room, Eileen Younghusband recorded her experiences there in "One Woman's War."
Communications room ()
The communications room, responsible for accommodating all the communications equipment, was located on Brass Pan Lane, north of Broughton. The communications bunker is currently used to store farm machinery.
After the war, Barton Hall itself was the site of the Preston Air Traffic Control Centre which provided the Area Control service between N52.30 and N55.00, with London ATCC (at Heathrow and later West Drayton) to the South and Scottish ATCC (at Prestwick) to the North. The unit closed in 1975, its task having been absorbed by London ATCC and Manchester Sub-centre situated at Manchester Airport.
Bentley Crewe
With the end of production of Rolls-Royce badged cars in 2002, the factory was redeveloped to allow an expansion of the Bentley brand through a series of new models. 2003's introduction of the Bentley Continental GT was nominally to replace the previous Rolls-Royce-based Continental R and T, but was the first Bentley-only developed vehicle since the merging of the brands in 1931. Equipped with a (6.0 litre) twin-turbocharged W12 engine, which produces a DIN-rated motive power output of at 6,100 rpm, and torque of at 1,600 rpm. Torsen-based permanent four-wheel drive is standard, allowing it to accelerate from in 4.8 seconds, and go on to reach a top speed of . 2005 saw the introduction of the 4 door derived version, the Continental Flying Spur. Due to a lack of capacity at the Crewe upon the car's introduction, some Flying Spurs destined for markets other than the USA and UK were built at Volkswagen's Transparent Factory in Dresden, Germany. This arrangement ended in 2006, when all assembly work reverted to Crewe.
RAF Bentley Priory
Dug-outs were built and sandbags deployed to protect the more important officers. In 1939, the magnificent conservatory was pulled down and replaced by the Operations staff wooden offices. The scene was now set for the wartime era, which is in a national context considered to be the most interesting and significant part of the Priory's history, and that of the RAF.
In January 1939, work started on the underground Operations Block which was occupied and commenced operations on 9 March 1940. The average depth of the excavations was .
RAF Bentley Priory
As a result of their efforts during the Battle of Britain the Observer Corps was granted the title Royal by King George VI and became a uniformed volunteer branch of the RAF from April 1941 for the remainder of its existence. Throughout its service the Royal Observer Corps was commanded by an RAF Air Commodore, each of whom served a tour of between three or four years.
RAF Bentley Priory
Other items in the Museum include a number of "trophies" taken by the Royal Air Force from the Luftwaffe at the end of World War II, including an eagle statue and a bust of Hermann Göring.
RAF Lindley
The first unit to use the airfield was No. 1513 Beam Approach Training Flight RAF (BAT Flt) flying the Airspeed Oxford based at RAF Bramcote, RAF Bitteswell and Lindley between 31 October 1942 and 13 May 1946. From 7 February 1943 until 27 March 1943 No. 18 (Polish) Operational Training Unit RAF used the airfield as a satellite from RAF Bramcote flying Avro Ansons, Fairey Battles and Vickers Wellingtons but the airfield was transferred to RAF Transport Command on 25 June 1943 and was home to No.105 Operational Training Unit flying Vickers Wellingtons and Douglas Dakotas until 21 November 1945. However the unit was renamed No. 1381 (Transport) Conversion Unit before moving to RAF Desborough on 10 August 1943.
Royal Observer Corps
RAF Bentley Priory, home of HQROC for the entire history of the "Royal" Observer Corps, closed in May 2008 and will be developed as a private hotel or luxury apartments, with the historic officers' mess rooms and a selection of ROC items retained as a public museum. With effect from July 2011, the ROC Museum, Winchester, assumed responsibility from the MoD for the maintenance, storage and dissemination of information relating to "ROC Service Records" of those individuals who served with the Corps.
RAF Bentley Priory
Dowding's time leading Fighter Command left a lasting legacy on the organisation. His creation of the Operations and Filter Rooms, the essential elements of the Command, Control and Communications system, became the cornerstone of the Air Defence System. The system he developed gave air controllers the best chance of scrambling fighter squadrons to intercept "Luftwaffe" raids before they reached their targets. This rapid, flexible approach was essential because there were insufficient aircraft and crews to keep fighter patrols continuously airborne in 1940.
He also played a significant part in encouraging research into night-fighter equipment and tactics. Historian and Dowding biographer, Robert Wright, who served as Dowding's personal assistance during the Battle of Britain, wrote in his book, "Dowding and the Battle of Britain", that even when faced with threats of retirement and constant rebuttal, Dowding continued to give his all to those under him and the RAF service. Dowding noted in a letter Air Ministry in early March 1940, that:
Carterton, Oxfordshire
Construction work on RAF Brize Norton began in 1935. Wartime saw the rapid growth of the base. An air raid destroyed 46 aircraft; the remainder were then dispersed round the village and one hangar which is now an Aldi supermarket on the Alvescot Road. From 1950 to 1965 the camp was to be the home of the USAF bomber wings. The RAF returned in 1965 and undertook a large building programme, making RAF Brize Norton its main air transport base in the country.
RAF Uxbridge
During the Battle of Britain, between July and October 1940, RAF Fighter Command at RAF Bentley Priory received air threat warnings that it filtered to remove duplication, doubt and confusion. These were then forwarded to the Operations Room at RAF Uxbridge, which allocated appropriate defence resources and passed orders on to No. 11 Group sector airfields. No. 11 Group personnel doubled to 20,000 between April and November 1940. The RAF officers' hospital was converted to the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) hospital early in 1940.
While overseeing the operations at RAF Uxbridge, Air Vice Marshal Park stayed in a house opposite the entrance to the bunker. He used a small door to reach the bunker from the house each day. The house, named after the war in Park's honour, was demolished in 1996 to make way for newly constructed married quarters; only the garden wall and door were retained. Wing Commander Willoughby de Broke received the Air Force Cross on 11 July 1940 for his service as a Senior Operations Officer for No. 11 Group, working within the Operations Room. Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the station on 16 August 1940, to monitor the battle from the Operations Room. He subsequently made his well-known comment, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", to General Ismay as they got into their car to leave. Churchill repeated the quote in a speech to Parliament four days later. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the station on 6 September. Churchill was again present at RAF Uxbridge on 15 September 1940, the fiercest day of fighting of the entire battle and later named Battle of Britain Day. As the last squadrons were sent into battle, Churchill asked Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park, "How many reserves have we?" Park answered, "There are none."
Hatfield Peverel Priory
Hatfield Peverel Priory (also known as Hatfield Priory) was a Benedictine priory in Essex, England, founded as a secular college before 1087 and converted into priory as a cell of St Albans by William Peverel "ante" 1100. It is in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England and is located on the south side of the village of Hatfield Peverel, about 5 miles north-east of Chelmsford. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a timber frame structure dominated the property.
RAF Bentley Priory
Despite the considerable work undertaken, it became apparent that deterioration was still taking place. In 1964, a surveyor's report showed that the Ante-Room rebuilt in 1947 was suffering from dry-rot. However, it was not until ten years later that the full extent of the decay was thoroughly investigated.
Bentley Priory
In 1882, the Priory was bought by Frederick Gordon, of Gordon Hotels, who converted it into a residential hotel. In 1884, he built a house, 'Glenthorn', in the Priory grounds for his family to live in. On the front of the house was the Gordon Badge (a flexed bow and arrow) and motto "Fortuna Sequatur", which means 'Let's Fortune Attend'. Despite surviving two World Wars, the house is no longer standing. Access to the hotel from London was not ideal, so Gordon had the railway line extended from Harrow to Stanmore via the Stanmore branch line for the convenience of his guests.
RAF Bentley Priory
Project MoDEL is making a major contribution to the consolidation of the Defence Estate in Greater London through the delivery of three key outputs: the development of an integrated 'core site' at RAF Northolt; the re-location of the London-based units; and the disposal of surplus sites. Accordingly, DASC, AHB and RAF Ceremonial relocated to RAF Northolt in 2008 following the completion of their new accommodation. A total of £180 million GBP ($295 million US in 2008) of the £300 million GBP released from Project MoDEL has been re-invested back into RAF Northolt.
RAF Bentley Priory
Despite having successfully built upon the extensive NBC reporting trials, undertaken with the RAF Regiment and meeting full NATO standards and evaluations (STANAGs and OPEVALs), the conclusion reached by the UK MoD was that retention of the Corps in its NBC Cell role was "desirable, but not essential in the existing format". As a consequence, the remaining part-time members of the ROC were stood-down on 31 December 1995, after a laying-up ceremony for the 1991 ROC Banner in the Rotunda at RAF College Cranwell in Lincolnshire on 8 Dec 1995. The ROC Banner remains on display in the RAFC Cranwell rotunda alongside other stood-down Air Force units and squadrons that are subject to liability for reactivation in the future. Headquarters ROC at RAF Bentley Priory finally closed on 31 March 1996 after all administrative winding-up tasks were completed. The last Commandant of the Corps was Air Commodore Martin Widdowson.
No. 1 School of Technical Training RAF
No. 1 School of Technical Training (No. 1 S of TT) is the Royal Air Force's aircraft engineering school, based at RAF Halton from 1919 to 1993, as the Home of the Aircraft Apprentice scheme. The Aircraft Apprentice scheme trained young men in the mechanical trades for aircraft maintenance, the graduates of which were the best trained technicians in the RAF and would usually progress to Senior NCO ranks. However, ninety one ex-apprentices went on to achieve Air Rank. Many more became commissioned officers, including Sir Frank Whittle "father of the jet engine", who completed his apprenticeship at RAF Cranwell, before the move to RAF Halton. Graduates of the Aircraft Apprentice scheme at RAF Halton are known as Old Haltonians.
Bentley Priory
'The Priory was built in honour of St Mary Magdalene, and the Archbishop of Canterbury beyond memory gave the Priory with all its lands to the Priory of St Gregory without the wall of Canterbury, and to the convent there in pure alms; that they from time of such grant used to find a priest to celebrate Mass and other divine services in the chapel within the Priory each week, and that the priest used to be called the Prior of Bentley'.
RAF Sopley
In 1946 RAF Sopley was re-classified as a master GCI station and reserve Sector Operations Centre. As part of the UK's programme to update its air defences, Sopley underwent much modernisation during the 1950s including a new guardhouse providing access to a two-storey underground operations centre. It was also in the early 50's that the domestic camp was built near Bransgore. In 1958 the School of Fighter Control moved in and from 1959 an Air Traffic Control Research Unit was established. The Fighter Control School disbanded in 1960 and the station taken over by Air Traffic Control. RAF Sopley fulfilled a number of other roles before closing in September 1974. The two level operations bunker was modernised in the 1970s when it was occupied by a Royal Signals unit from Signals Research and Development Establishment at Christchurch. The entire site transferred to the army soon after and for the duration of the Cold War was used by 2 Signals Brigade from the UK Land Forces at Wilton. The only surviving surface features of the site are the guardhouse, which has been refurbished, the generator building and a small blockhouse that doubles as an emergency exit for the bunker. The bunker too remains intact and is used by a private company for data storage.
Bentley Priory
In 1846, Dowager Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, leased the Priory, but it was not until 1848 that she finally moved in. By this time, she was quite ill from dropsy, and on her arrival apparently found the stairs too much to cope with. A suite of rooms were prepared for her on the ground floor, and it was in these rooms that she would receive Queen Victoria, her niece, and Prince Albert during their visits.
RAF Bentley Priory
In September 1955 the Fighter Command Silver Band performed the first Beating the Retreat ceremony by the RAF in front of the Priory. Dowding's leather-topped desk, many of his papers and other effects still occupy the room in the Officers' Mess which he used as his office, with its views across a stone balcony to the formal Italian garden below. These will remain as part of the building for its future as a museum.
RAF Northolt
The Ministry of Defence launched Project MoDEL (Ministry of Defence Estates London) in 2006 to consolidate many of its London-based operations at RAF Northolt. Under the project, RAF Bentley Priory, RAF Uxbridge, RAF West Ruislip, RAF Eastcote and the Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill were all closed between 2006 and 2010 with any remaining units transferring to Northolt. The Air Historical Branch, originally established in 1919 to provide a record of air activity during the First World War, was also relocated to RAF Northolt from RAF Bentley Priory in 2008 as part of this project. As a result, the station has been extensively redeveloped with new facilities to support these operations.
Stanmore branch line
In 1882 the entrepreneur and hotelier Frederick Gordon purchased Bentley Priory, a large country house near the rural village of Stanmore. He planned to open it up as a country retreat for wealthy guests. Known as "The Napoleon of the Hotel World", Gordon was a successful international businessman, and had earned his millions through companies such as Ashanti Goldfields, Apollinaris and Johannis, Pears soap and Bovril. The location of Bentley Priory suffered from a lack of transport connections, and Gordon was not content to ferry his paying guests by horse-drawn stagecoach from London.
Bentley Priory
The refurbishments included a gallery of fine paintings, several large apartments and a grand staircase of Portland stone; the intricate wooden banister is thought to have been added by Sir John Kelk. In the early 1860s, Sir Robert Smirke (architect of the British Museum) was commissioned by the Marquess to make further additions to the Priory.
Butley Priory
Butley Priory, sometimes called "Butley Abbey", was a religious house of Canons regular (Augustinians, Black canons) in Butley, Suffolk, dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary. It was founded in 1171 by Ranulf de Glanville (c. 1112-1190), Chief Justiciar to King Henry II (1180-1189), and was the sister foundation to Ranulf's house of White canons (Premonstratensians) at Leiston Abbey, a few miles to the north, founded c. 1183. Butley Priory was suppressed in 1538.
Stanmore
RAF Stanmore Park closed in 1997 and is now a housing estate. RAF Bentley Priory closed in 2009.
Bentley Hall
Bentley Hall is a historic building located on the campus of Allegheny College at Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. It was built between 1820 and 1835, and is a vernacular brick and stone building with a Federal style center building and Greek Revival style wings. The central section measures three stories and 60 feet wide and the two-story wings are 30 feet wide each. It is topped by a distinctive cupola. It was the first building built on the Allegheny College campus, and the only building until Ruter Hall was built in 1853. It is named for Rev. William Bentley, an early benefactor.
Church of St Anne, Catterick
A section of the north side of the church is dedicated as the Royal Air Force Regiment Chapel. The RAF Regiment had their home depot at the nearby RAF Catterick between 1946 and 1994, after which date, they moved to RAF Honington. During the 50-year anniversary celebrations of the RAF Regiment in 1992, The Queen awarded the RAF regiment a new colour and the old one was 'laid up' in the RAF Regiment Chapel in the Church of St Anne. The chapel also contains a north facing window commemorating those who have died whilst serving in the RAF Regiment. The window is composed of stained glass with left and right panes inscribed with a memorial text and the badges of RAF Catterick and the RAF Regiment showing.
RAF Bentley Priory
The decision that the Mess would have to close came at a particularly bad time as, some four months earlier, the Royal Air Force Association had been given permission to hold a Fighter Command Commemorative Ball at the Priory and invitations had already been sent out. Given the serious concern about the integrity of the building's structure it was decided to use marquees for the majority of the function; the lower floors were temporarily strengthened. The ball was of course, a resounding success and caused HM the Queen Mother, who has a long association with the Mess, to be particularly interested in the Priory's future. It was from that night that the campaign to save the Priory really began and it was eventually decided that the Priory should be renovated at a cost of approximately £1 million. Most of the paintings and other valuables were taken to RAF Quedgeley for safe storage, and Cubitts, sub-contractors of the Department of the Environment, started work.
RAF Bentley Priory
Under Supplementary planning guidance agreed in 2007 by London Borough of Harrow the site will include a museum open to the public in the main rooms of the house, recording and interpreting the history of the site and in particular the Battle of Britain and Cold War heritage. The plans were put on hold in 2009 as a result of the economic climate in Britain, although in 2010 it was agreed that the museum would go ahead and be run by the Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust, with support from the charity The Prince's Regeneration Trust. The latest plans for the site include the conversion of the grade II* listed mansion into luxury flats, above the museum. The restoration and classical style development for the site is being designed by Nigel Anderson of ADAM Architecture.
Bentley Priory
Speculation remains over the reason for the decoration of the ceiling in the room we call today the Adelaide Room. It was long believed that the ceiling was painted with frescos depicting the Arts and four Seasons to give Queen Adelaide something of interest to look at while lying sick in bed. However, on the basis of evidence obtained from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, it now seems likely that she actually used the area of the present VIP suite for her bedroom and that this was where she died on 2 December 1849 at the age of 57.
Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum
The house at Bentley was bought by Gerald and Mary Askew in 1937 and following the Second World War the couple developed the house and garden and started a wildfowl collection. Two large Palladian rooms were added to each end of the original house. Following the death of Gerald Askew in 1970, Mary gave the nucleus of the estate to the people of East Sussex. Mary continues to live in part of the house and the site was developed as a tourist attraction. In 2004 due to increasing running costs the East Sussex Council offered to sell the property back to the Askew family for £1.25 million or it would sell the property on the open market. The Askews purchased the estate and placed it in the hands of a trust.
RAF Bentley Priory
The units administered directly by HQ Fighter Command were No 11 (Fighter) Group, No 77 (Air Co-operation) Group and the Royal Observer Corps (from April 1941). In November 1938, No 3 Balloon Centre RAuxAF under command of Group Captain A. E. Bald was formed at RAF Stanmore Park and came under the operational umbrella of Dowding. The location details for the 'barrages' were planned at Bentley Priory.
Bentley Priory
As of 2013, the site has been sold to a developer and plans to convert some of the building to luxury apartments and build new houses have been approved and construction commenced. The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust has secured part of the building to be used as a museum and memorial dedicated to those who served in the RAF.
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and the Second World War. During the war, two bombs destroyed a wooden hut near the married quarters, a blast from a V1 flying bomb broke a few windows, and the windows in the Officers' Mess were shattered by a V2 rocket. The Royal Air Force station closed 30 May 2008 with all units relocating to new accommodation at RAF Northolt.
Bentley Priory
In the Second World War, Bentley Priory was the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command for which it gained historic significance. After the war the site took on various RAF administrative roles until final closure took place on 30 May 2008.
Bentley Priory
In its heyday, the Priory estate boasted no fewer than 20 gardeners. A Tuscan portico was added to the garden in front of the house (now the back) at about this time. The magnificent Oriental Plane tree was brought from abroad and planted around this time.
RAF Sopley
RAF Sopley was a World War II station, codenamed "Starlight", near the village of Sopley in Hampshire. The Radar Station was opened in December 1940. In 1959 it became an air traffic control radar station, and finally closed on 27 September 1974. Nearby Sopley Camp was built in the early 1950s as a domestic site for the radar station and is probably best known as the initial home of the Vietnamese Boat People, in 1979. The camp was sold in 1993 to a local partnership under the name Merryfield Park. Most of the old barracks site had been redeveloped as housing, but the 2-storey building at the Sopley end has been converted into a museum/education centre by Friends Of New Forest Airfields (FONFA). The museum opened in May 2016.
Tattershall Thorpe
The Bluebell Inn is a public house dating from approximately 1257AD. It became an Inn during the 17th century, with 19th- and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of "mud and stud" and partly underbuilt with painted brick. It is a Grade II listed building, and houses RAF memorabilia from RAF Woodhall Spa, an active RAF Station during the Second World War. The Bluebell Inn has signatures on its ceiling from some of the members of 97, 619, 617 (Dambusters) and 627 Squadrons who frequented the pub. RAF personnel from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Squadrons from RAF Coningsby sign to this day to continue the tradition. Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DSO, DFC and Bar visited on several occasions until his death in September 1944.
In 1981, an isolated Anglo-Saxon period burial was excavated at Tattershall Thorpe. It is aligned approximately east-west and has been dated to the seventh century. It contained an assemblage comprising an anvil and other items of smith’s equipment, as well as bells that may have been used to signal the presence of a stranger. The burial has been cited in support of the proposition that smiths were treated as socially peripheral in its time.
RAF Bentley Priory
Although several of the rooms were built during the 18th century, alterations to most of them have led to the loss of their original character. Only the entrance hall remains virtually intact with its eight 'Roman Doric' columns supporting a shallow vaulted ceiling. The 1979 fire peeled off the whitewash paint cover of the ceiling revealing the intricate painted pattern (as designed by Sloane). Although the finances did not allow this pattern to be restored at the time, it has since been returned to its former glory by Mess members. A second small fire was started while restoration was under way in 1980 cause of the fire was work lights left on over night.
Bentley Priory
The Priory changed hands yet again and was re-opened as a girls school. The school housed 70 boarders, and as part of its music focus, maintained a number of pianos in separate soundproof rooms. For several years the school prospered as a female preserve. Male staff were required to leave by 9:30pm when the gates were locked. Any man inadvertently entering the grounds was politely but rapidly removed. Local actor and journalist Pete Knobbler referred to his great-uncle's attempt to remain in the school after hours in an article published in the Harrow Observer in 1983.
RAF Gatow
In November 1948, the latest RAF transport aircraft, the Handley Page Hastings, was added to the squadrons flying into RAF Gatow and some aircrews and aircraft were redeployed to train replacement aircrews. Many of these were based at RAF Schleswigland, near Jagel, which is currently used by the German Air Force and the Marineflieger. A Hastings aircraft, which served on the airlift and was later RAF Gatow's 'gate guardian' until the station's closure, is now preserved in the "Alliierten Museum" (see weblink at base of page). By mid-December, the RAF had landed 100,000 tons of supplies. In April 1949, commercial airline companies involved in the airlift were formed into a Civil Airlift Division (co-ordinated by British European Airways) to operate under RAF control. Apart from BEA itself, these included a number of Britain's fledgling independent airlines as well, such as the late Sir Freddie Laker's Air Charter, Harold Bamberg's Eagle Aviation and Skyways. By mid-April, the combined airlift of all nations' operations managed to make 1,398 flights in 24 hours, carrying 12,940 tons (13,160 t) of goods, coal and machinery, beating their record of 8,246 (8,385 t) set only days earlier.
RAF Gatow has the unique and unlikely distinction of being the base for the only known operational use of flying boats in central Europe, during the Berlin Blockade, on the nearby "Großer Wannsee" in the Havel river. On 6 July 1948, the RAF began using 10 Short Sunderland and 2 Short Hythe flying boats, flying from Finkenwerder on the Elbe near Hamburg to Berlin. These were supplemented by the flying boat operations of Aquila Airways, an early post-war British independent airline that became an operating division of British Aviation Services. The flying boats' specialty was transporting bulk salt, which would have been very corrosive to other aircraft, but was not as corrosive to the flying boats because of their anodised skins.
RAF Bentley Priory
Following the closure of the RAF station the site was handed over to Defence Estates, who in turn passed it to the prime plus contractor for Project MoDEL, VSM Estates, a company formed by developers Vinci PLC and St. Modwen Properties PLC, who are responsible for developing proposals and the subsequent disposal of the site to developers who will realise the scheme.
RAF Bentley Priory
Since its closure, the Officers' Mess has converted into the Bentley Priory Museum with exhibits focusing on the house's role during the Battle of Britain. The grounds have been redeveloped as an upmarket private residential housing estate.
Bentley Priory
Apart from a short list of Priors from this period in The Victoria County History of Middlesex, the only other reference to the Priory is in Chronicle by Matthew Paris who was a monk and chief copyist at St Albans. He mentions under the date 1248 the story 'Of the Miserable Death of the Priory of Bentley'. Apparently a hayrick fell upon him whilst he was inspecting it.
Hartley Wintney
On 5 October 1945 a Consolidated B-24 Liberator GR.VI aircraft of No. 311 Squadron RAF crashed and burst into flames in a field on the Elvetham Hall estate. All of its passengers and RAF crew were Czechoslovak. All 23 people aboard were killed, including five young children who were from 18 months to three years old. The Flight List had the names of the 5 Crew and the 17 civilians who were on board the plane . However an extra civilian was found . A woman . 13 of the civilians were buried in a Communal grave in Brookwood Civil Cemetery . The 5 aircrew received a Military burial 100 metres away in Brookwood Military Cemetery .It was realised that the extra casualty was Edita Sedlakova who had been offloaded in favour of a replacement but she had stowed aboard the flight . She had not long been married to the Flight Engineer , Zdenek Sedlak , and this was their honeymoon flight home . Edita lies in the Communal grave while Zdenek is in the Military.
Edita was just 19 years old. Hartley Wintney F.C. is a Non-League football club that plays at The Memorial Playing Fields.
Great Bentley
Great Bentley School was built in 1896 and its front façade is a good example of a school built in the late Victorian era. The school retains many of its original features including wooden parquet flooring and high ceilings in the original part of the building. Several extensions have been added to the school over the years, and the most recent was completed in 2003. In the year 2000 a clock was added to the centre of the original building in commemoration of the new millennium. The school currently has 210 pupils aged between 4 and 11 years. The school is maintained by Essex County Council, and is now called Great Bentley County Primary School. The school's catchment area includes the nearby villages of Thorrington, Frating, Aingers Green and Little Bentley. The 2015 Ofsted report gave the school a rating of 'Outstanding' praising the improvements made since previous inspections to bring about improvements in teaching, learning and assessment.
Silver Centenary
In 2006, Ford's grandson Rod Edwards retrieved the plane from the museum to enable restoration, which caused much concern to the people of Beverley. As part of the restoration, Mr Edwards decided to obtain airworthy certification for the plane, and in August 2007 the Silver Centenary received its airworthy certificate 77 years after it was originally built.
Project Vitello
On 4 June 1982, Sir John Grandy (1913 – 2004) dedicated the display of the 9.2-inch gun, which in England is also referred to as the Gibraltar Gun. Grandy, Marshall of the Royal Air Force, had been the commanding officer at Duxford in 1942. After more than two and a half decades of leadership posts, Grandy became Chief of the Air Staff on 1 April 1967, the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force. Following his retirement in 1971, he served as Commander-in-chief and Governor of Gibraltar from 1973 to 1978. It represented the first time that an RAF officer filled that position. Grandy was Chairman of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum from 1978 to 1989.
No. 1 School of Technical Training RAF
The RAF Aircraft Apprentice Scheme was initiated by Lord Trenchard at the No.1 School of Technical Training, RAF Halton in 1922. Initially started in 1920 at Halton camp, the site was not ready to accept apprentices until 1922 so the first four entries were trained at 'RAF Cranwell'. Between 1922 and 1993, when the scheme ended with 155th Entry, over 40,000 young men known, more or less affectionately as Halton 'Brats' (or Trenchard's Brats) had graduated. Richie Waylens (155th) is officially the last apprentice to graduate from the apprentice scheme at Cosford in 1993.
RAF Bentley Priory
On 26 May 1926, Inland Area (Training Command), a part of the organization of the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) moved into the Priory from Uxbridge. In July 1926, it was renamed 'Training Command' and moved to Market Drayton in Shropshire. As the RAF grew in size the organizational base expanded with it and the foundations were laid for an air defence system which proved to be well in advance of the force it was shortly to oppose.
RAF Bentley Priory
The Cold War bunker was surveyed by English Heritage, who concluded there were other examples of similar bunkers across the country in better condition. In March 2010 the bunker was filled in, leaving only the exterior doors and walls. The RAF Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust supported VSM Estates in the decision to fill in the bunker on the grounds of maintenance costs. The bunker had replaced the Second World War bunker in the 1980s.
Studley Priory, Oxfordshire
Studley Priory was a small house of Benedictine nuns, ruled by a prioress. It was founded some time before 1176 in the hamlet of Studley in what is now the village of Horton-cum-Studley, northeast of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England, at 1 Horton Hill Road. In 1176, the priory received a grant from Bernard of St. Walery. The nuns were unhappy to be served poor beef and new beer on Thursday and Sunday nights, and no mutton. The priory was declared closed by 1536, but appears to have experienced a brief revival before its suppression in 1539. 
The priory lands were sold to the Croke family. The family built the house now known as Studley Priory, which still stands in its of grounds, in 1587; a member of the Croke family was a judge in the 1649 trial of Charles I. The house and its estate (which comprised most of the village of Horton-cum-Studley) was owned by the Croke family until around 1870 when it was sold to the Henderson family, who occupied it until World War II. During the war, it was a sanatorium for Royal Air Force officers.
Bicester Airfield
Bicester Aerodrome, formerly RAF Bicester, is an airfield on the outskirts of the English town of Bicester in Oxfordshire. Dating back to 1916, this military airfield is notable as the location of the first flight of the prototype Handley Page Halifax in 1939 and was later the home of No. 71 Maintenance Unit, RAF (Royal Air Force); the RAF finally left in 2004.
Emley, West Yorkshire
Mining had an important role but before coal mining began, iron ore was discovered around Bentley Grange which led to the establishment of iron ore mines and a forge by the monks of Byland Abbey under a licence granted by Sir William Fitzwilliam (the first lord of the manor to adopt the name Fitzwilliam) in 1217 and another endorsed by his son Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam in 1237. Grange, a name associated with many buildings in and around Emley including Bentley Grange, is a reference to Byland Abbey's outlying monastic farming estate, typically where sheep were kept. The remains of bell pits around Bentley Grange, a scheduled monument, are medieval workings from when iron ore was mined from the Tankersley seam.
Tatenhill Airfield
Construction of the airfield was completed in 1941 during the Second World War, using the standard RAF specification of three co-intersecting runways. During the construction phase Miles Magister aircraft of No. 16 Elementary Flying Training School from RAF Burnaston used part of the airfield as a Relief Landing Ground. From 1941 until 1942 the airfield was a satellite for RAF Lichfield where No. 27 Operational Training Unit, Bomber Command used Vickers Wellington and Avro Anson aircraft. From 1942 until 1943 No. 15 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Training Unit, Flying Training Command used the Airspeed Oxford. From 1943 until 1944 No. 5 (P) AFU used the Miles Master. From 1944 until 1945 No. 21 (P) AFU used the Airspeed Oxford, this was to be the last RAF flying unit. During 1944 No. 21 Maintenance Unit arrived after the disastrous explosion at their nearby station of RAF Fauld. The airfield finally housed the RAF School of Explosives from 1945 until 1947. The RAF had completely moved out by 1950 and the airfield became disused. Many of the buildings and structures from this period were extant in 2015.
RAF Bentley Priory
The 10,000 member main field force of the ROC were stood down on 30 September 1991, and the ROC's original 1966 Royal Banner was laid up at St Clement Danes Church in the Strand, London where it remains on display, a new banner having been presented by HM The Queen in July 1991 during a Royal Review of the ROC and garden party at Bentley Priory. The Corps was dismantled following what was described by the Queen at the Royal Review as "the end of the Cold War" and linked to a Government press release that referred to "possible future developments and improvements in automated nuclear explosion and fallout detection from remote sensors".
RAF Bentley Priory
Despite two fires and substantial Victorian rebuilding of the house, externally, Soane's part in the design is still evident on the garden side and in the house. The five pilasters (columns) set against the original Duberley house still survive, though they have lost most of their entablature (the ornate area above the column) and carry instead a steeply projecting slate roof.
RAF Henley-on-Thames
The site was used to assemble and test Supermarine Spitfires (produced locally by dispersed manufacturers in the Reading area), and as a Relief Landing Ground for RAF White Waltham and RAF Woodley. It was built in late 1939 and closed in October 1945. In 1944 No.529 Squadron moved to RAF Henley-on-Thames from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire. This squadron was initially equipped with autogyros but in the spring of 1945 they took delivery of the new American Sikorsky R-4 helicopter (known as the 'Hoverfly' in British service), RAF Henley-on-Thames becoming the first RAF air base to host an operational helicopter squadron.
RAF Bentley Priory
The Officers' Mess was also notable for the number of Royal Portraits hanging in the building; there were two of HM The Queen, one in the Dining Room as a young woman and a second that hung in the Ladies' Room that was commissioned and paid for by the Royal Observer Corps to mark their 50th Jubilee Year, painted at Bentley Priory depicting Her Majesty in her ROC Commandant in Chief regalia and with a background of the Italian Gardens. There was also a portrait of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh (dressed in a flying suit, hanging in the Dining Room on the wall facing the Queen), one of George VI (in RAF No 1 uniform wearing a 'chip bag' and wings, which hangs in the Abercorn Bar) and one of The Queen Mother (gifted to the Mess by the Queen Mother after she paid for refurbishment following the fire). The portrait of The Queen Mother hung in the rotunda and was surrounded by portraits and sketches of many Battle of Britain Pilots. These portraits have now all been preserved in the Museum.
RAF Bentley Priory
On 30 April 1968, Fighter Command was amalgamated with other operational commands to form Strike Command. The Fighter Command badge remains above the main entrance Headquarters No 11 (Fighter) Group. The Officers' Mess remained in the Priory building and much of the Mess silver still proudly bears the Fighter Command Badge.
RAF Bentley Priory
After the war, the Priory gradually returned to something of its former self. However, on the night of 10 March 1947, the centre portion of the building, including the room above the Ante-Room and the offices on the floor above, were destroyed by a fire. Two years later, a new bar was built in the sub-basement under the Ante-Room. HRH Princess Elizabeth first visited the Priory in 1950.
Brayton Hall
In 1942, the Royal Air Force (RAF) requisitioned the Brayton Park estate, which afterwards became one of the last two all-new Satellite Landing Grounds (No. 39 SLG) for dispersed aircraft storage to open in Britain during World War II. After a delayed start a considerable numbers of aircraft flew in for storage under the control of No 12 Maintenance Unit at Kirkbride. Officers and men of the RAF were billeted in the main hall and outhouses and within Nissen huts around the grounds. Two main runways were constructed for the airfield; one ran south – east from the main estate and the other ran east – west over the middle of the estate, the whole being enclosed by security fencing and barbed wire. Although Brayton saw several Supermarine Spitfires pass through it tended to process larger aircraft types; and the sight of four-engined Handley Page Halifaxes and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses were not uncommon. Less familiar residents in RAF service included two other American aircraft designs along with the Fortress, the tricycle undercarriage North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber and single-engined Vultee A-31 Vengeance, designed as a dive bomber but destined to mainly see military service as a target tug.
However it was one of Britain’s best-loved aircraft which became Brayton’s most numerous resident. Examples of the Vickers Wellington had flown into Brayton right from the beginning of the airfield’s life, numbers in time reaching well into three figures. Many were still at Brayton by the end of World War Two in Europe but peacetime then saw these aircraft fairly quickly depart to Kirkbride, leaving their former SLG home to officially close on January 31, 1946.
RAF Northolt
Northolt pre-dates the establishment of the Royal Air Force by almost three years, having opened in May 1915 making it the oldest RAF base. Originally established for the Royal Flying Corps, it has the longest history of continuous use of any RAF airfield. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the station was the first to take delivery of the Hawker Hurricane. The station played a key role during the Battle of Britain, when fighters from several of its units, including No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, engaged enemy aircraft as part of the defence of London. It became the first base to have squadrons operating Supermarine Spitfire aircraft within German airspace.
Project MoDEL
Originally built in 1766, Bentley Priory was significantly extended in 1788, by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. The priory was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. It subsequently served as a hotel and girls' school before being acquired by the Royal Air Force in 1926.
RAF Bentwaters
It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, and by the United States Air Force (USAF) during the Cold War, being the primary home for the 81st Fighter Wing under various designations from 1951 to 1993. For many years the 81st Fighter Wing also operated RAF Woodbridge, with Bentwaters and Woodbridge airfields being known by the Americans as the "Twin Bases".
RAF Henlow
RAF Henlow is a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, equidistant from Bedford, Luton and Stevenage. It houses the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the Joint Arms Control Implementation Group (JACIG), the Signals Museum and 616 Volunteer Gliding Squadron. The Ministry of Defence announced on 6 September 2016 that the base is set to be closed following a consultation.