According to the RAF News, hangar No.4 at RAF Leconfield (East Yorkshire) has been demolished. I understand that the MoD plan to demolish all the hangars at this historic base.
The good news is that part of hangar No.4 is going to be incorporated into a memorial to those who served at Leconfield.
By: Lindy's Lad - 18th June 2007 at 14:00
I lived in that hangar for a couple of years…. it was pretty grotty behind the nice paint. I didn’t think it was that bad though……….
By: landraver - 18th June 2007 at 11:22
i dont get it, why demolish a decent hangar? i managed to get a sneak inside of 202 sqn when our T.A unit were given an educational visit round their ops room and sea king (pretty good stuff i must say) dunno why they would want to move it at all. well at least the gym and bowling alley are safe.
By: Lindy's Lad - 15th June 2007 at 22:59
Hangar 4 was riddled with bullet holes. I managed to find out the aircraft which did it, (a Ju88, I think) but that information was passed to E Flight archives. The metal main door post at the end closest to the pan was also riddled. One bullet hole being at head hight, and from the damage to the metal frame must have gone straight into what became the ground crew’s crewroom. There is a story relating to an aircraft beating up the control tower (a german aircraft) during a Baedekker raid, and from eye witness accounts, it is thought that that is when hangar 4 was hit… (I forget the author’s name, but it was a book about 640 Sqn – apologies).
I bet my goldfish in the pond outside E-flight are dead too….:(
By: vicky ten - 15th June 2007 at 16:47
I have been there recently and I can tell you this!
I watched 4 Hangar, the former home of E Flt 202 Sqn, being demolished, the last part standing was a door support if that is what they are called, apparantly it is being saved as it has bullet holes in it!
The 4 remaining hangars are all very much in use by Driver Training Wing, another as the REME workshop, another by Advanced Training Wing, and finally as a bowling alley / Gymnasium
The tower very much in use as office space.
The rest of the place looks superb and mostly original, the only other building I noted missing this time was the old Junior ranks dining room which was replaced a number of years ago.
202 Sqn’s new facility is built on what would have been the southern threshold of the main runway I believe.
By: Phillip Rhodes - 14th June 2007 at 18:34
Good News regarding former RAF Leconfield.
I’ve just received an email from a “Wing Training Officer”, who states that: “As far as I am aware, there are no plans for the remaining hangars to be demolished.” He added: “I can assure you that the tower is very much in use as the HQ of Driver Training Wing.”
Best Wishes
Phillip Rhodes
By: Lindy's Lad - 13th June 2007 at 17:08
Try to contact E Flight directly. They have a large selection of history of the airfield, mainly due to F/Lt Jon Stanley, now Sqn Ldr Stanley (I believe he is flying a desk now, but the flight should be able to point you in the right direction- maybe Brampton….. He was the self appointed history officer of E Flight a few years back. Nice guy too.
Lots of ghost stories aboul Lec…. Haunted hangars, Halibags on approach, lights in the control tower….. and late one night, I was relaxing in the crewroom. I glanced out of the window across the deserted airfield, dreaming about the crews who never came back from 640 Sqn, and caught a glimpse of a white shape drifting silently past the window, maybe four feet away. I soiled myself…. bloody Barn Owl….
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th June 2007 at 17:01
Not heard that ghostly story before at Leccy.
On another aspect of this once great station, I don’t suppose anyone knows of a local historical aviation society or RAF veterans group covering the area, or more specifically dedicated to the history of Leconfield, that might cover the 1960’s era ?
I’m looking for detail of the 1966 airshow participants, (actually held on World Cup Day, can’t see the crowd being very big for that show!).
A Google search brings up only one group that does’nt seem very active in covering this era.
By: Lindy's Lad - 12th June 2007 at 16:44
wow.. things have developed…. It will be a shame if they do demolish the hangars – my guess is the control tower will be next. Sadly the Army can do what they like…. and a once proud Bomber, Fighter and SAR station will be gone. I’m going to go and cry now….. Leconfield will always be my second home…..
The old station cinema still exists at the end of Grange Road (I think its part of a stable complex)…… My wife saw two WWII pilots walking back from there past our house one night…….. she wasn’t drunk either…
By: Phillip Rhodes - 12th June 2007 at 16:25
Oscar 99 – the police helicopter is now based at Humberside Airport. The SAR unit at Leconfield recently moved into a new hangar on the airfield. My understanding is that the vehicles used by the DST are stored outside on the apron. Some of the hangars have been fitted out with portable classrooms, while others are used for vehicle maintainance.
By: Lindy's Lad - 12th June 2007 at 15:43
Leconfield’s hangars being demolished? Have I missed a trick, or have the Army not thought this through – no where to strore their trucks! Is the driving center still going? The RAF still have hangar 5 – E Flight 202 Sqn, also leased to the civil police as far as I am aware. When I was still in the mob, (some 5 years ago…) they were on about moving us (E Flight) to a new facility on the other side of the airfield closer to molescroft.
The hangars still have bullet holes in them from the Baedekker raids when 640 Sqn was there flying Halibags…
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June 9, 2007 at 1:04 pm