RAF North Luffenham / Edith Weston

yep they are still there as is the sea vixen nosecone and at least 2 bloodhounds plus a couple of APC’s for good measure

try getting them officially you’ll have your work cut out, best contact OC bomb disposal at wittering as they are his play toys

The Bomb Disposal School moved from Wittering some time ago.They are now at RAF North Luffenham with their parent unit being RAF Marham.

The lightning overwing tanks are just centre sections anyway, and they are deffo lightning as the writing is the wrong way round for underwing

I pity the phantom now as th rear canopy has gone and the front has bullet holes through it, the corrosion underwing is there but not yet extensive, the flaps are down bashing around in the wing though

I used to live there up until recently and used to go for a late evening run around the peri track, not to often as it was longer than i thought

Oh aye, very weird seeing it after all this time, last time I the place was as one of those Swinderby newbies 31 years ago this month!! 😮

It’ll be 22 years since I did my MFT there this April- the Words of the opening lines of OC regiment’s speech prior to the start of the exercise will probably haunt me for life though.

” Gentlemen, MFT is not hard……, but you as recruits might find it hard”:eek:

Ironically, I couldn’t believe that the tents where inside a hangar when we got on site- spoiled us rotten they did.:D

Thankyou for that.I shall send him a letter about them.
Thank you

yep they are still there as is the sea vixen nosecone and at least 2 bloodhounds plus a couple of APC’s for good measure

try getting them officially you’ll have your work cut out, best contact OC bomb disposal at wittering as they are his play toys

Does anyone know if they overwing tanks shown in the first pics are still there or has the site been cleared now ?

…Quite often we’d be tearing around the airfield in out CVR(T)’s only to see a head pop up in the grass as the recruits from RAF Swinderby used to do their ground defence excersise there too!!
As to the broken heart in the steel,well that was made using a type of explosive that comes in a tube just like the stuff that you put round the bath.We were allowed to ‘have a play’ with the stuff there.
Quite wierd really as it was one of the blokes on my course made it, seems atrange to see it after all this time….

Oh aye, very weird seeing it after all this time, last time I the place was as one of those Swinderby newbies 31 years ago this month!! 😮

The old bombs & stuff that are scattered around the airfield & in the craters were there as the RAF Bomb Disposal School over at RAF Wittering used Luffenham airfield to do their excersises.I did my course in 1989.
Quite often we’d be tearing around the airfield in out CVR(T)’s only to see a head pop up in the grass as the recruits from RAF Swinderby used to do their ground defence excersise there too!!
As to the broken heart in the steel,well that was made using a type of explosive that comes in a tube just like the stuff that you put round the bath.We were allowed to ‘have a play’ with the stuff there.
Quite wierd really as it was one of the blokes on my course made it,seems atrange to see it after all this time….

Photo 9: The buildings in the background are a power house and the large building, the structure the “Orange Yeoman” Type 82 radar system (withdrawn years ago but you can Google that for more info, etc). Here’s the one at Lindholme: http://airfieldarchaeology.fotopic.net/p46033969.html

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I’ve only just discovered it and the forum. 😎
The large building in the background was originally the control room for the Bloodhound missile complex, it later became Midland Radar and I worked there as a humble AATC from 1979 to 1982. Midrad provided a departure service for Binbrook, Scampton, Waddington, Finningly, Coningsby and Marham and an airway crossing service for Blue 1 over the North Sea. The skies were much busier then, with processions of A10s and F111s up and down the east coast heading for the ranges and the Aggressors from Alconbury dogfighting anyone and everyone. I also remember watching the screen with awe as Lightnings from Binbrook launched, you could tell by the distance between the radar ‘paints’ that they were really motoring, I saw nothing else going anywhere near as fast as them.
North Luffenham was by far my best posting, I made many friends in the surrounding pubs and villages (The Nag & Bag, Kings Arms at Wing etc) and remember it fondly. It would be fascinating to see what is left inside the control room, I can remember the internal layout of the building as if I was there last week rather than 26 years ago… 🙁

I am not convinced that the F4 is an F4M FGR2. 74 sqn was equipped with F4J ex-USMC. These were a post-Falklands buy to increase the UK Air Defence forces given that a number of F4Ms were deployed to FI.

74 Squadron was initially equipped with the F4J, as you say, but they later converted to the FGR2 around 1991. The aircraft in the pic is an FGR2.

McDonnell-Douglass F-4M Phantom II FGR.2 XT905, ex 74 Sqn. Delivered 4th October 1968; became a decoy at RAF Coningsby, 6th October 1992 (around the time the Phantom was being retired); allocated Maintenance Number 9286M. Transferred to North Luffenham for Ground Instruction duties, 7th May, 2000

I am not convinced that the F4 is an F4M FGR2. 74 sqn was equipped with F4J ex-USMC. These were a post-Falklands buy to increase the UK Air Defence forces given that a number of F4Ms were deployed to FI.

Excellent write-up and pics.

Prompted me to take a look at the site on Google Maps. Using the satellite imagery I can pick up the F4 at the Eastern end of the main and the Hunter about halfway down it. But I can’t spot the Harrier.

Any clues?

(What a useless photo-interpreter I would have made.)

Moggy

Trying looking towards the Southern side of the airfield, near Butt Lane. 😎

Brill Pics – Luffenham is a very interesting place and the 5131 bods are great people.

Hope you didnt sit in the Harrier – its a poplar place for a poo when caught short on the ranges….eeeeuuww!

Our YS pillbox came from there last year…

ATB

TT

Moggy – look on the loop dispersals to the South;)

Excellent write-up and pics.

Prompted me to take a look at the site on Google Maps. Using the satellite imagery I can pick up the F4 at the Eastern end of the main and the Hunter about halfway down it. But I can’t spot the Harrier.

Any clues?

(What a useless photo-interpreter I would have made.)

Moggy

Always sad to see A/C I worked on end up like this-still it was 30 years ago

Thanks for posting the pictures. They are very interesting.

In terms of the Bloodhounds, I believe that a HQ unit was based at North Luffenham – 151 SAM Wing, 12 Group. This later became 151 SAM Servicing Wing. It initially controlled the two Squadrons at Woolford Lodge and Warboys (62 and 257) and later the two squadrons at Marham and Rattleden (242 and 266).

Great pictures youve taken and thank you for sharing.

Any more of the Phantom?

I relation to the holes a council rep said “we’re looking into them”

More Runway shots:

And for the romantics:

Be my Valentine?

Also sorry about the thread title, thanks to the MODS for changing it round and RAF Woolfox, RAF Bruntingthorpe and RAF Alconbury to follow within the next few weeks, please don’t all grumble at me, permission has been kindly granted and agreed by the relevant land owners.

LOL

Jerry

Hi, Great photos, didn’t know what went on there, driven past a million times, never looked.
My one small (possibly ignorant) question is, why add the name “Edith Weston” ? Have looked on google earth, and see its a name linked to a nearby village.
The craters in the runways look ….. umm ….. awesome ! Keith.