RAF Stafford Closure

Wessex HU5 XT469 is still sitting outside the Tactical Supply Wing.

Anne

I wonder if it was Wessex HU5 XT469 that I saw in the scrap yard? It was yellow, very tatty and already part broken up.

I talked to a chap at the weekend whose’s responsible for certain aspects of RAF buildings and property. He was of the opinion that the RAF will move to the combined Army & Navy stores (I did the joke about House of Fraser but apparently they’ve heard it). Stafford will be used for civilians (MoD, Staffs Police and University possible).

Javelin FAW.2 XA801 on the gate at Stafford June 1986.According toW & R it was sold for scrap to Haningfield Metals in Stock,Essex February 1994

Closing? Anyway, I was sequested for a couple of weeks in, I think, 1974, to help catalogue the parts for new computer parts locationecording system (wow that long ago 🙁 ).

Fortunately, on my way there, I ate a chicken dinner in a local pub in High Wycombe, ended up with gastro somethingitus and spent a week in the medical centre instead!

Of absolutely no practical value to the thread – just spreading the word!

As far as I know Stafford is not closing completely. Most of the units are re-locating but there will still be a small RAF presence and the DSDC will still be there. I’d be surprised if they find anything too amazing tucked away in the stores but I do know they did still have a few SUU-23 (I think that’s correct) pods for Phantoms lying about last year.

The RAF Museum Reserve Collection is hidden up at 6 Site. I managed to get a look round a while back and they have got 5 Spits, a Swordfish, a Vampire, a Dragon Rapide, a Proctor, the Morane BB fuselage and the P-40 that’s now on show at Hendon. They did say that even if Stafford were to close they wouldn’t be affected as they have a 25 year lease on the site.

Anne

W&R18 lists Harrier GR3 XZ987 on the gate with Wessex HU5 XT469 and Nimrod AEW3 fuselage XZ287 as being with the Tactical Supply Wing.
Would this also be the site for the RAF Museum Reserve Collection store? Again W&R18 lists Morane BB A301 fuselage, Proctor III Z 7197, a cockpit nacelle from an FE2b, Demoiselle replica BAPC194, and Fi103 BAPC237 as being there, with the chance that others would also turn up too.

Flood.

What’s on the gate there these days? When I was there on a cadet camp in 1980, they had a rather nice Javelin (which I believe was later scrapped 🙁 ) and a Bloodhound.

I must go and look :blush: but I seem to remember its a Harrier. It was mentioned in a post not long ago but it doesn’t show on a search.

My office window looks out over a couple of Stafford’s finest scrapmen (one of whom had a Wessex a few months back) so I’ll keep my eyes open…

I heard a similar tale but concerned Javellin parts.

Don’t know if the “scene” will be lucky as MoD have Resource Accounting where if they hold stuff they pay for it as a penalty against their budget as it were. The was talk that a huge stash of GR postage paid envelopes were found during the initial assessments for RAB on one MoD Site…

I was once told that the store keepers at M.U.s were mostly civilians and each had his own store. They were jealously guarded and care was taken to keep them brim full of “stuff” to ward off the threat of closures and job losses. The “powers that be” rarely got to go through the contents until a store man retired. Hence, a few years ago, a load of Spitfire bomb racks turned up in a store at Stafford!

Nice story, hope it’s still true!

I wonder what will turn up in the stores as they empty those dark seldom seen corners? Spares for who knows what!?

I should imagine most of it will be disposed of via auctions from Defence Disposal Sales Agency. Seems to be the norm theses days… claim a few pennies back for Mr. & Mrs. Tax Payer…