INFO on RAF Durrinton

Hi , all hope i can shed some light on this , i was one of the original youngsters that used to regularly play in the tunnels and once delved into the main ops room , even then it was dark damp and scary and as all kids once inside the imagination ran riot so you soon scarpered

Obviously i know the site very well and have dug there several times in recent years with local permission i might add all to no avail , i even used to have some plans of the layout and believe me it is far bigger than you would imagine its huge under there ,

My early recollections are of 4 metal vents sticking out of what is now the putting green , this is how we gained access by lifting off the vents , they were rusty and heavy and it took 4 of us , inside the vents were rusty metal ladders that you could easily cut your hands on which i did once or twice .

There were several entrances , one was inside from the main house and i believe it was covered up now and concreted over and you would never know it had been there, another was around 10 ft from the rear gardens of Kelso close my mate Andrew Perrot lived there and we used to bunk over his garden fence to play around there ,

There used to be a set of concrete steps down into the facility roughly to the right hand side of the Barn entrance by what was a water fountain a few years back , the metal door at the bottom was rusted shut with a padlock and was stuck fast may well have been welded , its all now covered over and part of the putting green access.

Back in the 90’s when my kids were young , I started on a quest to discover exactly what part it had portrayed during the war , over several years i gathered various plans and loads of history on the place, It is cloaked in a degree of secrecy , especially the purchaser shortly before the war started, after extensive research it appeared the name was fictitious and then the vast earth works started .

My plans and research have since been lost , but i know there are 6 miles of tunnels radiating out from Field place Putting green

One tunnel goes from the ops room to the entrance of field place Bolsover rd where there was a sentry box and then east all the way underneath the Boulevard to the above ground radar station at Palatine school Palatine road, you will often see the subsidence along the route, there even used to be another Air vent slap bang in the middle of palatine rd round about.

Another tunnel went from the Bolsover Rd sentry box underneath the railway line where it 3 way forked one way led to what is the inland revenue old buildings off Shaftebury Avenue which were under Raf control and i believe used as a hospital amongst other things , the other forked tunnel led across what is now the sports centre and came out to another senrty box come air raid shelter on the south east most part of the centre near what is now the kids play area

The other tunnel led along the railway line right up to West Worthing station with various air raid shelter openings along that route , they were still there in the late eighties but i believe the council have covered them over now

As you can see, this was no low key operation it was huge for its time, and I always found it uncanny how difficult it was to gain info from people who lived in that area at the time , but the few i spoke to who were well into their nineties said it was so hush hush and sentries posted everywhere with no go area’s , and all from a Private Buyer i dont think so !

A Huge sloping runway about a hundred yards long used for the approach to the underground storage rooms ran north west from the north side of the barn , Lorries used to run in and out of there , and this is where the two 20ft high metal doors were that were welded shut, and believed to be the entrance to huge underground storage which is now under the tennis courts.

it was well documented that towards the end of the war , as the build up to D Day was approaching the roads of Sussex were choked full of Tanks armoured carriers jeeps and troops , part of Field place (its main purpose now over) was used as a storage depot for equipment to be used in the D Day landings and there after support , and rumour has it that Around 500 US army Harley Davisons all crated were part of the remaining equipment that was left after the war had ended , the site abandoned and those huge doors welded up shut forever .

When i first came across that information, i laughed and dismissed it , but over the coming months and years of further research i realized that in fact it had been common practice in those days , many an Army or Airforce base had just dug huge holes in the ground and buried perfectly good equipment, in fact my Uncle Fred Brown who fought in several of the big campaigns North Africa D day with the yanks on the first wave of Omaha beach, and then right through France never de mobbed when most did but stayed in for 2 years after, he was sent back to North Africa for the big clear up
and he told me many a story of all the tanks guns and equipment loaded on to ships and taken out to sea and either shoved over the side or some ships were scuttled fully laden. So there could well be some truth about the Harley Davisons, what a find eh if you happened to get down there

Any one needs any more in depth info feel free to give me a pm

regards LCB

Laurence I work at what was called RAF Durrington, now Palatine School, I have some pictures of it including one from the war when the building was erected without windows which they thought made it bomb prove so no air raid shelters where ever built. Probably with me being an IT phobic if I can help further please contact me on [email]bchambers1@wsgfl.org.uk[/email]