RAF West Raynham, Norfolk

Hello!!
It's been a while, but to be fair its also been bloody horrible weather!!! the Team have been out exploring anyway and even encountered some almost-snow on our last explore!

Without further ado, here is: RAF West Raynham

History
RAF West Raynham was built between 1938 and 1939 about 2 miles west of the village of West Raynham in Norfolk, seeing action for the first time on 4th July 1940. During WW2 the base was provided with a control tower for very heavy bomber stations, this was one of only four ever built.

RAF Scunthorpe and RAF Great Massingham were both built as sattelite bases for West Ryanham but eventually grew to house their own squadrons.

The Site was used post-war for training and in the mid-1960s the East Side was developed as a SAM (surface to air missile) site and equipped with radars and a Bristol Bloodhound Mk2. Between 1963 and 1982 RAF West Ryanham hosted annual summer training camps for the Royal Observer Corps. the camps lasted for 8 weeks and had upto 500 observers attending technical training sessions.

The base was officially closed in 1994 and kept but the Ministry of Defence who later decided it would be of no further use in 2004. The associated houses were, at first, left to fall into disrepair but 170 were later sold as civilian housing after a petition by the then MP for North Nofolk, Norman Lamb who pointed out there was a lack of affordable housing yet these houses were unoccupied.

Since 2005 the site has had a number of owners, The Welbeck Estate Group & Hodge Homes (2006-2007), Tamarix Investments (2007-?) and the side is now owned by FW Properties of Norwich, acting administrators for Moore Stephens.

there has been various planning proposals and acceptance, including building an eco-village on the site but no building work has taken place. Two of the hangers have been brought by a company called Norfolk Oak, previously owned by Anmer Hall.

Explore
We had a great time on this explore but it was slightly married by the freezing cold weather and the pissing rain constantly! I got about 15 minutes flight time with my drone (footage below) before the heavens opened and we were forced to retreat into the car to wait for the worst to clear. Thank the gods for car heating systems!!! Aside from the horrendous weather though it was great, once we were inside the control tower it was fairly dry and shielded from the worst of the wind! Just as we were driving away it did start to fall with some snow which quickly turned into sleet, so we were glad we cut the explore short with just the control tower!

We didn't encounter anyone else on the explore until right on the end where we had a bit of a hair raising experience. The main gate had been open when we arrived so we drove right up to the control tower, but it was padlocked shut when we went to leave! Luckily for us though, a kindly chap pulled up behind us and opened it back up. We sped off without saying a word but nodding a thank you in appreciation!

Photos
Whole set can be found here: https://goo.gl/photos/xVXBympyBvXCBhj39
Don't forget to checkout the video of this one!!

Unintentionally vintage, rainy lens!	Love this shot!	Stairs from the top of the roof
	Huge site	Love the lighting on this one
	So much fun to play in!

RAF Upwood, Cambridgeshire

Visited this site in May with a couple of friends and have to say we had a really fab day wandering around. There's both lots to see and not a lot really! The site is vast, literally huge with loads of buildings to explore in but they're all very empty and covered a lot in graffiti. Still pretty cool to have a look round though! :)

Ti give you an idea of the scale, at it's peak the base had over 2,500 personnel working and living there.

History:

The site was first acquisitioned in 1917 in time for the first world war and used until November 1918, when it was decommissioned after the end of WW1. By 1934 the RAF began a huge expansion in time for WW2, building began in 1936 and the first squadron began working from there in February 1937.

Due to the field not being great and the local weather being a bit damp, there were frequent times where flying wasn't possible from the airfield. This probably lead to it's untimely demise as a flying-base.

From the end of WW2 up until 1961, Upwood saw many Squadrons came in and out of the base and most were disbanded or moved to other bases throughout the decades. It was recommissioned as a base for various training and other activities, including radio services, cadet training etc but by 1981 was practically dormant again.

To be honest, the history of this base is so confusing who's in and who's out etc! Even reading it I got confused... but basically it was decommissioned fully in 1995 after it was returned to the MOD, this was after various RAF and USAF squadrons had used it for all sorts of activities. Now it's officially derelict but used by airsoft groups quite often and there's Urbexers and photographers and graffiti artists and skateboarders teeming all over the place most of the time!

Interesting tid bit of history: When captured, German spy Joseph Jakobs was found to have RAF Upwood maps in his possessions amongst other things. He was court-martialled and sentenced to death by Firing Squad in 1941.

Anyway....


Onto the pictures!

Full set here aerials coming soon! :)