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RAF Westcott

Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:11
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RAF Westcott

I was idly mooching around giggle earth and happened upon ex RAF Westcott. It allegedly shut down in 1945 after that spot of nasty business with our European partners.

However, the whole place is surrounded by maintained security fences and there is evidence of what looks like well maintained munitions storage areas in the south east corner (51 50 40.15N 0 59 02.41W). Street view also studiously avoids the places where one might get a clue.

In the whole of my time in the RAF I have never come across this place nor even heard of it. What gives???
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:15
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According to Wiki

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was the home of the Rocket Propulsion Establishment. One notable feature of this era was that RAF Westcott did not appear on Ordnance Survey maps of the area.
The site is now a Venture Park, for light industry.[1]
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:30
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Google is your friend:

HISTORY

Westcott Venture Park is a former WWII airfield used to train the crews that went on to fly the legendary Lancaster bomber.

RAF Westcott opened in September 1942 with crews using Wellington bombers for training.

Many of these crews saw active service in Lancaster bombers in the fierce aerial campaign waged by Bomber Command over occupied Europe.

The RAF moved out in August 1945 shortly after welcoming nearly 53,000 liberated POW’s who were flown into Westcott in Operation Exodus.

In April 1946 the base reopened as the Guided Projectile Establishment, involved in the research and development of rockets. High-tech business continues at Westcott to this day in the field of satellite research and development.


I found a more detailed history through Google some time ago (I live near there and was curious too) but it did not come up through Bing when I searched just now.

Blue skies.
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:31
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... and isn't the Westcott Corridor named after it (assuming it still exists) - I can't remember if there was a navaid or beacon there.
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:46
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Westcott NDB is indeed a most useful navaid.

Wasn't Westcott the UK chemtrail research site........
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 07:49
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Sigh...instant nostalgia.
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 10:10
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There is a big solar energy farm being built on the runway. From an article in Farmers Weekly, it is suggested that this will be one of the biggest (and last) solar energy farms to come on line before the Government slashes the subsidies for solar renewable energy.
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 11:09
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In the 50s, it was a stop on the Farnborough - Bedford ferry route, and gliding continued there until the mid '60s.
I once traced the route of the old Brill Tramway which ran from Quainton Road station to Brill until the mid 30s, and part of the trackbed of this looks to have been used for the entrance road to RAF Westcott.
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Old 14th Jul 2011, 12:22
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chevvron, I suspect you're correct.

This is the route of the old tramway:


This is the current map:


The satellite photo seems to confirm that the section of the trackbed extending south-west from Westcott village is now a road to the site:

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Old 14th Jul 2011, 17:36
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They were digging up the main concrete runway when I drove past last week...
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 05:08
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Thanks Beags for the graphics. When you turn off the A41 and drive through the village of Westcott (yellow road on the OS Map) you can see the entrance to the airfield/industrial sight off to the right along a straight section of road - this is clearly the old tramway. It also explains the brick railway abutments on the A41 about 1 km towards Bicester - obviously the remains of a long-removed railway bridge on what your old map tells us was a GCR line. The old map also shows a tramway station called Waddesdon Station a short distance beyond the road junction towards Aylesbury although the village of Waddesdon is some distance to the west.

I know, I know, I probably need to get out more.
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 07:28
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The overbridge was still there in the early 90's. The GCR was the Great Central Railway, and this was the 'London Extension' the last major main line built during the growth phase of the UK's rail network. It was seen/proposed as an alternative mainline route to those still extant fron Kings Cross (GNR), St Pancreas(MR) and Euston(LNWR). However the success of the other lines meant that it didn't achieve the critical mass required and was one of the lines cut of the Beeching era. The alignment of the route was as a high speed line and has been reconsidered for use for recent new north/south high speed lines.

The Brill tramway was like many rural branchlines long on charm and ambition, yet short of realistic economic potential. It was absorbed into the Metropolitan line (as per the underground), and closed mid 1930's.

Piccies here of the area inc A41
Underground History - Quainton Road to Verney Juction

Aerial view of Wescott
http://blog.spiteri.com/wp-content/u...al_VFR_069.jpg

I too perhaps need to find the door to the big world outside ...
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 08:14
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spectre150 and jumpseater, thanks for the information and links. Our history of not that long ago mustn't be allowed to be forgotten!

Particularly for those of us who just remember the pre-Beeching era.

An interesting website I've found is Old Ordnance Survey Maps . I'm not sure why there's an equine aspect to it, but basically it allows you to zoom into a map of the UK, then use a fader to see what the map used to show. Or a satellite view overlay. Not 100% coverage, but most of the UK is there. Very interesting as a research tool.

From that website, here's a slightly later version of the OS map showing the line in its entirity:


Interestingly, it is marked as a 'light railway' rather than a tramway - although the branch from Wotton Underwood to Kingswood Lane is shown as a disused tramway:

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Old 15th Jul 2011, 08:39
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Waddesdon Station was indeed some distance from the village of that name hence it was called Waddesdon Road. If you follow the road from the A41 towards Quianton, you will notice that the south side of this road has an unusually wide verge, this being more trackbed for the tramway.
Don't know the difference between a 'tramway' and 'light railway' but I do know to be classed as a 'light railway' the trains must have a maximum (average) speed of 25 mph, hence many preserved lines nowadays use this bit of legislation to make their operation easier, and hence (for instance) the Watercress Line can still let pacifics have their head occasionally!!
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 08:51
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'Light railway' and 'Tramways/road' operated under different sets of regulations from each other and 'mainlines'. Today the Light rail transit systems regulations are a development of the earlier (Victorian/Edwardian) legislation.

Historically then.
Light railway is a railway system that is 'fenced' literally, built to a lesser engineering requirement than a 'mainline', and locomotives and rolling stock didn't need special fittings to run on them.

Tramway/road is a railway system that isn't fenced, often runs on the public highway, built to similar/lesser standards than light railways. Tramway locomotives and stock had to be designed so that people and animals etc would be protected from injury by the moving components of the locomotive, wheels, valve gear etc. They would also have strict laws regarding operation such as speeds etc and how they operated on the road, bloke in front with a flag etc etc. eg 'modern' 50's/60's variants here c.08/1970 - Norwich Thorpe TMD. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
NB rear loco is 'tramway' version.

The Brill branch IIRC statred as a tramway, then was 'upgraded' to light railway status to allow more powerful locomotives to operate in anticipation of increased traffic levels and the area expanding into 'Metroland' for commuting John Betjeman styley. For you 'Oxon' types, have a look for 'The Wantage Tramway', another one of Englands bucolic yet iconic light railways.
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 09:02
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Jumpseater, thanks for posting the link to the interesting article on the tramway. Not that long ago i would not have given such an article a second glance but now as I sit in the air conditioned comfort of a place in the sun some distance from this corner of Bucks, a nostalgic interest in such matters has overcome me! I have only been away 5 weeks but already I had forgotten that Waddesdon was east of the station not west as I said in my earlier post. My excuse for not getting out more is that it is too damn hot.

Beags thanks for the link to the old OS maps - such things have always interested me and I can now explore the area on foot with a different perspective next time I am back in blighty.
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 09:35
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Nice thread creep; I could go on for ages about my explorations of the old trackbed,(Wootton Station is interesting as the GWR passed over on an embankment part of which still exists) but back to the original.
In the early 60s when I was a member of the ROC, one of the other members was actually a boffin at Westcott. He told us one or two 'juicy' tales which probably had 'D' notices slapped on them such as 'the one that got away' - a 'sounding' rocket being tested for thrust and it managed to break free of its tethering and get airborne, (they didn't actually fire rockets from Westcott - at least not intentionally anyway!) and how they were testing an RZ2 which was the rocket motor powering the 'Blue Streak' ICBM and it blew up, the explosion not surprisingly causing much confusion and consternation in the local area.

Last edited by chevvron; 15th Jul 2011 at 11:27.
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 10:35
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ISTR there was an NDB at Brill, though not sure why?
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 11:13
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ISTR there was an NDB at Brill, though not sure why?


'WCO' its still there, being part of Heathrow arrivals into Bovingdon stack Luton and Stansted arrivals too.
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadba...2010-07-29.pdf


The area was also one of those under consideration for the 'third' London airport with Cublington being lead candidate for a while
aylesbury - Google Maps
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Old 15th Jul 2011, 11:22
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I vaguely recall the Brill NDB; I think it was associated with Chalgrove (Martin Bakers test airfield)
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