Does anyone remember .....

[hobie]

Does anyone remember a very large building at the southern side of RAF Bigginhill ..... located adjacent to the main road to Bigginhill Village .... I remember it as a very impressive building and as a Officers Mess ? but in the 60's (1960/1) it was abandoned and derelict ..... it had a very impressive Band Stand built in exotic wood as I recall ...... lots of Air Raid bunkers on the front lawn and a massive Kitchen area .....

What was it? ..... what did it end up as?

[Timelord]

If you are talking about the building opposite the B of B memorial chapel It was still in use as an Officers' Mess in 1987 and remained so until the selection centre moved to Cranwell in ????. Don't know what it is now.

[BEagle]

If it was the OM, then I had the dubious pleasure of being there for a few weeks after failing the Bucc OCU in 1976. But we did have a regular and plentiful supply of nice little WRAF-lettes chopped from FC courses...

:E

[hobie]

Do you see the large white building (southside) ...... that was where the Mess was located and it's now shown as being "Bigginhill Business Park" ..... :( looks like they have nocked the old Mess ....

http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=541320&Y=159712&width=700&height=410&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=&pc=&zm=0&scale=10000&up.x=288&up.y=4

[Bo Nalls]

Found an old newspaper clipping:


Arson suspected in fire at old RAF mess

POLICE have launched an appeal for witnesses to an arson attack which gutted a building in the old Biggin Hill RAF base, leaving extensive damage to the former officers' mess, in Main Road, opposite Biggin Hill Airport.

Biggin Hill Fire station was alerted at 5.54pm after smoke was seen coming from the building.

It took almost an hour for 20 firefighters to put out the flames at the disused building, which is owned by a housing association.

A police spokesman said: “The culprits gained entry via the ground floor door. There is evidence of a fire being started at this point.

“Once inside the building, they started another fire in the main hall area.”

“We are looking for anyone who witnessed the attack or saw people acting suspiciously in the afternoon.”

If you have information about the September 15 incident, call Detective Sergeant Bob Panton at Bromley police station on 020 8284 8720 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

[BEagle]

Unbelievable that this should have happened on Battle of Britain day, 61 years after Hitler and Goering failed to destroy the place...

Were the perpetrators ever caught? They should have had their hands cut off for such an outrage.

[chromate]

I'm afraid that Biggin Hill is suffering a lot from vandalisim and that kind of thing these days. I lived in the valley directly under the approach for runway 03 up until a couple of years ago.

I think there were plans to make the old officer's mess into a hotel.

[hobie]

I've searched the Web for a photo of the Mess but no luck .... anyone have any idea's?