Sign of the times!

[Finningley Boy]

Concerns over plans to convert former RAF base into asylum seeker accommodation - Norfolk Live (https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/news/norfolk-news/raf-base-asylum-seeker-accommodation-6514992)

As time moves on the shape and character of the country changes again. Coltishall is now to become an asylum seeker holding centre, unless the locals can over turn the decision. I notice the old Officers' Mess has more recently been renamed the Jaguar Building, I can see where they got their inspiration.

FB

[trim it out]

NIMBYs.

My first Barracks in Germany was handed back to the German Govt and turned into asylum seeker accommodation. I just hope they appreciated the bumpered floors we slaved over every Sunday evening. It's all been flattened now anyway, oh well.

[langleybaston]

What happened to JHQ estate please?

More or less pristine when I left 1995/6.

[LincsFM]

It has been left to rot since closure in 2013 which is a great shame. Join FB group JHQ Rheindahlen to see plenty of pictures of its current state

[ZH875]

Oakington immigration centre was shut down as the inmates were fenced in and didn't like the buildings. Can't see Coltishall being much different

[langleybaston]

One assumes that Oakington was about standard for service personnel. No wonder the non-native [non-British] residents complained. Much better off in a plastic and cardboard shack on the beach at Dunkirk.

[NutLoose]

Is Macrahanish still standing? They would be buying dinghy’s to escape to NI from that hole. Beautiful area but the Station was a hang over from WW2.

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Re Macrihanish, ISTR that it was one of the stations on which they had just finished spending a large amount of money - something in the order of £5million - on improvements shortly before the closure was announced.

[ExAdvert]

Best entry I ever saw in a Mess Suggestions Book was at Machrihanish. Simply said:

"Give this place back to the sea".

[PapaDolmio]

Not been back to Colt since I (thankfully) left after a short tour in 2003, the JRs accomodation* was awful but I thought most of the accommodation had been used for the prison?

Don't know why people get all misty eyed over Colt, when I arrived there in 2002 it was like stepping back in time 20 years.

*Even compared to Odiham and Lyneham which were well known for the state of its JRs accommodation.

[Krystal n chips]

Re Macrihanish, ISTR that it was one of the stations on which they had just finished spending a large amount of money - something in the order of £5million - on improvements shortly before the closure was announced.

Shurely this is a well established M.o.D policy...spend and upgrade, then..close ! Acklington gained a certain infamy in this respect did it not, the resident ghost presumably stayed on.

[Finningley Boy]

I was at Scampton in 2017, the Officers' Mess was boarded up and surrounded with building site metal link fencing. However, I understand that portion of this station is to be turned into a nice Hotel.:ok:

FB

[Downwind.Maddl-Land]

NutLoose, ExAdvert - totally agree!!!

I suspect, though, that you guys were only detached there; imagine what it was like for us postees........ :{ 18 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 8 hours and 40 minutes. Not that I was counting.......:ugh:

T&B: The only improvement that might have been worth the effort would have been if there had been 'a significant event' in the storage area that was manned and operated by the USN.

(BTW all funding for That Place was through NATO - hence the poor standard of everything; obtaining funding for anything was like drawing teeth)

[Gordon Brown]

I was at Scampton in 2017, the Officers' Mess was boarded up and surrounded with building site metal link fencing. However, I understand that portion of this station is to be turned into a nice Hotel.:ok:

FB

I do hope so, although how that might tally with R-313 activity might be interesting.

[Shackman]

Machrihanish......................
Detached there for a week in mid-70's with AEW Shack. TACO on our crew was a naval Lt Cdr, and as the wheezing bus pulled up at our accommodation (helpfully as far as possible from domestic area) he was heard to say - approximately - 'FFS; this is the same hut I lived in doing my Avenger course in 1944.' He later proved it by pointing out his initials carved on the cistern, which had obviously not been painted in the 30 odd years since his last visit. he also said the beds looked the same and were just as cold!

[NutLoose]

I was there fpr a couple on nights with a Chinook..Memories were what felt like two old Nissan huts joined in the middle to form the Airmens Mess and the transit block bath having more rust inside it than a 1970's British Leyland car.

It seems like they tarted the place up.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doffcocker/albums/72157659143999236/page1

[brakedwell]

Is Macrahanish still standing? They would be buying dinghy’s to escape to NI from that hole. Beautiful area but the Station was a hang over from WW2.

I used to enjoy my trips to Macrahanish wihen I was on Coastal Command Com Flight in 1961/2. We used to stay in Mrs McIvers guest house, drink excellent local whiskey and buy a couple of boxes of Kippers from the McIver Kipper smokery, which were much appreciated by the mess members at RAF Bovingdon!

[PapaDolmio]

I was there fpr a couple on nights with a Chinook..Memories were what felt like two old Nissan huts joined in the middle to form the Airmens Mess and the transit block bath having more rust inside it than a 1970's British Leyland car.

It seems like they tarted the place up.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doffcocker/albums/72157659143999236/page1

Delights of SHF- did similiar but we slept in the big hangar with the cabs and took our own chef!

[dctyke]

Going to Macrahanish by road convoy from Wittering was a joy to behold. Standout time was going into town for a Woolworths pick and mix!

[langleybaston]

I used to enjoy my trips to Macrahanish wihen I was on Coastal Command Com Flight in 1961/2. We used to stay in Mrs McIvers guest house, drink excellent local whiskey and buy a couple of boxes of Kippers from the McIver Kipper smokery, which were much appreciated by the mess members at RAF Bovingdon!

Topcliffe Varsities supported Machrihanish as V Force dispersal.
Crews always took order for kippers from ATC, Met, Ops etc ................. it was another form of Kipper Fleet c. 1965.

[BEagle]

Fish runs were well-known even in the '70s. A chap flew a Hunter up from Brawdy to collect a couple of bags of prawns, which would be stowed in the sabrinas. All went well and he was soon on his way back to Brawdy...

But at low level...
In the Summer of '76 - one of the hottest for years...

Liberating the prawns from the sabrinas, he was greeted by 2 bags of warm, pink, fishy smelling sludge!

[ACW342]

If you wanted fish, you should have called me at Lossie ops. One year just before Xmas I saw off a shack off to Scampton, I think it was, loaded with cod and haddock ( no cash, fish for fresh Lincolnshire veg and a few chickens (plucked and cleaned)) just as a Britt was landing from Boscombe to pick up a few stone of Cod. I finished the day with more cod onto a Canberra for Binbrook. There were quite a few entrepreneurs at Lossie and Kinross thanks to the low pay airmen received and the massive cost of living thanks to North Sea oil, which saw airmen like me with two young children having to go overdrawn thanks to the storage radiators in AMQ's ( If you got a Taxi into Lossie or Elgin I could have been your driver!)

[PICKS135]

One assumes that Oakington was about standard for service personnel. No wonder the non-native [non-British] residents complained. Much better off in a plastic and cardboard shack on the beach at Dunkirk.

Complaints only seem to start when bleeding heart liberals or Messrs Sue,Grabbit& Runn appear on the scene.

[brakedwell]

If you wanted fish, you should have called me at Lossie ops. One year just before Xmas I saw off a shack off to Scampton, I think it was, loaded with cod and haddock ( no cash, fish for fresh Lincolnshire veg and a few chickens (plucked and cleaned)) just as a Britt was landing from Boscombe to pick up a few stone of Cod. I finished the day with more cod onto a Canberra for Binbrook. There were quite a few entrepreneurs at Lossie and Kinross thanks to the low pay airmen received and the massive cost of living thanks to North Sea oil, which saw airmen like me with two young children having to go overdrawn thanks to the storage radiators in AMQ's ( If you got a Taxi into Lossie or Elgin I could have been your driver!)

Sounds like RAF Masirah in the mid sixties. We had a schedule of three Argosies a week from Aden to Masirah called RSM's - Ryan Salalah, Masirah, which night stopped at Masirah then headed back to Aden via Salalah and Ryan. I always picked up a load of cooked Crayfish tails from the Sergeants Mess at Masirah for 6 pence a tail and popped them in the freezer as soon as I got home in Maala. They made very nice Lobster Thermadors!

[BEagle]

Around 70 years ago, an OCU Lancaster flew down to Somerset from Kinloss on a particularly urgent mission......

....to deliver Spey salmon for a dining-in night at RAF Merryfield. But in doing so, apparently it hopped down the runway in ever-increasing bounces until the QFI took control. Much to the amusement of the resident Vampire flyers!

Apparently after it came to a standstill, a car drove over to the mighty bomber. Out came the salmon, then the car drove off and the Lanc about turned and rattled off back to Scotland.

[Cat Techie]

Concerns over plans to convert former RAF base into asylum seeker accommodation - Norfolk Live (https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/news/norfolk-news/raf-base-asylum-seeker-accommodation-6514992)

As time moves on the shape and character of the country changes again. Coltishall is now to become an asylum seeker holding centre, unless the locals can over turn the decision. I notice the old Officers' Mess has more recently been renamed the Jaguar Building, I can see where they got their inspiration.

FB
I am sure the old Colt officers mess is a private establishment now, it was sold by the Ministry of Justice to a religious group, that got the locals a bit up in arms then. The last time the asylum seekers were about, there were the complaints and rumours that a bunch of ex verts were planning to run a patrol group watching out for the unwashed and unwanted. Until the fact that it could be classed as vigilante action and slightly unlawful that put them off. Did seem to drag up the zealots on certain FB groups. As for Colt, it was great being 20 years behind the times. Way more atmosphere about the place and many of us that were based there wish it was still open as a RAF station compared to the likes of Marhell and Coningshole.