RAF Marham
 

I had an appointment in Norwich over the weekend so indulged my passion for military aviation by driving past Scampton, Waddington, and Cranwell on the way down, and visited Marham on the way back. I was surprised how remote Marham is considering it is one of the RAF's few remaining main operating bases

In my time, it was known as 'El Adem with grass'.

Slight thread drift, when I got posted to Coningsby we had our arrivals brief from the Padre. He started off telling us it was one of the biggest RAF stations with almost 1500 personnel (I'd just come down from Kinloss, 2300 at the time) and that the biggest attraction was that it was so close to the A1.

"So close" meant 40 minutes drive, so either Padre was taking the p!ss or he needed to get out more....

Remote, how jolly dare you - its close to Swaffham :ok:

Ogre, at least one thing has changed. There are more people but the A1 ain't closer. At least it is MUCH quieter now. In fact too quiet, hardly seen the Land this year.

If you think Marham is remote, you should have been at Watton.....

Watton is quite a busy little town. Marham is just a sh!thole (IMHO).

Coningsby at least had 2 railway stations within walking distance.

Pre-Beeching that was :rolleyes:

Marham is the worst place I've been to.

I'm surprised there's nothing outside the camp, nothing. No restaurant, cafe, takeaway or pub. Just the typical Spar shop across the road from the MQ's. At least Coningsby has something in its village.

If you don't have a car you're screwed as civilisation isn't within walking distance. Theres no train station and the bus takes a circular tour around the whole of Norfolk before it eventually arrives at King Lynn a considerable time later. Theres no train in the straight line from Kings Lynn to Norwich, you have to go way south, change trains, then come back north-east.

The A17 road out of there is not fit for purpose as it can't handle the volume of traffic, getting to the A1 on a friday is a bad experience.

The biggest memory I have of Marham is, peoples highlight of their week was sitting in the small lounge of bowling alley on a friday.

Marham is the worst place I've been to........
 

..............And do not forget the smell from the Sugerbeet factory at Wissington when the wind was in the right/wrong direction

Anybody remember the time that the HTP tanks ruptured and the fuel ignited, the grass started to burn. The flames were racing down toward 9 tankers of 214.
I think the year was 1970. Also an American Super Sabre nearly wiped out the squadron when the pilot ejected and the aircraft veered toward the line.
Exciting times.

Topcliffe Met. make phone call to Met. at said Watton c. 1964, reply ......

"Watton here"

"It's ****ty here too!" Hangs up .................

Probably just as well given the aircraft type that is moving in there shortly.

LangleyB. At least at Topcliffe there was "The Shoulder of Mutton" with its turkey & stuffing rolls!

I assume that most junior officers own a car so the point that "you need a car" at Marham, while true, is presumably aimed at JRs. So I would be genuinely interested to see a list of locations to which a JR could reasonably expect to be assigned at which the lack of a car would not be considered a problem. A few lucky ones at Northolt and MOD aren't really representative of the majority. Waddington, Brize, Odiham and Benson I should imagine are OK but how much do you spend on taxis before buying an old car becomes better value?

When I spent time at Marham I lived about 35 minutes' drive away near Ely. That is actually IN civilisation, an hour to London by rail and jobs galore for the spouse in Cambridge only 10 miles away. Some might wince at a 35 minute commute; anyone working in a city would bite your arm off for it, especially when half the cost is covered by HDT.

When Marham's runways closed briefly in early 80s for PreTonka lengthening/strengthening,people moved across to the very secretive USAF at RAF Sculthorpe.What do you think that was like??

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Truth to tell I enjoyed Topcliffe. Fot three years I alternated between permanent post Leeming detached to Topcliffe, then vice-versa. The Topcliffe Met. staff were superb, a lot of fun, and a lot of expertise. On top of that the customers were very interesting and Thirsk was a good place to live. Quite a few Polish aircrew, with unpronounceable names ......... I fear that I christened Flt Lt ****slinger and M Plt Smackyerarse among others.

Easy Street
 

"When I spent time at Marham I lived about 35 minutes' drive away near Ely..[/QUOTE]"

Try doing that trip to RAF hospital Ely on a Icy foggy night in December when wife is in final stages of labour with second son:D.

Sequel to that, many years later said wife then went to work at then NHS Hospital Ely in the same ward now converted into offices!

Cliver029

cliver029 Does your wife remember a lovely doctor called John Dupere - had been in the RAF then NHS at Ely. Delivered no 2 son, but sadly took his own life over NHS underfunding - and that was 40 odd years ago.

My counter to the youngsters when moaning about how isolated Marham was....

"You should have been at Binbrook!"