Sign of the times!
 

Concerns over plans to convert former RAF base into asylum seeker accommodation - Norfolk Live

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

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.

What happened to JHQ estate please?

More or less pristine when I left 1995/6.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

"Give this place back to the sea".

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.

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.

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

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)

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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!

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.