RAF Bottisham June 2009

Kizza · Jun 10, 2009

Hi All
This is my first post after looking at the site for many months and a couple of guided tours around RAF Upwood and the photographic factory near by.
I poped over to the old RAF base in Bottisham recently. I remember this place may years ago when one of the buildings was being used as a car garage.

First building as you enter, It looks like this building may still be in use:

I am now trying to find out what thisis being used for:

smiffy · Jun 10, 2009

All of that is in pretty good nick really !........... Looks like the one building has had a proper refurb job done too....anything of the runways left ?????? Hangars ?.......Perimeter Track??????.Dispersals???????etc????? :lol:

Aha! A quick Google and I find that it was a PSP runway.......pierced steel planking..a bit like tank track matting or sometimes a lighter version like a sorta 'weld mesh' was used for fighter fields like this was.......a clever way to make a semi 'hard' surface in double quick time basically ...........so.......... you'll have a job to find any of that left in site.......worth looking closely at all the chicken runs in the area for any pieces that may have been 'liberated' for civilian use when the airfield closed.........

the_historian · Jun 11, 2009

Not bad.

Looks like the old domestic site.

Seahorse · Jun 11, 2009

smiffy said:
All of that is in pretty good nick really !........... Looks like the one building has had a proper refurb job done too....anything of the runways left ?????? Hangars ?.......Perimeter Track??????.Dispersals???????etc?????

Aha! A quick Google and I find that it was a PSP runway.......pierced steel planking..a bit like tank track matting or sometimes a lighter version like a sorta 'weld mesh' was used for fighter fields like this was.......a clever way to make a semi 'hard' surface in double quick time basically ...........so.......... you'll have a job to find any of that left in site.......worth looking closely at all the chicken runs in the area for any pieces that may have been 'liberated' for civilian use when the airfield closed.........

There is still plenty of that stuff lying around at the heliport in Vung Tau in Vietnam. I think reconnaisance aircraft used it during their little spat.

Although thankfully, they now use concrete for their choppers.

Foxylady · Jun 11, 2009

Kizza said:
I am now trying to find out what thisis being used for...

It looks like a WW2 reconstruction, with the paint, sandbags and 'shatter-proof stripes' on the windows. There's one similar to that at Dunkeswell airfield, owned by a heritage-type group (can'r recall the name off-hand). :mrgreen:

Great to see the buildings well preserved and in use. Nice pics, Kizza.
Welcome to DP, btw.

Lightbuoy · Jun 11, 2009

Good to see WW2 buildings being appreciated and cared for. Nice work Kizza -thanks for posting. Excellent first post -welcome

Random · Jun 12, 2009

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting

You "poped" over? Hail Mary, full of grace! :mrgreen:

Black Shuck · Jun 12, 2009

Thats a lovely little site there. Well done.

HypoBoy · Jun 13, 2009

I've just been looking at this on the airfield plan and I'm fairly sure it's Bottisham Site 4 - the WAAF Mess, Communal and Quarters site. I've only got the main airfield plan at the moment (the communal sites plan is on back order) but it's got a small inset plan of the dispersed sites. Once the other site plan turns up, I should be able to identify the individual buildings in your pictures and hopefully also pick up any other extant bits from the WW2 site which might be worth a look.

You'll probably also find the location of one of the dispersed sites quite interesting Kizza

RAF Bottisham June 2009

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