# RAF Bramcote Bomb store- March 2012



## Newage (Mar 21, 2012)

Hi All

Visited with Fluffy as part of our 3 day Hackgreen "Up north" trip. We had to get permission to visit the site but was well worth the effort, the site owner is a mind of information.

RAF Bramcote first opened in 1940 and was going to be allocated to bomber command part of 6Gp. It was then
used as an operational training base, many many SQN`s passed through Bramcote.

After WW2 in 1955 The Fleet Air Arm took over Bramcote and it then became HMS Gamecock but they did
not stay long, only a few years when in 1959 the Army took over, it was then used as barracks for the junior leaders reg of the Royal Artillery.

Today the Army still uses the old airfield as there barracks and as such is well and turly OFF limits.

Parts of the bomb store have been demolished over the years by the owner but he has got the pill boxes on his land listed as they are very unusual.

Enjoy......................

First off, we think this was a fuse storage building. Note the thick earth bank all round the building.










Then on to one of the large storage and mantance buildings.In the picture on the right you can still see the massive "I" beams used to lift and move bombs around the building. 









Then on to the main Bomb store complex, the shot was taken from on top of the earth bank to get an overall picture of the building layout and site .









Each magazine is protected by thick concrete walls and earth banks, although each of the magazines
are used today there are still many odd artifacts left.









I could not get any pictures inside as the magazines are FULL of stuff, a local adventure group uses them.

Next we went off to look at the pillbox on site, WOW it`s a cracker.









As you can see its square, but that does not tell the whole story, There are loop holes on every face and even in the corners. but inside there is no anti-ricochet wall so you would be very exposed to incoming fire, 
then the roof is built with a slop to it, never seen this before. The other pillboxes that are on the airfield also have this feature so it`s not a one off.

This is one other building on site, the owner did not know the purpose of this one. And then on the left is this small tie down, we think it may of been used to connect camo netting too, as there are some of these on top
of the earth banks around the magazines. 









One last pillbox --------






Well that sabout it for Bramcote, thanks for looking all comments are most welcome, there are a few more pictures on my FlickR site so pop on over to - 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157629621069911/

Cheers Newage


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## night crawler (Mar 21, 2012)

I'll check em out on Flickr.


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## urban phantom (Mar 21, 2012)

Great stuff mate thanks for sharing


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## Winch It In (Mar 21, 2012)

Great set of pic's Newage.


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## flyboys90 (Mar 21, 2012)

really interesting report,thanks for sharing.


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## chris (Mar 21, 2012)

Very nice  - were there any air raid shelters?


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## irishmanlost (Mar 21, 2012)

Nice find and report


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## godzilla73 (Mar 21, 2012)

Top stuff Newage - that tapering roof is a mystery though!
Godzy


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## RichCooper (Mar 21, 2012)

Nice report mate thanks


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## Newage (Mar 22, 2012)

*Shelters*

Chris

We had a good look round but didn`t see any shelters at all. 
There were other buildings on site one of which I didn`t photograph because I thought it was built to be part
of there onsite 4X4 track, maybe Fluffy took some pictures of it.

Cheers Newage


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## fluffy5518 (Mar 22, 2012)

Sorry mate, i didnt. !! There were at least two buildings that seemed to be cut n cover type ( One of which had been opened out a fair bit in order to turn it into a part of the 4x4 track) but they were open ended - although this could've been a later mod !!
What makes you ask Chris, do you know something special ?


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## jonney (Mar 22, 2012)

cracking stuff mate nice to see how the designs vary from site to site, that store I visited at Newton Aycliffe the other day had no concrete blast walls only earth mounds but the general building design looks about the same. Am loving them air ministery design pillboxes. Thanks for sharing


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