# RAF Kings Cliffe



## fluffy5518 (Feb 23, 2010)

Hi all !!
A chance chat with me old buddy Newage last week revealed that we were both missing a good old airfield explore,so to put things right we decided to head to the far Northern county that is Northamptonshire !! On the agenda was Grafton Underwood,Polebrook and Kings Cliffe.We didn't really know that much about any of them but decided it would be nice just to stumble around and see what we could find.!!!
RAF Kings Cliffe was opened in Oct 1941 as a satellite to RAF Wittering and between then and the end of hostilities swapped ownerships between the RAF and the 8th USAAF.After the war the field remained in the control of the RAF for armament storage until closure took effect from Jan 1959,when the land reverted to agricultural use.
After packing the Explore-mobil with the usual 3 ton of maps,cameras,tripods,3 zillion candle power torches and the customary packet of Choci-chip cookies (with added Hazelnut pieces !!!) we set a course for the East Midlands (Christopher Columbus eat yer heart out !!!!) Leaving behind the Smoking stacks of Didcot for the decaying heartlands of our once industrial nation-Cobblers i hear you cry and yes you'd be right Northampton was full of 'em !! As the miles clocked up the dreary rain soaked countryside gradually turned whiter and by the time we arrived on the outskirts of P'Boro there was a nice sprinkling of the stuff all around us.The airfield itself is bysected by many paths,some permitted bridlways and some no doubt private but under the snowy cover we couldn't tell-so it was basically access all areas and if anyone stopped us we'd just claim ignorance (No training required there !!) So on with the phots.First up is a defended dispersal pan,i have never seen these before but this place is full of 'em.Basically if i'm right Dispersal Pans were dotted around the periphary of airfields in order that aircraft could remain on stand-by with their crews ready for a quick scramble if needed.So as well as a Hardstanding for the aircraft,crew accommodation shelters together with Bomb/blast shelters were also required.These i have seen at Charmey Down,the differance here being that here they also have loopholed firing positions littered around which resemble pillboxes.






These are basically just walls with loopholes cut into them usually sited by a Stanton air raid shelter.
Inside of one of the Stantons with a brick entrance porch at both ends-the actual section of concrete shelter is not very big and was only designed for a few crew members !!




Inside one of the Crew accommodation blocks,notice the ventillation ducting-there being no windows in any of these blocks.




Here the outer defensive wall of the shelter has collapsed and you can see the actual concrete section together with both side entrances.




Close up of the last remaining section !!




From a distance they do resemble a form of pillbox.








Dotted around the airfield are many defensive stuctures including at least 4 Oakington or FC constuction mushroom pillboxes most of which are in good condition.This is not the easiest one to see but it is there in the hedgeline.




Then there is the standard Battle HQ hiding away in the bushes bang smack next to a footpath.This baby was flooded to a depth of nearly 3 foot,but,interestingly, had a diesel pump placed next to it with the hoses running into the entrance.




Also in the same hedgeline sat these 2x Light anti aircraft gun positions-Complete with internal gun mount and surrounded by a section of Bar and Rod tracking for camouflage.There are at least another 3 sets of these on site.




Next up is this mystrerious little creature,obviouly some kind of shelter but now devoid of its earth banking protection and unusually having an electrical distribution box inside the entrance !!! Any ideas ?








Another building not seen before was the PBX comms building this was basically the telephone exchange for the airfield notice the highly unusual windows and the equally unusual paint job !!





This was the star of the show,however,and in beautifully derelict condition-The Watch Office (Control Tower) for night fighter stns.












Unfortunately the Farmer had decided to place the largest crow scaring gun he could find inside on the upper level and boy did we jump when that went off.!! So the internal shots will have to wait till next time !!
Finally have never seen an enamel sign intact before so to find this on the side of the standby set house was quite a pleasent surprise.!!




Since returning home i have found out that there is still a lot to see at Kings Cliffe including a dispersed site (which i think included a Hospital) and a searchlight emplacement !! For more gen-including an overlay of the site for Google earth visit airfield information exchange !!!
Cheers


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## night crawler (Feb 23, 2010)

Nice one Fluffy you really find some great places


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## HypoBoy (Feb 23, 2010)

Great pics. Bit of a contrast to the day I visited. Glad to see you did better than me and made it to the tower. 

Couple of minor points - I think it's actually just inside Cambridgeshire. AiX has it under Northants, but I think they've got it wrong. May just be a boundary change issue since the war though!

Also, the searchlight emplacement isn't - it's actually a DF mast from what I've managed to find out since I visited - unless you know of another one elsewhere on the site?

Did you find the Glenn Miller memorial?


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## fluffy5518 (Feb 23, 2010)

Many thanx Mr Crawler i can always rely on a comment from you !!
Hypoboy !! I think youre right it is a boundry change as The boy's big book of airfields (cant think of it's real title)lists it as under Northants in WWII.As regards the searchlight emplacement-no i dont know any different-and to be perfectly honest i lifted that off your thread.I only saw it,from a distance, as we were leaving and assumed wrongly that it was a transformer plinth-so didn't investigate any further !! As for the Glenn Miller memorial i didnt know that was there 'till i returned home.All in all it was a really good explore but a hell of a lot of walking.!!


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## night crawler (Feb 24, 2010)

Bet you kicked yourself for not finding the Glen Miller memorial then Fluffy

http://www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=268392


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## the_historian (Feb 24, 2010)

Fantastic stuff. 
Those defended dispersals are pretty rare; the only other place I've seen them is RAF Drem in East Lothian.


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## godzilla73 (Feb 24, 2010)

Good pics - there are some defended dispersals at Kenley too (which I took photos of a while back) though most of the embrasures there have been filled in which is why the ones above are pretty special. I've got a feeling that the unidentified shelter might be something to do with a gun range - was there evidence of one nearby? 
GDZ


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## cptpies (Feb 25, 2010)

Great pics fluffy. There are loopholed dispersals at Exeter too. They are often called different things in the DoB. Airfield defence site or loopholed wall are most common.I believe the twin concrete pipes are an extemporised machine gun pit.


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## Newage (Feb 26, 2010)

*BHQ Now PBX*

Hi All

Just to add a little bit more to Fluffy excellent post I'v been reading "Defending Britain" by Mike Osborne and in the back in the misc section
the PBX building is listed as the former airfield Battle HQ and is given the air min plan number of 3329/41.

So a few more pictures are in order














Then the main room






And a close up of the windows






There are more pictures from RAF Kings Cliffe at 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157623369929243/

Cheers Newage


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## klempner69 (Feb 26, 2010)

Nice report fellas..good pics too.


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