Visited here twice, once with the devil child, and again with mattdonut and richPDG. Its a pretty strange place, being pretty mint apart from a limited amount of stripping here and there. The abandoned builders portakabins scattered around the place add to the strange feel, it appears they just stopped work one day and never came back.
American military forces were first stationed at High Wycombe in 1942, shortly after the United States' formal entrance into the Second World War. So urgent was the action that Wycombe Abbey School, situated on the land that would become the station, was given three weeks to find new facilities; failure in this effort led to the school's closing, until the independent girl's school was returned by the US in 1945.
In 1952, the station, formerly known as Daws Hill House, welcomed US forces again. Approximately 800 personnel were stationed there when, in 1969, their numbers were reduced, so that, in the early 1970s, only a small group remained for upkeep of facilities. Then, in 1975, activity escalated, revitalizing the station's importance to the American military in Europe. Its nuclear bunker, with 23,000 square feet of space, housed high-tech equipment for the direction of nuclear bombers and guided missiles. Between 1982 and 1985 there was a peace camp outside the base protesting against the bringing of United States cruise missiles to the United Kingdom.
Use of the station was reduced with the end of the Cold War; by 1992, US Defense personnel at RAF Daws Hill numbered fewer than 350. Since the US Navy's departure from the greater London area, the need for facilities at RAF Daws Hill have greatly diminished and the station is now being vacated. Station facilities including the shops, school, workshops and gas station closed in August 2007. The station itself closed as an operational site that year. In June 2011, the site was placed up for sale by the Ministry of Defence. Taylor Wimpey subsequently bought the site, planning to build a housing estate of around 500 homes.
American military forces were first stationed at High Wycombe in 1942, shortly after the United States' formal entrance into the Second World War. So urgent was the action that Wycombe Abbey School, situated on the land that would become the station, was given three weeks to find new facilities; failure in this effort led to the school's closing, until the independent girl's school was returned by the US in 1945.
In 1952, the station, formerly known as Daws Hill House, welcomed US forces again. Approximately 800 personnel were stationed there when, in 1969, their numbers were reduced, so that, in the early 1970s, only a small group remained for upkeep of facilities. Then, in 1975, activity escalated, revitalizing the station's importance to the American military in Europe. Its nuclear bunker, with 23,000 square feet of space, housed high-tech equipment for the direction of nuclear bombers and guided missiles. Between 1982 and 1985 there was a peace camp outside the base protesting against the bringing of United States cruise missiles to the United Kingdom.
Use of the station was reduced with the end of the Cold War; by 1992, US Defense personnel at RAF Daws Hill numbered fewer than 350. Since the US Navy's departure from the greater London area, the need for facilities at RAF Daws Hill have greatly diminished and the station is now being vacated. Station facilities including the shops, school, workshops and gas station closed in August 2007. The station itself closed as an operational site that year. In June 2011, the site was placed up for sale by the Ministry of Defence. Taylor Wimpey subsequently bought the site, planning to build a housing estate of around 500 homes.
