Back where it all began

In 2013, a consortium of enthusiasts and investors set out to breathe new life into a derelict RAF airbase. Here’s a reminder of how far they’ve come

Words David Lillywhite Photography Quintin Lake

Previous Spread

The Station House has since been tidied up, but still awaits restoration.

ABOVE Two vast Type C hangars were built in 1926 to house bombers. Constructed to withstand blasts, they boast ten-footthick concrete floors.

OPPOSITE Original RAF fittings were kept and renovated.

IT SEEMED LIKE MADNESS.

This 348-acre site of the former RAF Bicester airbase was overgrown, vandalised and crumbling in places. Nineteen of the 50-plus buildings were protected by Grade II listed status. As evocative as it felt even back then, how could all that possibly be turned into a centre of historic motoring excellence?

This was 2013, and a consortium of enthusiasts and investors, headed by Dan Geoghegan, had just finalised the deal that, for £3.4 million, secured them the former RAF Bicester site and working airfield. What would have happened if they hadn’t been successful? There had been around a dozen other bidders when the site was initially put up for sale by the Ministry of Defence in 2009, but how many projects would have respected the location’s heritage? Or even been financially viable?

The Bicester Heritage proposal, which took around 1000 hours to prepare, persuaded the MoD and English Heritage that its plans were in keeping with what has been described as “one of the finest examples of an unmodified pre-war RAF station”. Lessons had been learned over the previous decades; in the 1990s there had been the threat of a housing development, which was strongly opposed by the nearby community, prompting the local council to deem the site a conservation area.

TOP The Power House still retained its six-tonne overhead crane and part-tiled floor, both now restored. OPPOSITE The Works Service Building survived an attack by the ‘Bicester Arsonist’ in the 1980s – although it got off lightly, it seems.

It had lain mostly unused since the 1970s, except for the occupation of some offices and a hangar by the US Air Force as a potential emergency hospital in 1991. It had been a military airfield since 1916, turned into a bomber base in the 1920s, expanded in the 1930s and become a maintenance station in 1945.

When the Bicester Heritage team won the bid, they were handed a huge set of keys to the many buildings, and left to explore – and these images show what they found.

Vandals and graffiti artists had left their mark, but the buildings –over-engineered like only military structures of the time could be – had mostly survived, as had much of the old RAF signage and ephemera.

It wasn’t long before restoration commenced, using period-correct materials and colours, right down to the iron rainware and the Crittall windows that are still made today.

It’s not finished yet. Perhaps in ten years’ time there will be a ‘20 Years Ago’ article to be written...

ABOVE Local graffiti artists had found their way into the Inflammable Store, but the original wall tiles and the crane remained intact. There’s a bombproof wall with thick armoured doors right around this building.

Thestoryofaunique site, from its inception in 1916 toits presentandfutureattheforefrontofthe heritag from its inception in 1916 to presentandfutureattheforefrontofthe heritag

Words and photographyBicesterHeritage

Words photographyBicesterHeritage

BICESTER AIRFIELD, WHICH –having been built in 1916 – has already celebrated its centenary, is described by English Heritage as the best-preserved World War Two aerodrome, with 19 Grade II-listed building and 16 Ancient Monuments.

In January 1917, the Royal Flying Corps moved into the then 180acre site with the arrival of the 118 night bomber squadron. Canvascovered Bessonneau hangars were temporarily utilised until more substantial aircraft sheds were built.

Military flying at Bicester commenced in 1918, when the new aerodrome was established as a three-squadron Training Depot Station. The station was closed in March 1920.

In 1923, the newly formed RAF Aerodrome board decided that Bicester was to be reopened. At this time only two of the World War One huts still existed – one on the aerodrome and one on the domestic site. All others had been removed, together with their foundations and drains. Many of the buildings standing today were built during this period of expansion, refurbishment and development of the existing site.

The sale of additional land was completed in April 1925, including the land needed to build the airfield’s own branch of the London and North Western Railway. Military flying resumed in January 1928.

Another period of development took place from 1935-39, when – after Germany began to rearm – the British Government introduced a number of schemes designed to increase air strength. Bicester continued to serve as an Operational Training Unit station until October 1944. Aircrews were trained here for the D-Day landings and Battle of Arnhem.

From 1940 an increasing emphasis was being put on night operations, but Bicester itself was unsuitable for flying after dark due to its vulnerable, compact layout of the ground and airfield perimeter, as well as the large amount of trees on the approaches. Additionally the airfield at Bicester, lacking concrete runways, was not adequate for regular use by the higher-performance, heavier aircraft that were now increasingly favoured. Therefore it was not used for any front-line bomber command, but instead acted as a training base.

This alternative role caused Bicester to be better preserved than many of its contemporaries. During World War Two, it was additionally

CaptainHRPReynoldslandsaBristolBoxkite onwhatwould becomeRAF Bicester Workbeginsonan aerodromejustoutside Bicester,and incorporatespartsoflandoffSkimmingdishLaneNo.116Squadron,RoyalFlyingCorps, established;temporary canvas-roof hangarsareinstalledRAFStationBicesterofficiallyformalised Unitsare disbandedand buildingsdemolishedDecisiontakentoredevelopBicester

TechnicalSite constructedNo.100SquadronmovesintoRAFBicester equippedwithHawkerHorsleybiplanes; twohangarsopen,thefirstoftheir typeonaBritishbaseMilitaryflyingresumesTechnicalSiteexpands,includingcreationof CTypehangarsto accommodateupcoming BristolBlenheimaircraftBlenheimprototype,‘BritainFirst’,flies intoaidthetrainingofpersonnel FirstBlenheims delivered 1926-27 used as a glider base. During some raids, gliders full of troops and equipment were successfully towed from Bicester to land quietly in German fields. Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1943, Bicester became a Forward Equipment Unit, and the airfield was used to store vital equipment necessary for the invasion of northwest Europe.

Post-war, Bicester became a nonflying unit, used for maintenance and later as a Motor Transport depot. In 1953, No. 71 Maintenance Unit formed here as the principal aeroplane-salvage unit.

Crashed aircraft were brought to Bicester and reconstructed in one of the hangars for crash-investigation purposes. In 1976 the RAF ceased to use the airfield as a military base, but it still maintained staff here to run the glider-training operation as adventurous instruction for servicemen. This was intended to use unfamiliar situations to develop teamwork and self-sufficiency.

The USAF later briefly used the Technical and Domestic Area for storage. During Operation Desert Shield of the early 1990s, it deployed medical personnel and hospital equipment to the site in anticipation of the large numbers of casualties that were expected, although never materialised, during the 1991 first Persian Gulf War.

The RAF eventually moved out of Bicester in 2004. In April 2013 Bicester Heritage successfully bid for the 348-acre airfield, with the hope of bringing together the UK’s cottage industry of specialists in order to promote both the preservation and, specifically, the use of vintage ’planes and motor cars, in Britain’s first heritage motor and aviation business park. Time has proven that it has more than succeeded.

12Blenheims deliveredfrom BicestertotheFinnishAirForce–their swastikalogoswhitewashedoverforthe top-secretoperationLocalDefence Volunteers,latertheHome Guard,takesoverdefenceoftheairfieldHMKingGeorgeVIvisitsaspart ofamorale-boosttourJunkersJu88shotdownbyairfielddefenceStationchangesscopetoservicethe MiddleEastAirForceAirCommodorePrinceGeorge, DukeofKent,visits

ABlenheimdepartsRAFBicesterforthefinaltimeinactiveserviceRAFBicesterbecomesReceiving,Storage andIssuingDepot,andflyingendsNo.71MaintenanceUnitisgiventhetaskofsalvageandrepairofallaircraftbetweenOxfordshireandKent;300,000milesclocked upinthefirstyearaloneGlidingclubformed,knownasTheWindrushersNorfolktoLeicestershireadded toNo.71MU’sregion

OxfordUniversityAirSquadron movesinfromKidlington

RAFBicesterdisbands,andNo.71MUtakesoverrunningofthesite

HMQueenElizabethIItoursBicester

No.71MUandOxfordUniversityAirSquadronmovetoRAFAbingdon;siteclosesoncemorebutforglidingThen-HRHPrinceCharlesfliesaglider forthefirsttime,fromBicester

RAFBicesterreturnsasastorageunitfor theUnitedStatesAirForcesinEurope

USAFEdeparts,havingpreparedthesiteasanemergencymilitaryhospital forcasualtiesoftheGulfWar FormerRAF Bicesteraddedto Historic England’sHeritageAtRiskRegister,anddesignatedasthemostatrisk ofallUK Defence Estates.

USAFEdeparts,havingpreparedthesiteasanemergencymilitaryhospital forcasualtiesoftheGulfWar FormerRAF Bicesteraddedto Historic England’sHeritageAtRiskRegister,anddesignatedasthemostatrisk ofallUK Defence Estates.

2013

DanielGeogheganwinsbid,BicesterHeritagepurchasesformerRAFBicester; TheImitationGame beginsfilming

DanielGeogheganwinsbid,BicesterHeritagepurchasesformerRAFBicester; TheImitationGame beginsfilming

2014

Firstspecialistsmovein;firstSundayScrambleheld

Firstspecialistsmovein;firstSundayScrambleheld

2015

ConservationareaofformerRAF Bicester removedfromHistoricEngland’sHeritage AtRiskRegister,andBicesterHeritage heldasNationalExemplarof Constructive ConservationInauguralFlywheelwelcomesBristolBlenheimbacktoBicester; DarkestHour beginsfilming CommandWorksopens; vaccination centreopensduringthepandemic, givingout70,000jabs

2015

2020

2022

NEOMMcLarenElectricRacingbecomes50thresidentspecialist BicesterMotion ‘Masterplan’ofadditional quartersduefor completion

2024-30