Royal Air Force Market Harborough or more simply RAF Market Harborough is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

near the town of

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...

in the county of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Today part of the site of the former airbase is occupied by

HMP Gartree HM Prison Gartree is a Category B men's prison, located in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England. Gartree is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History Constructed on the western part of the site which was previously RAF Market Harb ...

History

Construction & layout

Land for the development of an RAF aerodrome was earmarked by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

in 1941, and work commenced on the construction of the Station during 1942. The construction work was undertaken by J.R. Mowlem & Co. and was completed in 1943. Vickers Wellington 1 ExCC

RAF Market Harborough conformed to the layout of a typical RAF aerodrome, that is the specifications set by the British

which called for three converging strips, each containing a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

optimally placed (if practicable at the site) at 60 degree angles to each other in a

triangular A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimensional ...

pattern.

RAF Operational life

The first

personnel arrived on the Station on 1 June 1943. RAF Market Harborough came under the control of No. 92 Group RAF (

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

), and became the parent Station to the nearby

RAF Husbands Bosworth Royal Air Force Husbands Bosworth or more simply RAF Husbands Bosworth is a former Royal Air Force satellite station near the village of Husbands Bosworth in the county of Leicestershire, England. History Construction & layout Land in the vicini ...

when that Station was commissioned in August of that year. The complement of aircraft on the Stations as of 1943 is listed as 61 Vickers Wellingtons, 4 Miles Martinets and an Avro Anson. The Wellingtons were the primary training aircraft by that time largely withdrawn from front-line operations, the Martinets would have been used for the target towing operations and the Anson would have served as the Station's communication aircraft. ;No. 14 Operational Training Unit On 1 August 1943, No. 14 Operational Training Unit (

No. 14 OTU Royal Air Force Operational Training Units (OTUs) were training units that prepared aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. OTUs ;No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF (1 (C)OTU): The Unit was formed i ...

) was re-formed at Market Harborough with the transfer of the unit from

RAF Cottesmore Royal Air Force Cottesmore or more simply RAF Cottesmore is a former Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, situated between Cottesmore and Market Overton. On 15 December 2009, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced that the stati ...

. The OTU was tasked with the training of crews for

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

in both daylight and night operations. No.14 OTU continued to be housed on the Station until it was disbanded on 24 June 1945.

;No. 1683 (Bomber) Defence Training Flight In addition to the Wellingtons of No.14 OTU, RAF Market Harborough also operated

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s and

Curtiss Tomahawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter-bomber that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry ...

s which comprised No. 1683 (Bomber) Defence Training Flight RAF (1683 BDTF). The Flight transferred from

RAF Bruntingthorpe Royal Air Force Bruntingthorpe or more simply RAF Bruntingthorpe is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Lutterworth, Leicestershire and south of Leicester, Leicestershire, England. It was operational between 1942 and 1962 ...

on 3 February 1944 and disbanded on 1 August 1944. ;No. 26 Air Crew Holding Unit Following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, RAF Market Harborough became home to No. 26 Air Crew Holding Unit from 21 August 1945 until 18 September 1946. ;No. 273 Maintenance Unit

No. 273 Maintenance Unit RAF The following is a list of Royal Air Force Maintenance Units (MU). The majority of MUs were previously Equipment Depots (ED), Storage Depots (SD) and Aircraft Storage Units (ASU)s. No. 1 MU – No. 100 MU No. 101 MU – No. 200 MU No. ...

(No. 273 MU) were occupants of the base from February 1946 until 5 October 1949. ;Care & Maintenance Flying operations at RAF Market Harborough ceased on 18 August 1945, following which the airfield was placed on care and maintenance managed by No. 273 MU.

British Army

Control of the former RAF Market Harborough was transferred to the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

in 1948, the Station becoming known as 72 Brigade Vehicle Depot (72 BVD). The army retained custody of the Station until they finally left in the late 1950s.

Today

Because of the proximity of HMP Gartree, no aviation activity now takes place on the site and today it is largely used for agricultural purposes. In 1990 an application was submitted to develop some of the site into a cattle market on the area known as Airfield Farm. In the mid 1990s a further application was submitted to convert some of the land for offices, leisure facilities and an agricultural showground. In the late 1990s a further ideas concerned a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

theme park together with a recreation of the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...

HMP Gartree

Following the cessation of military activity on the site at the end of the 1950s, part of the former RAF Market Harborough was earmarked for the construction of HMP Gartree in the 1960s. Opening in 1965, HMP Gartree was initially used as s Category C training center before it was upgraded to a maximum security facility. The most notorious episode occurred in December 1987 and concerned the escape of two inmates who were helped with the aid of a hijacked Bell 206 helicopter. Today the prison houses Category B prisoners.

References

* {{authority control

Market Ha Market Ha Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945