Royal Air Force Woolfox Lodge, or more simply RAF Woolfox Lodge, 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 next to the

A1 road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highw ...

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

, UK. The airfield is split between the parishes of

Empingham Empingham is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish was 815 at the 2001 census including Horn and increasing to 880 at the 2011 census. It lies close to the dam of Rutland Water a ...

and Greetham. It was open from 1940 until 1966.

History

Woolfox opened as a reserve landing ground for

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 ...

then became a satellite to

RAF North Luffenham Royal Air Force North Luffenham or more simply RAF North Luffenham is a former Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England. It is near to the villages of Edith Weston and North Luffenham. History Second World War The station was built as ...

in October 1941. Full station status was granted from June 1943. The wartime airfield comprised three tarmac runways and one Type B1 and four T2 aircraft hangars. There was temporary accommodation for 1,149 male and 252 female personnel. RAF Woolfox Lodge was used in later years as a relief landing ground but the runways deteriorated to such a degree that the airfield had to be closed to flying by spring 1954. In 1960 a

Bristol Bloodhound The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of f ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

site under No. 62 Squadron RAF was positioned in a secure area adjacent to the A1 road near the former technical site.

RAF units and aircraft

The following units were here at some point: * Detachment from No. 3 Lancaster Finishing School RAF during August 1944 * Relief Landing Ground for No. 7 Flying Training School RAF between May 1941 and April 1954 * Satellite of

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 ...

between December 1940 and August 1941 * Satellite of No. 29 OTU between August 1942 and June 1943 * No. 33 Heavy Glider Maintenance Section * No. 61 Squadron Conversion Flight RAF * No. 259 Maintenance Unit RAF between August 1945 and April 1946 and as a sub site between April 1946 and August 1948 * No. 1429 (Czech Operational Training) Flight RAF between June and August 1942 * No. 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF between November 1944 and July 1945 * No. 1665 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF between June 1943 and January 1944

Current use

The site is now used for agriculture and employment purposes. The landowner in 2019 has proposed it as a site for a possible

garden village The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * *

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20081207003349/http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/s85.html Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Woolfox Lodge {{Rutland-geo-stub