Throckmorton is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the administrative district of

Wychavon Wychavon () is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. The largest towns therein are Evesham and Droitwich Spa; the council is based in the town of Pershore. The district also includes numerous villages and surrounding rural ...

, in the county of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, England. The village lies 3.5 miles northeast of

Pershore Pershore () is a market town and civil parish in the Wychavon district in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. At the 2011 UK census, census, the population was 7,125. The town is best known for Per ...

, five miles north-west of

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

and 9 miles southeast of the city of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

. At the 2001

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, it had a population of 200.

The church

The village is ancient and the earliest extant remains are parts of the church and bell-tower (now a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

), dating from the 13th century. Excavations discovered the stone foundations of an even earlier church on the site. The church has no electricity and is lit by gas-lamps and candles.

QinetiQ Pershore

Formerly RAF Pershore, also known as Throckmorton Airfield, the site is owned and operated by

QinetiQ QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

as a Business Park and Trials Centre. At the periphery of the village is the former military airfield officially known as RAF Pershore. Archaeological investigations of the airfield have suggested that it was originally a Roman site. The airfield was built in 1940 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was home to No 23 Operational Training Unit equipped with

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

bombers. Subsequently, the airfield was home to No 1 Ferry Unit, No. 10 Advanced Flying Training School and several other RAF units then latterly by the

Royal Radar Establishment The Royal Radar Establishment was a research centre in Malvern, Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1953 as the Radar Research Establishment by the merger of the Air Ministry's Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE ...

Flying Unit. The airfield was also sometimes used by Vulcan and Valiant V-bombers as one of a number of dispersal sites for the RAF's V-Force nuclear-deterrent; none were ever dispersed on anything other than training missions. In response to a question raised in Parliament, assurance was given that there are no records of radioactive contamination as a result of this use of the site as no V-bomber was ever dispersed with live weapons. Several plans have been put forward for the development of the site, which was used in 2001 as a burial ground for the carcasses of over 100,000 animals afflicted with

foot and mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that primarily affects even-toed ungulates, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six d ...

. In 2008 it was suggested that the site be used as a prison camp to relieve overcrowding in Britain's jails. In 2008 proposals were put forward by

to use the site for the development of an eco-town for a population of up to 20,000. From 2010 to 2015, the airfield hosted Throckmorton Air Show to benefit local charities. In 2019, people from Throckmorton and surrounding villages came together to share their opinions on the Throckmorton Airfield housing development. The development would bring over 2,000 houses to the area as well as schools, services and employment.

The Throckmorton family

The village gave its name to the Throckmorton family.

In the media

The village has had a number of television and radio documentaries made about it, notably by Channel 4's archaeological television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...

'' in 2002 and BBC Radio 4 in 2006.

Culture and countryside

The surrounding countryside is that celebrated by

A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classics, classical scholar and poet. He showed early promise as a student at the University of Oxford, but he failed his final examination in ''literae humaniores'' and t ...

and

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, and there are numerous heritage sites locally.

References

External links

Village homepage

Throckmorton Parish profile

www.throckmortonairshow.com
Airshow {{authority control Villages in Worcestershire Wychavon Civil parishes in Worcestershire