RAF Blakehill Farm


Royal Air Force Blakehill Farm or more simply RAF Blakehill Farm is a former Royal Air Force station southwest of Cricklade in Wiltshire, England, operational between 1944 and 1952.

History

The station was originally allocated to the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force but not used. It opened in 1944 and was home for transport aircraft of No. 46 Group RAF Transport Command. In 1948 the airfield was a satellite of RAF South Cerney, and was used by training aircraft until the airfield closed in 1952 and was returned to agricultural use. The site is now a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve.

Units and aircraft

The following units were also here at some point:
After the Second World War, GCHQ set up an "experimental radio station", a top secret research facility, on the site. It consisted of huge communications masts arranged in mysterious patterns in the middle of the old airfield. The site was still active in some capacity until the mid-1990s and traces of the former aerial mast bases can still be seen on satellite photographs.