RAF West Raynham: Station HQ becoming a heritage centre

The station HQ building has been abandoned since the RAF left West Raynham in the mid-1990s.

Charity Veterans Central is now behind plans to revive the building on the airfield, which was operational in the Second World War and throughout the Cold War.

The former station HQ at RAF West Raynham (Image: Veterans Central)

The group hopes to provide display space for military heritage collections, along with a library and space to support the work of forces charities at the site near Fakenham.

It has started work refurbishing doors, replacing windows and building fittings such as bookcases.

Walls are also being repainted throughout the two-storey building after decades of neglect.

Canberra aircraft on the runway at RAF West Raynham in the 1960s (Image: Submitted)

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A memorial to some of the aircraft which flew from RAF West Raynham (Image: Matthew Usher)

Built in the late 1930s, Raynham was a major operational base during the Second World War.

Blenheims, Beaufighters and Mosquitoes flew from its runways, with 86 aircraft and their crews failing to return.

By the 1950s it was home of jet fighters and bombers like the Gloster Meteor, Javelin, Hawker Hunter and Canberra.

The former control tower at West Raynham is now a home (Image: Newsquest)

Flying ceased in 1975, when the base became the home of Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles, which would shoot down enemy bombers in the event fears of a Soviet attack became a reality.

But the Bloodhounds never barked in anger and the base was closed in 1994, becoming derelict before parts of it were sold off for housing and a business park in the mid 2000s.

Its control tower is now a private home, while giant hangars are used as film studios.