Woodhall Spa Airfield

Woodhall Spa Airfield was constructed in 1941 as a satellite to nearby RAF Coningsby which was actually a fighter airfield throughout its life. Woodhall Spa however became operational in early 1942 and was the base for 97 squadron one of the earliest squadrons to be equipped with the Avro Lancaster four engined bomber. The association with the Lancaster continued when 617 squadron moved to Woodhall in 1944. 617 was of course the famous Dambuster squadron, albeit for that mission they were based at Scampton.

Aircraft from Woodhall Spa were involved in the first operational deployment of the 12,000lb tallboy bombs, designed by Barnes Wallis, and also the mission that resulted in the sinking of the battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian Fjord.

Post war the airfield saw use as a missile site but ceased front line operations in 1967. The RAF retained a small part of the field, including an original hangar for engine testing purposes but the rest of the airfield was largely used for gravel quarrying although an accommodation site nearby became Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre which commemorates the sacrifices made on the airfield in WWII.

In 2015 the remains of the airfield were purchased by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and so it it is now possible to visit and walk what is left of the runways. The entrance in is the line of the main runway but as you walk further along the modern tarmac surface deteriorates  and becomes broken and weed strewn and at the point that it crosses one of the other runways a memorial stone has been erected. Not much else evidences the former life of the place.

We visited on a very misty morning which, in some way, gave a little atmosphere and allowed imagination to drift back to what must have been a very busy and noisy environment 80 years ago.