RAF Swinderby

Royal Air Force Swinderby or more simply RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force station airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s. It was built near the village of Swinderby, Lincolnshire just off the south east side of the A46 (the Fosse Way) between Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire and Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.

History
Under the command of No. 1 Group RAF, Swinderby came under the auspices of RAF Bomber Command and housed several RAF Bomber Squadrons, among others No. 300 Polish Bomber Squadron and No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron, initially flying the Fairey Battle, then Vickers Wellington. Other squadrons operated aircraft, such as the Handley Page Hampden.

In the 1950s it was the home of No. 8 FTS, converting trainee pilots to de Havilland Vampires. In 1956 it hosted a brief experiment to keep all the flying training to wings stage straight through on one base. This was abandoned after a month due to the obvious danger of collisions in the circuit between the Vampires and the much slower piston engined Percival Provost basic trainers.

In 1964, Swinderby changed its role to that of recruit training, when No.7 School of Recruit Training, formerly at RAF Bridgnorth, opened at RAF Swinderby. It became responsible for the basic training of all male enlisted RAF personnel prior to their trade training. No. 7 School of Recruit Training became the RAF School of Recruit Training in 1976 when all female personnel initial training was carried out at RAF Swinderby as well as male. Recruit training moved to RAF Halton on closure of RAF Swinderby on 1st April 1993.

In 1989 the very first integrated flight passed out of RAF Swinderby. This consisted of A Flight and B Flight.

Current use
In 1995 the station was put up for sale to commercial development and the airfield played host to semi-regular events including antique fairs.

In 2013 the hangars and the air traffic control tower remain in evidence along with acres of concrete runways and taxiways but most of the other buildings on the technical site have been demolished.

The domestic site has been developed as the new village of Witham St Hugh with only the former Officer's Married Quarters and Airmen's Married Quarters remaining. The new village hall has an information board giving the history of RAF Swinderby.