RAF Flowerdown

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title: "RAF Flowerdown" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["royal-air-force-stations-in-hampshire", "y-service", "military-installations-established-in-1918", "military-installations-closed-in-1956"] description: "Former Royal Air Force station in Hampshire, England" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Flowerdown" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former Royal Air Force station in Hampshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox military installation"]

Field	Value
name	RAF Flowerdown
ensign	Ensign of the Royal Air Force.svg
ensign_size	90px
location	Located near Winchester in Hampshire
map_type	Hampshire
coordinates
map_caption	Shown within Hampshire
type	Listening station
built
used	1918-1979, 1986-Present
ownership	Ministry of Defence
controlledby	Royal Air Force
::

|name = RAF Flowerdown |ensign=Ensign of the Royal Air Force.svg |ensign_size=90px |native_name = |partof = |location = Located near Winchester in Hampshire |image = |caption = |map_type = Hampshire |coordinates = |map_size = |map_alt = |map_caption = Shown within Hampshire |type = Listening station |code = |built = |builder = |materials = |height = |used = 1918-1979, 1986-Present |demolished = |condition = |ownership = Ministry of Defence |open_to_public = |controlledby = Royal Air Force |garrison = |current_commander = |commanders = |occupants = |battles = |events = |image2 = |caption2 = Royal Air Force Flowerdown, or more simply RAF Flowerdown, was a Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force and finally Royal Navy non-flying station located in Hampshire, England.

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) School for Wireless Operators moved from Farnborough to Flowerdown, later RAF Flowerdown in 1918. From April 1926 the Electrical and Wireless School, part of 23 Group, Inland Area, was located at Flowerdown. The apprentice training school moved from Flowerdown to Cranwell in 1929 and the RNAS moved into Flowerdown which remained as a wireless station until 1956. It was never an airfield but it was bombed twice in one week.

During the Second World War, Flowerdown was one of a number of listening stations around the country that fed information into Bletchley Park with staff working 12-hour shifts listening to Morse code which was then used to decipher the German codes.

In 1956 the site was taken over by GCHQ's Composite Signals Organisation as a large HF listening station. It closed in the late 1970s.

In 1986 the site became the new depot for the Light Division when they moved from Peninsula Barracks, Winchester and was named Sir John Moore Barracks. The barracks went on to become the home of the Army Training Regiment, Winchester.

References

References

1. Ian Philpott. (2005). "The Royal Air Force: The Trenchard Years, 1918–1929". Casemate Publishers.
2. (2009). "Wireless and Empire: Geopolitics, Radio Industry, and Ionosphere in the British Empire, 1918-1939". Oxford University Press.
3. "The history of the Light Infantry". Light Infantry.
4. "Army Training Regiment, Winchester".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::