RAF Wroughton

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

UK Royal Air Force airbase

title: "RAF Wroughton" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["royal-air-force-stations-in-wiltshire", "royal-air-force-stations-of-world-war-ii-in-the-united-kingdom", "military-airbases-established-in-1940", "military-airbases-closed-in-1972"] description: "UK Royal Air Force airbase" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Wroughton" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary UK Royal Air Force airbase ::

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

FieldValue
nameRAF Wroughton
ensignEnsign of the Royal Air Force.svg
ensign_size90px
partof
locationWroughton, Wiltshire
nearest_town
countryEngland
imageWroughton Airfield - geograph.org.uk - 1846.jpg
image2
coordinates
pushpin_mapWiltshire
pushpin_map_captionShown within Wiltshire
pushpin_labelRAF Wroughton
ownershipMinistry of Defence
operatorRoyal NavyRoyal Air Force
controlledbyDirectorate of Naval RecruitingRAF Maintenance Command
open_to_publicno
site_other_label
site_other
site_area
code
built1 April 1940
used1940-
height
fate
current_commander
past_commanders
garrison
occupants
footnotes
elevation
r1-number04/22
r1-length1430 m
r1-surfaceAsphalt
r2-number09/27
r2-length1050 m
r2-surfaceAsphalt
r3-number15/33
r3-length1110 m
r3-surfaceAsphalt
h1-length
airfield_other_label
airfield_other
::

| name = RAF Wroughton | ensign = Ensign of the Royal Air Force.svg | ensign_size = 90px | native_name = | partof = | location = Wroughton, Wiltshire | nearest_town = | country = England | image = Wroughton Airfield - geograph.org.uk - 1846.jpg | alt = | caption = | image2 = | alt2 = | caption2 = | type = | coordinates = | pushpin_map = Wiltshire | pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Wiltshire | pushpin_label = RAF Wroughton | pushpin_label_position = | ownership = Ministry of Defence | operator = Royal NavyRoyal Air Force | controlledby = Directorate of Naval RecruitingRAF Maintenance Command | open_to_public = no | site_other_label = | site_other = | site_area = | code = | built = 1 April 1940 | used = 1940- | builder = | materials = | height = | fate = | condition = | battles = | events = | current_commander = | past_commanders = | garrison = | occupants = | website = | footnotes = | IATA = | ICAO = | FAA = | TC = | LID = | GPS = | WMO = | elevation = | r1-number = 04/22 | r1-length = 1430 m | r1-surface = Asphalt | r2-number = 09/27 | r2-length = 1050 m | r2-surface = Asphalt | r3-number = 15/33 | r3-length = 1110 m | r3-surface = Asphalt | h1-number = | h1-length = | h1-surface = | airfield_other_label = | airfield_other =

RAF Wroughton is a former Royal Air Force station near Wroughton, in Wiltshire, England, about 4 mi south of Swindon. Ministry of Defence aviation activity ceased in 1972. The airfield now belongs to the Science Museum Group and is home to the National Collections Centre, which houses the group's large-object storage and library.

Early history

The site was acquired for an airfield in 1937 and the airfield opened on 1 April 1940. It was used for the assembly and storage of aircraft during the Second World War.

The following units were here at some point:

Control of RAF Wroughton was handed over to the Royal Navy and it became the Royal Naval Aircraft Yard Wroughton in 1972.

RAF Princess Alexandra Hospital

RAF Hospital Wroughton was part of the station and stood near the eastern boundary of the site, about 1+1/2 mi west of Chiseldon. The RAF General Hospital (as it was known) opened on 14 June 1941 and by the end of March 1944 its bed capacity was 1,000. Wroughton continued as a General Hospital treating military patients, and from 1958 took NHS cases as well to relieve backlogs in the Swindon area.

Following a visit to the hospital by Princess Alexandra on 4 July 1967, the Queen conferred the prefix "Princess Alexandra's" on the hospital on 4 October 1967. The hospital was the primary destination for returning casualties of the Falklands War in 1982. When hostages from Beirut were released in August 1991, Wg Cdr Gordon Turnbull, a psychiatrist based at Wroughton, with his team, debriefed John McCarthy, Terry Waite and Jackie Mann and provided the counselling necessary to ease them back into freedom.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/RAF_Princess_Alexandra_Hospital_memorial.JPG" caption="Hospital memorial"] ::

The hospital closed on 31 March 1996 as part of the Conservative Government's defence cuts at the end of the Cold War. The hospital was demolished in 2004 and the site, called Alexandra Park, used for housing and a conference centre; a memorial commemorates the former hospital. Street names in the development reflect the site's history, including Normandy and Falklands Roads named after battles, and Whittingham Drive named after RAF physician Harold Whittingham.

Science Museum at Wroughton

Main article: National Collections Centre

The large-object storage of the Science Museum has been at Wroughton since 1979.

Current use

In 2016 a 50 MW solar farm was completed on about 67 hectares of the airfield, with over 150,000 solar panels. This was a joint project of Public Power Solutions (a commercial arm of Swindon Borough Council) and the Science Museum Group.

From 2016 to 2019, the television series The Grand Tour operated their test track on the north end of the airfield, with the track encircling part of the Science Museum's storage facilities.

In 2010, Defence Estates stated that the Ministry of Defence still owned some 4.22 hectares of the site, where two linked hangar-type buildings were used by the Directorate of Naval Recruiting.

References

References

  1. (1980). "A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 11". University of London.
  2. "Wroughton Airfield". Pastscape.
  3. "Wroughton". [[Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust]].
  4. (1960). "Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps of Great Britain, sheet SU17".
  5. "RAF Hospital Wroughton".
  6. Walker, Caroline. (13 February 2009). "Air Vice-Marshal Frederick C. Hurrell".
  7. Stock, Jon. (28 September 2002). "A safe haven for the hostage heroes". Telegraph.co.uk.
  8. (3 February 2004). "Memorial planned for former hospital".
  9. Stoker, Liam. (6 July 2017). "First community benefit funds from 50 MW Swindon Solar Farm to be paid".
  10. "Solutions for the public sector". Swindon Borough Council.
  11. "Jeremy Clarkson fears BBC could sue over new racing show The Grand Tour if too similar to Top Gear". The Telegraph.
  12. (4 January 2010). "Request for Information: RAF Wroughton". Defence Estates Secretariat.
  13. p. 307.
  14. (11 December 2013). [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-25329827 Wiltshire solar farm at former RAF Wroughton site approved]. BBC News. Accessed March 2015.
  15. [http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wroughton/~/link.aspx?_id=20F4B280792F4ABB8258C924D0F1C9E2&_z=z Big Object storage.] Science Museum. Accessed March 2015.

::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. ::

royal-air-force-stations-in-wiltshireroyal-air-force-stations-of-world-war-ii-in-the-united-kingdommilitary-airbases-established-in-1940military-airbases-closed-in-1972