Ex-RAF Aerial Erectors Association Website

What's Happening Around and About!

RAF DIGBY

The Aerial Erector School

The Aerial Erector School is to move from RAF Digby and be relocated to RAF St. Athan under changes announced by the Ministry of Defence as part of the current Defence Training Review. The move is expected to be completed by 2017.

RAF CRANWELL

It was announced by the Ministry of Defence that all aeronautical and communications engineering training currently at RAF Cranwell will move to RAF St.Athan as part of the Defence Training Review.

RAF LEEMING

Most of the RAF's Air Combat Service Support (Communications) Units are now be located at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. The Aerial Engineering Flight, No.1 Expeditionary Radar and Airfields Squadron moved from RAF Sealand in March 2006 where it became part of the Tactical Communications Wing, 90 Signals Unit.
The ERAS will be joined at Leeming by the remaining 650 personnel of the Tactical Communications Wing Detachment currently at RAF Brize Norton by the end of 2009 thus bringing the majority of the Aerial Erectors serving in the RAF together in one place.

RAF SAXA VORD

In a short but solemn ceremony on the 2nd March 2006 amid falling snow, the ensign was lowered for the last time ending the RAF's presence on the island of Unst. The Station Commander, Sqn Ldr Philip Carpenter, stated "It's the end of an era. We shall miss the warmth and generosity of the islanders."

RAF SAXA VORD MOTHBALLED.

A new tourism centre is to built on the former site of RAF Saxa Vord was announced recently. To be officialy launched in 2008, the facility is claimed to be the first residental natural and cultural heritage centre in the United Kingdom.

RAF INNSWORTH

On the 16th June 2005 a parliamentary statement by the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram ended the speculation over the future of RAF Innsworth the current home of the Headquarters of the Royal Air Force Personnel and Training Command and the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency.
The Station will close by 2008 and unless another defence use is found for the site it will be sold off.
A Process and Organisation Review was set up in 2004 to study various options for locating the HQ of the Personnel and Training Command with the HQ of Strike Command. A number of sites in various parts of the country were looked at but the final choice was between High Wycombe and Innsworth. The cost of moving HQ RAF Personnel and Training Command to High Wycombe was less than moving HQ Strike Command to Innsworth. This was largely due to the cost of re-installing all the high tech command and control equipment and communications networks associated with Strike Command.
In all some 1,800 jobs will be lost at Innsworth, 700 service personnel and the remainder civilian and associated contractor posts. According to figures quoted in the RAF News, personnel numbers will rise by 100, to some 2,500 personnel of which 1,400 will be service personnel and 750 civilians.
A number of posts currently located at High Wycombe will be moved to various Strike Command operational units.
The HQ of the Personnel and Training Command is expected to have re-located by October 2006 and will be followed by the Armed Forces Personnel Agency in April 2008

The HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps is expected to move into Innsworth when it is withdrawn from Germany sometime between 2009 and 2011.

RAF Coltishall The first steps in the closing of RAF Coltshall were taken on March 11th 2005 when two of the resident squadrons, No.16 and No.54 Squadrons were disbanded. Both squadrons which were first formed in the First World War were flying Jaguar Aircraft. The parade was followed by a fly-past and marching off ceremony. The celebrations continued throughout the weekend with static and flying displays and a grand reunion of ex-members of both squadrons. The Squadron Standard of No.54 Squadron was laid-up in Norwich Cathedral on Sunday 13th March. The Squadron Standard of No.16 Squadron was laid-up in St. Omer Cathedral in France on the 20th March. No.16 Squadron was formed at St. Omer on the 10th February 1915 under the command of Major F.V.Holt DSO.

Following a series of ceremonies, all operational flying ceased on the 1st April when the Jaguars of No.6 Squadron departed for their new base at RAF Coningsby. The former Battle of Britain station is expected to have closed by December 2006

COLTISHALL CLOSED

30th NOVEMBER 2006

RAF Chia Keng 2 Rx Site from the air.

RAF CHIA KENG, SINGAPORE. Many thanks to Brian "Sailor" Luttman for passing on the details of the RAF Chia Keng Receiver Station website run by Derek Lehre in New Zealand. The Website has, with permission from Derek who also supplied the photograph, now been connected to our Links Page.

RAF ST.MAWGAN The Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram, it was reported in the RAF News, announced on the 10th March 2005, that RAF ST. Mawgan is to be "mothballed" by 2007. Currently there is a permanent detachment of riggers from the ERAS, RAF Sealand based at St. Mawgan to carry out maintenance and emergency servicing in the South West. All units presently stationed there will be moved to other bases but the future of No.2625 Squadron RAuxAF is under review. The Search and Rescue Headquarters, No.203(R) Squadron and its associated support will move to RAF Valley in North Wales. This unit will be the last unit at St. Mawgan, leaving by April 2007 at the latest.
On the 17th November 2005 the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram stated that St. Mawgan had not been selected as a base for the Joint Combat Aircraft and that the base will cease all military flying by 2007. The base will not be put into a care and maintenance state and will be sold off unless another military use can be found for it.

RAF STENIGOT The Aerial Erector School at RAF Digby is now under the command of the recently formed (joint services ) Defence College of Communications Information Systems. The Aerial Erector trade is moving from RAF trade group 5 into the RAF trade group 4, the new Communications and Information Systems trade group. Stenigot has had a face lift with the investment of £50,000 into the training facilities at the site. Brigadier John Terrington opened the new training facilities and Ft.Lt. Grahame Cooke took over the new training area on behalf of the school.
Stenigot opened in 1940 as part of the Chain Home Radar network and played an important part in the defence of the country during the war. The site was made redundant by advances in radar technology following the end of the war. All the wooden receiver masts have been demolished and only one of the 360ft. steel transmitter masts remains standing on the site and it is a grade 2 listed building.
The tower has been used for height training and testing of personnel since the Aerial Erector School moved to RAF Norton in Sheffield in 1956 and it then continued to be used by the school, now at RAF Digby, to the present day. Personnel of all three services and MOD civilians now receive height training for a variety of jobs, not just aerial erecting, at the school.
An Aerial Erector School spokesperson stated to the RAF News that "Working at height is a specialist field that needs special qualities which HAVE to be tested before acceptance into the RAF (for training as aerial erectors). Only 33% of the population can climb at height and of that 33%, only 33% can CLIMB and WORK at height".

GIBRALTAR The Rigger's establishment on the rock has been reduced by 4 posts, as much of the HF work is being civilianised, and the Middle Hill site has been closed down.

R.A.F. SEALAND

The closure of R.A.F. Sealand has now taken place. All the Aerial Erectors with the Expeditionary Radar and Airfield Squadron have been transfered to 90 Signals Unit RAF Leeming where they will be joined by the Tactical Communications Wing from Brize Norton.
The Electronics Business Unit of the Defence Aviaton Repair Agency (a civilian company)which is responsible for the repair and maintenance of Avionic equipment is the only unit still on the site.

RAF SEALAND CLOSED

R.A.F. Gangodawila, Ceylon A very interesting website run by Tony Cunnane featuring this RAF Receiver Station and much more including extracts from his diaries written during his stay there has been added to the links page.

R.A.F. BUCHAN The operations site has now become a Remote Radar Head under the control of Boulmer. All the engineering and operations equipment has been decommissioned or removed. The domestic site has been cleared and the last personnel posted to Boulmer and the site handed over to the Defence Estates for disposal.

R.A.F. BAWDSEY,One of the buildings included in the second series of the popular BBC Restoration programme was the Transmitter Block in the grounds of Bawdsey Manor on the Suffolk coast. R.A.F. Bawdsey was the world's first radar station and played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain. Under the direction of Professor Robert Watson-Watt and his team of scientists, Bawdsey played a major part in the early research of a variety of radars from the late 1930's onwards. Their work was so secret that even today little is known about the story of Bawdsey and its radar boffins.

R.A.F.Bawdsey finally closed down in the 1980's and the last of the towers were dismantled in 2000. All that remains on the site are the Transmitter and Receiver Blocks and the underground bunkers surrounded by 13 pillboxes.

Unfortunately Bawdsey did not win 'Restoration' but that does not stop them from saving the site. Please note that you can now make donations to Bawdsey Radar Group and help in the project to restore the transmitter block. Donations can be made by cheque, made payable to: Bawdsey Radar Group. Please send to Mary Wain (Chairman) 1, Whitehouse Cottage, Gulpher Road, Felixstow, Suffolk, IP11 9RJ.
The Transmitter Block opening Days for 2008.
Easter Sunday 23rd March
Easter Monday 24th March
May Bank Holiday Sunday 4th May
May Day Holiday 5th May
May Spring Bank Holiday Sunday 25th May
Spring Bank Holiday 26th May (Bawdsey Fete)
4th Sunday in June 22nd June
4th Sunday in July 27th July
August Bank Holiday Sunday 24th August
August Bank Holiday 25th August
2nd Sunday in September 14th September
Opening Times: 12-30pm to 4-30pm with last entry at 4-00pm.
Entry Fee: £3 for adults, children free.
Special visits can be arranged by telephone ( 07821 162879 ) or by email to info@bawdseyradargroup.co.uk

SHOUT and whisper Project. Thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund Grant of £47,900 the memories of people who were part of the development and use of radar at Bawdsey will be made available to future generations. The reminiscences of people involved with radar at Bawdsey from the late 1930s to the 1960s will be captured in video and audio formats and stored in the Suffolk and Essex Record Office archives and at The National Archive at Kew. Some of the records will be accessible from the Bawdsey website. This oral history project, titled "Shout and Whisper", is linked to the longer term project to restore the Transmitter Block.
More details about this new project and the site can be found by using the link to their website on the links page.