Upper Heyford's hardened buildings

Dogged reminders of 20th Century global conflict sit on a plain near Bicester in Oxfordshire.

Upper Heyford is the best preserved Cold War base in Britain, with hundreds of fascinating concrete structures, and there's always something new to discover.

The former RAF base was allocated to the USA's Strategic Air Command in the 1950s. Its purpose was to retaliate with bombers to any Soviet nuclear strike, which would lead to mutually assured destruction (MAD).

Tension must have been high during the Cuban missile crisis of 1961 when the end of the world looked possible—it would have started from here. But by the late 60s America's focus had shifted toward places such as Vietnam, and development here slowed for a time.

Then in the 70s, they pursued a more 'flexible response' strategy, and F-111 bombers arrived. The Arab-Israeli War had shown unprotected aircraft were vulnerable to attack, so they built new bombproof hangars and buildings.

Building number 299 – Avionics

The aircraft electronics facility is in the south-west of the airfield, near the main vehicular entrance. The nature of the work meant nothing magnetic was allowed in.

Building number not known – Quick Reaction Alert (or Victor Alert) entrance

Behind this guard house, nine F-111s stood in concrete hangars on 24-hour standby, ready to attack Moscow.

2010 – QRA Command Centre

The command centre for the planes on standby.

234 – 55th Aircraft Maintenance Unit

Just north of the QRA area is one of the squadron headquarters. Staff looking after the standby aircraft worked here. Historic England gives this one a separate listing, thanks to its completeness and good condition. It's now part of a police training area.

383 –  42nd Electronic Countermeasures Squadron HQ

This is newer than the other three squadron HQs. Like the others, it has a normal entrance and a 'dirty' one, connected to decontamination showers for anyone coming in with radiation.

209 – 77nd Tactical Fighter Squadron HQ

Now occupied by a business, it's identical to the 55th and 79th squadrons' buildings. 

# n/k – Northern Bomb Store entrance 

Fortress guarding the nuclear bomb storage area:

1017 – Trigger Store

This held the capsules, or trigger mechanisms for the nukes. 

Front

The windows are fake, to make it look like an office. According to Historic England's 2017 "A reassessment of the flying field Conservation Area" report,

It is […] a solid concrete block, with a small, secure interior vault where nuclear capsules, or triggers might be stored. The capsules were held in pressurised tubes within a rectangular, open, tubular frame, known as a "Birdcage", and kept in the vault in open lockers about 0.91cm square. The vault might house up to 30 devices.

Rear

Vault

370 – 79th Tactical Fighter Squadron HQ

Within the car distribution area in the south, this is one of the least taken care of buildings at the base. Nature is taking over, on the outside at least. 

Exterior

Interior

Decontamination shower

Console for controlling entry

129 – Telephone Exchange

Built to maintain lines of communication in the event of an attack; it's still in use. 

126 - Command Centre

The nerve centre of the base was built in a nondescript corner of the airfield to hinder identification by the enemy.

Upper Heyford's civilian side is being turned into a busy commuter village. These striking buildings on the airfield are thankfully protected from the bulldozers by their listed status, and from the elements by their defensive, weatherproof designs.

For more photos of Upper Heyford see an earlier post.  

Frozen in time: Upper Heyford

Upper Heyford near Bicester in Oxfordshire served as an RAF airfield from 1918, mainly for training.

As the Cold War developed, Strategic Air Command took it over in 1951 as one of 4 American bases in southern England (others being RAF Brize Norton, RAF Fairford and RAF Greenham Common) to host bomber aircraft.

In its 'heyday'

Image courtesy http://www.raf-upper-heyford.org/Aerial_Views_Maps.html.

Squadrons or 'wings' including bombers and reconnaissance planes flew B35s, 47s, 52s, RB36s, B58 Hustlers, then F111s (Aardvarks, Ravens). It was the UK's only airbase where only the flight-line area required military identification for the public to access (Wikipedia has a detailed history).

In the 1980s a peace camp was set up to protest at nuclear armed and ready aircraft here. Around 2000 people took part and over 700 arrests were made.

By the early 1990s the Cold War was over, and the base wound down.

On the south side of the main road the residential buildings have been let out but the hospital and school were left to deteriorate - buildings are gradually being demolished and new houses are popping up.

Things are a bit better airside, with various outfits making use of the facilities. Police training, secure storage, vehicle logistics, boat building, film recording and such take place.

Incidentally the base featured in Octopussy as the West German USAF base 'Feldstadt'.

In the middle the control tower/weather station gave clearance for take off and checked flying conditions.

The 'smoke house', used by firefighters for practice.

A building near control tower. Every structure is numbered.

299, Avionics (west side of airstrip). According to a worker it had to be kept free of metallic matter.

Rear annex:

Another heavily defended building: 55th squadron's headquarters.

Rear view, although it's hard to know which is the front and back.

Inside:

Further round the airfield was nuclear missiles storage. Now it's used for storing fireworks.

There are 56 hardened hangars like this.

9 are in the Quick Reaction Alert facility in the north east which is where attack planes sat on 24 hour standby.

Back of hangar

The HQ of this bit, where the pilots would retire following their 4 hour stints sitting in the cockpit.

Worthy of further investigation.

Finally 126, the centre of operations - the command centre.

The door above opened to reveal...

Another locked door.

That concludes the tour, thanks for reading!