RAF Carlisle (previously
RAF Kingstown) was a
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
establishment, now closed after being used for a variety of roles over a period of fifty eight years and formerly located 2 miles (3.5 kilometres) north of Carlisle city centre in
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The station was latterly the home of
No. 14 Maintenance Unit and occupied the various sites originally used by RAF Kingstown's
Elementary Flying Training School during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The site was usually known both locally and within the RAF by its shortened form of
14 MU. The site had also served for a short period in the 1930s as a civilian municipal airport for the
City of CarlisleThe City of Carlisle , is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...
, but proved to be underused and uneconomic.
The maintenance unit was located on the northern edge of Carlisle, just past the present
AsdaAsda is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, toys and general merchandise. They also have a mobile network, called Asda Mobile....
supermarket, and spread across several different sites. The smallest storage site of
Harker was 0.7
kmThe kilometre , symbol km is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second....
north east of RAF Kingstown and, together with
Heathlands which was 0.5 km north, was on the opposite side on the A74. The largest site of
Rockcliffe was 1.2 km north west and
Cargo site was 1.5 km south west. The maintenance unit was used by the RAF to store and maintain various pieces of equipment ranging from aircraft engine parts to firearms, ammunition to office furniture, aircrew clothing and small hardware items.
Routine requests for items were dealt with by the (mostly civilian) warehousemen during normal working hours. At night a uniformed RAF Duty Officer dealt with urgent and essential "flash" requests from operational flying stations.
Origins
In the early 1930s, the
Carlisle County Borough CouncilThe City of Carlisle , is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...
opened Kingstown municipal airport, at the time outside the city boundaries on the land that is today the Kingstown and Kingmoor Park industrial estates. This early airport was a typical 1930s grass field airstrip with no
metalled runwaysRoad surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain traffic . Such surfaces are frequently marked to guide traffic. The most common modern paving methods are asphalt and concrete. In the past, brick was extensively used, as was metalling...
. The new airport proved to be underused and uneconomic so the airfield was eventually sold to the
Air MinistryThe Air Ministry was formerly a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, existing from 1918 to 1964...
in 1936.
The RAF installed concrete runways, hangars, a full range of administrative buildings and several estates of married quarter housing for officers and other ranks. The new station opened for operations on 26 September 1938 as RAF Kingstown and became home to two operational bomber squadrons flying
Fairey BattleThe Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company in the late 1930s for the Royal Air Force. The Battle was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighters high performance; however, the Battle was weighed...
bombers with three man crews.
The War years
With the outbreak of war in 1939, Kingstown's runways proved too short for the latest generation of larger multi-engined bombers and there was no room for runway expansions, so the RAF built and developed a new airfield at
Crosby-on-EdenCrosby-on-Eden is the combined name for two villages within the civil parish of Stanwix Rural near Carlisle, Cumbria, England.The two small villages are by the River Eden north-east of Carlisle, joined by a road that previously was the line of the Stanegate Roman road . and are called High Crosby...
. The new facility came into operation in February 1941, the station designated as
RAF Crosby-on-Eden which, following its wartime service, today serves as
Carlisle AirportCarlisle Airport is located east northeast of Carlisle, Cumbria, England.Carlisle has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction, up to a maximum takeoff weight authorised of 12.5 tonnes.The airport is located on a...
. RAF Kingstown was retained by the RAF and converted to No 24 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS).
As the war developed and the need for pilots increased the EFTS expanded its operations onto several local grass fields at nearby Harker, Heathlands, Rockcliffe and Cargo, there was even a satellite grass field at Kirkpatrick just across the Scottish border, near to Gretna Green. The main trainer used at the school was the
Tiger MothThe de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until 1952 when many of the surplus aircraft entered civil operation...
.
In 1941 RAF Kingstown was redesignated as No 15 Flying Grading School where pilots who had already undergone basic flying training elsewhere were assessed for their suitability for conversion to either fighter or bomber operations. The station retained this function until the end of hostilities in 1945 when the base was closed and placed on a care and maintenance status.
Involved in a POW escape attempt
RAF Kingstown featured in one of the most audacious escape attempts by any German prisoners of war during World War Two. On 24 November 1941 two German pilots, held at POW Camp No 15 at
ShapShap is a linear village located amongst fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and is near to the M6 motorway...
in a former hotel and now again the
Shap Wells Hotel, escaped with flying jackets over their
LuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.Schweizer Luftwaffe is also the name of the Swiss Air...
uniforms and carrying forged identity documents that purported them to be Dutch airman attached to the RAF.
They were fighter pilot Leutnant Heinz Schnabel from 1/JG3 Jagdstaffell and Heinkel bomber pilot Oberleutnant Harry Wappler from KG27. Without any apparent difficulty they entered RAF Kingstown and, with the help of an RAF ground mechanic, started up a
Miles MagisterThe Miles M.14 Magister was a British two-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft built by the Miles Aircraft for the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. Affectionately known as the Maggie, the Magister was based on Miles' civilian Hawk Major and Hawk Trainer and was the first monoplane designed...
trainer aircraft and took off. Short of fuel they landed at another RAF airfield and refueled. Setting off for
HollandRotterdam
The Hague
Haarlem
Dordrecht |} Holland is a name in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often informally used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands...
they suddenly realized the aircraft’s range was insufficient and they turned back. Landing at an airfield near
Great YarmouthGreat Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, 20 miles east of Norwich....
they were recaptured and, after 28 days in solitary, were shipped to more secure confinement in Canada.
A change of use
During the 1950s the station was reactivated, redesignated as
RAF Carlisle and retasked as No 14 Maintenance Unit, the RAF's most northerly storage facility in the UK. The original RAF Kingstown site was established as the station headquarters and the runways were removed with the ballast used as foundations for a major building programme on the satellite sites of Harker, Heathlands, Rockcliffe and Cargo where hangars, storage buildings and administration offices were built.
By the 1980s the headquarters site consisted of the original guard room manned by civilian MOD police, a
helipadThe word helipad is a portmanteau meaning helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. Though helicopters can usually land anywhere preferably flat , a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can land...
mainly used by the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
during aerial marine surveys of the
Solway FirthThe Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very...
, the small non-standard officers' mess with living accommodation for eight officers, the station HQ, the rifle range, a water tower, an MOD Fire Station with a single
fire engine applianceA fire apparatus, fire engine, fire truck, or fire appliance is a vehicle designed to assist in fighting fires by transporting firefighters to the scene and providing them with access to the fire, water or other equipment...
and various other minor admin buildings. The station was unusual within the RAF as there were no
other ranksOther Ranks in the British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are those personnel who are not commissioned officers...
or NCOs stationed at RAF Carlisle, only a small cadre of officers who controlled a civilian workforce of storekeepers and warehousemen. Unlike the majority of RAF stations that were usually commanded by a Group Captain, RAF Carlisle was commanded by a
Wing CommanderWing Commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above Squadron Leader and immediately below Group Captain...
.
In 1957, RAF Carlisle became the parent administrative station to the new missile testing establishment at the nearby satellite station of
RAF SpadeadamRAF Spadeadam is a Royal Air Force station close to the border between England and Scotland. It is the home of the 9000 acre Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, making it the largest RAF base in the United Kingdom....
on the remote Cumberland moorland. Spadeadam no longer tests ballistic missiles and remains today as the RAF's
electronic warfareElectronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum or to attack the enemy. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to, the EM spectrum...
training and testing range.
RAF Carlisle was just one in a chain of several Maintenance Units forming RAF Supply Branch, later to become
RAF Logistics CommandThe Royal Air Force's Logistics Command was formed on 1 April 1994 and its role was to provide logistics support to the RAF. The formation of Logistics Command resulted from the Government's PROSPECT study which was aimed to achieve a 20% reduction in the UK armed forces' headquarters staff to...
in 1994. Logistics Command was faced with a contracting airforce that had less airfields, less aircraft and less personnel. The logical answer was a reduction in the number of maintenance units and 14 MU was the farthest flung location in the UK, now isolated with most northern RAF stations already closed. RAF Carlisle would prove to be an early target for closure in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) which marked the beginning of a modernization that moved towards a unified tri-service logistics support.
Final closure
After three years of closure threats by the
Ministry of DefenceThe Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
and extended negotiations with Carlisle Council, the RAF Carlisle base was finally closed in September 1996, and stood unused for several years. The site was eventually bought by a local entrepreneur and businessman, Brian Scowcroft, who made a sizeable investment developing the site into the extensive regional business park known as Kingmoor Park, the role that continues today.
The main site is as much the hub of operations today as it was when it was in RAF service. It houses the site admin blocks, many local businesses have converted hangars into workshops, several national and international businesses have depots there. The helipad area disappeared under The Capita Group's new building, where Capita Business Services now operates various services for
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
County Council under tender for the next fifteen years. Capita Symonds also works out of the same building, where they develop computer software and act as consultants on highways, amongst other functions. The
CargoCargo is a small village near the river Eden on the Solway Plain. Cargo is about 3½ miles northwest of Carlisle in Cumbria in the North West of England. The name Cargo reflects a combination of two languages; from the Celtic word carreg meaning "rock" and from the Old Norse word haugr meaning ...
site has been cleared and a new residential housing estate is now under construction.
The stock of RAF Carlisle officers' and other ranks' married-quarter housing was sold originally to Carlisle City Council and is now almost completely owner-occupied. The last "gate guardian" aircraft at RAF Carlisle was the
Phantom FGR2 No XV406, ex 64 Sqn/228OCU at LeucharsThe McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Proving highly adaptable, it became a major part of the air wings of the United States...
. After RAF Carlisle was closed, this aircraft was transferred to the Solway Aviation Museum at
Carlisle AirportCarlisle Airport is located east northeast of Carlisle, Cumbria, England.Carlisle has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction, up to a maximum takeoff weight authorised of 12.5 tonnes.The airport is located on a...
where it still stands. Other "gate guardians" at RAF Carlisle have included a
Gloster Meteor NF14The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. Designed by George Carter, it first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...
, a
CanberraThe English Electric Canberra is a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. It proved to be highly adaptable, serving in such varied roles for tactical bombing, photographic, electronic, and meteorological reconnaissance...
photographic recon aircraft, both also now homed at the Solway Aviation Museum and a
Hawker Hunter F1The Hawker Hunter was a UK jet fighter aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s. The Hunter served for many years with the Royal Air Force and was widely exported, serving with 19 air forces. A total of 1,972 Hunters were produced by Hawker Siddeley and under licence....
.
Radioactive contamination
During 1992
radioactive radiumRadium has no stable isotopes. A standard atomic mass cannot be given. The longest lived, and most common, isotope of radium is 226Ra which occurs in the disintegration chain of 238U...
was discovered at the RAF Carlisle site by accident when an MoD employee walked across a patch of ground idly using a
geiger counterA Geiger counter, also called a Geiger-Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation.-Description:Geiger counters are used to detect ionizing radiation...
. After further investigations it was realised that the RAF had incinerated thousands of luminous dials from the old wartime trainer aircraft in accordance with the disposal policy of the 1940s and 1950s known as "bash, bury or burn". The resulting radioactive ash had been scattered and used during later landscaping of the site.
The radioactive ash had also been used as packing around fence posts on the airfield boundary. Hotspots of up to
250,000 becquerels of radioactivityThe becquerel is the SI derived unit of radioactivity. One Bq is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. It is therefore equivalent to s−1...
were identified where unburnt dials had been abandoned in piles on the ground. Such levels would be harmful inside the body and could burn the skin in hours.
Since 1992, scientists have analysed up to 10,000 soil samples from the closed RAF Carlisle site and so far have published thirty separate reports. Over three hundred cubic metres of soil contaminated with radium-226 at levels of at least 4 becquerels per gram were condemned as radioactive waste and transported to the
low-level waste dumpLow Level Waste Repository is the UK's Low Level Waste Repository located on the West Cumbrian coast approximately six km south east of the Sellafield nuclear site at Drigg village....
run by British Nuclear Fuels at
DriggDrigg is a village situated in the civil parish of Drigg and Carleton on the West Cumbria coast of the Irish Sea and on the boundary of the Lake District National Park in the county of Cumbria, England....
. Up to twice that volume of less radioactive soils have been tipped onto nearby industrial waste sites.
Royal Observer Corps, Carlisle Group
During the Second World War the air raid warning organisation No 32 Group Carlisle
Royal Observer CorpsThe Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....
operated from a building in the city centre although it was controlled administratively from RAF Kingstown. The association with Kingstown developed further in 1962 when the ROC ceased its aircraft spotting role for the RAF and took on a new role of plotting nuclear explosions and warning the public of approaching radioactive fallout for the
UKWMOThe United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
. A new administration building and a protected, hardened Nuclear Reporting bunker was built at RAF Carlisle. The nuclear bunker was a standard above-ground structure and both the bunker and Headquarters hutting stood on a separate site at Crindledyke just outside the main gates of RAF Carlisle and roughly opposite the station's officers mess. The Carlisle group was redesignated no 22 Group ROC.
The ROC also constructed a smaller nuclear reporting post called Kingstown post (OS ref:NY 3837 5920), on the main RAF Carlisle site. The post was also an underground protected bunker but designed for a crew of three observers. The headquarters bunker accommodated an operational crew of around 100 with dormitory and canteen facilities included with the operations room and life support plant.
The Royal Observer Corps and its parent organisation the
United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring OrganisationThe United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
were disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
and as a result of recommendations in the governments
Options for ChangeOptions for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in 1990, aimed at cutting defence spending following the end of the Cold War....
review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
Continuing RAF links
The Royal Air Force still retains close links with the local area, through
RAF SpadeadamRAF Spadeadam is a Royal Air Force station close to the border between England and Scotland. It is the home of the 9000 acre Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, making it the largest RAF base in the United Kingdom....
, the only
electronic warfareElectronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum or to attack the enemy. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to, the EM spectrum...
range still in the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and one of two in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, which holds an annual thanksgiving service in
Carlisle CathedralThe Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, otherwise called Carlisle Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle. It is located in Carlisle, in Cumbria, North West England. It was founded as an Augustinian monastery and became a cathedral in 1133.Carlisle, because of...
on
Battle of BritainThe Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially Fighter Command...
Sunday.
Other links with the area are
No. 1862 (City of Carlisle) Squadron, Air Training CorpsThe Air Training Corps is a cadet organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary youth group which is part of the Air Cadet Organization and the Royal Air Force . It is supported by the Ministry of Defence, with a regular RAF Officer, currently Air Commodore Ian R W Stewart, serving...
, based near the redundant station, the Carlisle and District Branch of the
Royal Air Forces AssociationThe Royal Air Forces Association, more often known as RAF Association, or simply RAFA, is a UK-based charitable organization which provides care and support to serving and retired members of the "Royal Air Forces" and their dependants.The organisation, which was formed in 1943, receives no funding...
and the Royal Observer Corps Association (22 Group Chapter).