Back to Gloucestershire for RAF Southrop

Hi all
well after a mad week or two first the monster day in Gloucestershire followed by a subbrit visit to the Thames barrier then back to London a few days later for another subbrit trip around the deep level shelter at Clapham north.
Cockney boy said we should go back to Gloucestershire for a bit more military stuff.

Cockney boys timing is spot on, as I had to dig the old 4X4 out of the snow first then off to pick him up. so with Underworld blastin on the CD player it was off to the former RAF Southrop.

RAF Southrop was active between 1940-1945 and was used by 23Gp for flying training, there were 946 personal based there....

The first site is in the woods...

Lots of old building bases and this very flooded stanton shelter


Then in to camp wood for the main site





This is a shot inside the cook house



Cockney Boy had been banging on about the water tower all morning with more and more comments like is that it .....

Ummmm No!!!!!

what about that

Ummmm No!!!!!

Then what about that over there, now thats what I call a water tower..



Then back in the old 4X4 for a bit more of the slippy slidy stuff and on to the next part of the base, this place is called Horseshoe woods.

This is a double Norcon pill box....



and along side in the woods is this prefab Norcon



Then off we went again to the next site which is called the "Farm house", there is a Blue Circle sign on the end wall, and the building looks like it may of had generator sets in it.
It is also protected by a double Norcon pill box and anti aircraft gun mounts.





And just outside the walled area is another prefab Norcon pill box



Then off to the last part of the site, this contains misc buildings and the riffle range firing butt and
the usual blast shelter but the one for me showed the power of mother nature.

The first picture shows 2 window frames on a tree branch, Cockney boy was impressed that someone
took the time to play hoops with them over the tree until you take a better look.
The tree has grown through the window and then pushed the building over..




Well that was about it for the day.
Again well done if you made it this far, there are lots more pictures on my FlickR page.

it's at http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/

Cheers Newage & Cockney Boy

Great to see RAF Southrop again. Really glad the water tower's still there...it's an excellent example, along with the Norcon pillboxes. Tis a bit special, this site.
Love those window frames hooked by the tree.

Tut tut, Marconi woods is private property which they're very precious about.

Funny that !! I always thought it was called Marconi woods , but take another look its actually Macaroni woods !!GROUP DYSLEXIA ?????

Great stuff and you have jsut supplied me with the name of one of the pillboxes that I have, a Norcon prefab

The window frame is fantastic! Love the water tower, it certainly is a good example of one, not many about these days.