Report - RAF West Raynham - Norfolk - January 2016

[Krypton]

RAF West Raynham was a Royal Air Force station located 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the village of West Raynham in Norfolk, England, opened in the 1930s. RAF Bomber Command flew missions from RAF West Raynham during the Second World War, with the loss of 86 aircraft.
The station closed in 1994 and was sold off by the MOD in 2004. In 2006 it was bought by a company who are currently converting it to a Business Park.

The Accomodation Blocks, Airmens Restaurant and Officers Mess are fairly straight forward.. The main part with the airfield is now well in use as a business park. There were lots of forklifts and things flying round the runway and farmers moving hay bales etc so unfortunately no pictures of the control tower.



First up is the accomodation blocks..

One of the many Boiler Houses

Airmens Restaurant

]

Officers Mess & Accomodation

Medical Centre

Decontamination Centre with what I think is a Mortuary

Krypton

 

[Ojay]

Nicely covered, like that

 

[Mr Beady]

saw more bits than I did nice one m8

 

[clebby]

Lovely crisp shots

 

[Urbexbandoned]

Lovely shots and really well covered. I love the little air lock. Really clean this place isn't it. I have just done a bit of research and found out that there was infact a mortuary at West Raynham. It dates back to before the 50's and back in those days bodies were laid on corrugated steel then covered with blankets. There weren't many Coroners to confirm & certify death like there is today, nor were there many Regulations for storing the deceased. Quite fascinating

 

[Krypton]

Lovely shots and really well covered. I love the little air lock. Really clean this place isn't it. I have just done a bit of research and found out that there was infact a mortuary at West Raynham. It dates back to before the 50's and back in those days bodies were laid on corrugated steel then covered with blankets. There weren't many Coroners to confirm & certify death like there is today, nor were there many Regulations for storing the deceased. Quite fascinating

I can't imagine the mortuary ever really needing to be used though really? What is in my photo must be what's left of it.

 

[Urbexbandoned]

I can't imagine the mortuary ever really needing to be used though really? What is in my photo must be what's left of it.

I wouldn't imagine so, I did just read about a crash from a plane that took off from RAF Sculthorpe in 1957 and came down where 3 died and they were taken to the mortuary at West Raynham but that was all I found. Nowadays, the deceased are collected by District Coroners. Still, the photo is one I haven't seen before and a few other bits covered in your report.

 

[Krypton]

I wouldn't imagine so, I did just read about a crash from a plane that took off from RAF Sculthorpe in 1957 and came down where 3 died and they were taken to the mortuary at West Raynham but that was all I found. Nowadays, the deceased are collected by District Coroners. Still, the photo is one I haven't seen before and a few other bits covered in your report.

That must have been a pretty harrowing experience. The smell of charred flesh is not a nice smell at all, especially when just covered in a blanket and placed in an un-refrigerated room!

There are still lots of locked buildings and bunkers on the site. Who knows what else is lurking.

 

[Urbexbandoned]

I completely agree. I can't imagine they were there long. I visited recently but didn't cover much of the site, only the restaurant and the Airmens mess & boiler houses. Nice to see some new bits

 

[Exploring with Andy]

Well covered, really nice shots there.

 

[Bolts]

Nice and clean the report isn't too bad either...

 

[The_Mole]

I wouldn't imagine so, I did just read about a crash from a plane that took off from RAF Sculthorpe in 1957 and came down where 3 died and they were taken to the mortuary at West Raynham but that was all I found. Nowadays, the deceased are collected by District Coroners. Still, the photo is one I haven't seen before and a few other bits covered in your report.

Raynham was built as a permanent expansion bomber airfield with the '39 C-Type hangars so would be built to a generic design. It probably didnt help there being an impending war so they were probably expecting a lot of bodies, especially on a bomber airfield, where the crews life expectancy was about 3 missions.
Lovely pictures though mate! Ive been meaning to go here for a while but never quite got a round tuit.

 

[Goldie87]

Got some good shots there, just a shame it was the wrong day and the time was getting on! We didn't miss too much though

 

[host]

Really well documented..thanks for posting.

 

[wicker man]

nice pictures, used to live on there till a few years ago was always a good way to spend a sunday, must have walked round the hole place loads of time & always felt like i missed stuff