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Ipswich
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1955
(© Geoff Foster)
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RAF
Ipswich aerodrome
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Airfield Today:
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Housing
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Tower Type:
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1938 Civil airport terminal
building
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Tower:
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Despite
its Grade II listing the terminal building was demolished in April 2005.
The ground floor front
facade is the only original part of the building to survive
and even that looks to have been changed. So why does it retain a Grade
II listing? Maybe it lets the property developers increase their prices...
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Other
Buildings:
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None
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History:
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Station history |
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RAF
Ipswich
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1955
(© Geoff Foster)
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| Hello,
I came across your webpage about Ipswich Airport whilst browsing and thought
you might like to have the attached photographs. They were taken in July 1955, when I was about to be demobbed after doing my RAF National Service. I was posted there in April 1954, when it was known as RAF Nacton. At that time is was also known as No. 3619 Fighter Control Unit of the Royal Auxilliary Air Force. From when I was posted there in April 1954 until May 1955, the unit had a fully operational "Chain Home Low" mobile radar convoy, complete with "PPI" and height detector aerials. The signals were fed into the main building where we had 4 consoles in separate cabins, which in turn fed the information to the plotting tables. These were identical to the world war 2 tables with RAAF women doing the plotting. There were about 25 full time RAF staff on site and the Auxilliaries attended on Monday and Thursday evenings for 2 hours and one Sunday each month. At this time, the RAF controlled about 90% of the main building, East Anglian Airways (see photo of the de Haviland Rapide on the grass outside the building) only had a very small area inside the main entrance. As a last point, I feel very cross that the Terminal Building, having been deemed to be worth saving, should have been torn down. Yours faithfully, Geoff Foster |
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RAF
Ipswich airfield
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Airfield:
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Civil aerodrome, Army
Co-operation, Fighter Command
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Opened:
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26/06/1930
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Closed:
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31/12/1996
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Code:
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?
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USAAF Station:
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N/A
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Runways:
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2x - Grass
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Hangars:
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4x - Civil airport
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County:
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Suffolk
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Location:
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SE of Ipswich
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OS Ref:
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TM190410
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Links:
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www.ipswichairport.info
has excellent photos of the demolition and rebuild
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©:
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All
photographs copyright ©
as stated
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RAF
Ipswich airfield
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Ipswich
airport terminal is demolished leaving only the lower front wall (rear
view)
June 2005 (© via www.ipswichairport.info) |
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Front
view of the 'rebuild' - note that now even the original entrance and porch
seen above have been demolished (count six large windows from the right
and the seventh and eighth window holes show where it once was) March
2006 (© via www.ipswichairport.info)
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October
2006 (© www.ipswichairport.info)
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RAF
Ipswich airfield
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2007
(© Kerry Davidge)
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2007
(© Kerry Davidge)
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RAF
Ipswich airfield
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RAF
Ipswich airfield
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RAF
Ipswich airfield + control tower = www.controltowers.co.uk © robert
truman 2007 - Ipswich -
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