{"id":200,"date":"2025-08-19T04:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T04:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/?p=200"},"modified":"2025-08-19T04:23:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T04:23:53","slug":"raf-great-witcombe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/?p=200","title":{"rendered":"RAF Great Witcombe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RAF Great Witcombe was a Second World War Royal Air Force<\/a> station at Great Witcombe<\/a>, Gloucestershire<\/a>. used primarily by members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force<\/a>. Post war the site provided temporary housing for homeless families, managed by Cheltenham Rural District<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAF Use<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The station opened on 12 February 1942 and was under the control of 26 Group, Its main role on opening was the formation and training of Wireless Observer Units. 81 Signals Wing, which was part of RAF Bomber_Command<\/a> was the main unit to be based there. It was responsible for wireless stations at Birdlip (Glos) and Winstone(Glos), Bodmin (Cornwall) Hartlebury (Worcesershire) as well as 3 Western Area Signals Offices at Gloucester, Stonehouse and Worcester.1<\/a><\/sup> Possible sources for additional information include the 81 Signals Wing War Diary.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RAF Great Witcombe Extract from OS 6″ to Mile 1954 edition.
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https:\/\/maps.nls.uk\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Post War Civilian Use<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Medical Officer of Health for Cheltenham Rural District in his 1946 Annual Report noted: – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We witnessed during the autumn a forcible demonstration of the acute housing shortage when a number of vacant service camps were seized and occupied by squatters; people preferring the bleak conditions of the camps to the accommodation they had, mostly rooms or being in a house under suffrance from another family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steps were taken to have the camps handed over to the Council in order to obtain a measure of control<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Great Witcombe part of the site it was at the time being used by the Gloucestershire War Agricultural Executive Committee, who under pressure from the military authorities vacated the site so that 23 families could be transferred from the RAF camp at Bamfurlong, Staverton, which was required for military personnel. The buildings were of varied construction including brick, plasterboard, felt and corrugated iron. The essential services were maintained and most of the buildings were equipped with with their own water closets and water supply. Conversion works for the better buildings were then carried out to make them habitable for 5 years, in line with the Government circular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1947 it was reported that the conversions to allow occupation for 10 years were proceeding for dwellings now occupied by 53 families and that 12 had already been converted, each having electric light, internal water supply, hot water, bath and wc along with a cooking range. It was reported that a community centre had been established and efforts were being made to set up a infant welfare clinic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1948 the Council was reporting that conversion works for the 64 families were nearing completion. A communal laundry was provided and a general store had been established. There were efforts to hold regular child welfare clinics and also arrange for a doctors surgery. By 1950 the council was receiving extra allocations of funding for new council homes to replace the poorest quality temporary housing with 2 sites at Elkstone Grounds and Northway being progressively cleared and in 1951 all had been rehoused the sites cleared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1952 report recorded that there were 164 dwellings occupied on three sites in the District, Stoke Orchard, Shurdington and Witcombe but there was a disincentive on the council exiting sites early as the Minsitry share of the costs of conversion still outstanding would fall entirely on the Council for any period that properties were vacant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For this reason, therefore, it is necessary that this accommodation shall be used for for as long as possible.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This explanation of why the temporary accommodation was still in use despite being often unsatisfactory was advanced again in 1953, although it was clear that the longest standing residents, where vacancies arose were being rehoused in council houses, with new residents from the waiting list being found quickly. This situation continued into 1954, but by 1955 the number of dwellings had reduced 147 with the policy now being that the when all the residents had been rehoused the dwellings would be demolished. By the end of 1957 the number accommodated at Witcombe had been reduced to 20 and families were being rehoused elsewhere as soon as vacancies in the council housing stock arose and by the end of 1958 there were no families accommodated at what had become known as Witcombe Grounds.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former RAF Camp is now mainly overgrown with woodland with little evidence of any buildings remaining, apart from some limited residential development. The site is located at National Grid Reference SO 907 155.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is likely that many of the residents in the temporary accommodation were accommodated in the Council’s new housing scheme developed a short distance away north of the Cirencester Road in about 1957. In 1974 this area was transferred to Tewkesbury Borough Council and they continued to manage the council housing until the transferred their housing stock to Severn Vale Housing Society in 1998. Many of the houses have been sold under Right to Buy. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Location of Council Housing constructed in about 1957 and former RAF Great Witcombe.
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https:\/\/maps.nls.uk\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. https:\/\/www.rafweb.org\/Stations\/Stations-G.htm<\/a>; https:\/\/www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk\/forum\/airfield-discussion\/8016-gloster-aircraft-company-production-sites<\/a> \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. 81 Signals Group, Operations record book June 1941 – May 1945, National Archives AIR 26\/135 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health Cheltenham Rural District 1946 to 1958 from Wellcome Collection https:\/\/wellcomecollection.org\/search\/works?query=Medical+Officer+of+health+cheltenham+rural&production.dates.from=1945&production.dates.to=1960<\/a> \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    RAF Great Witcombe was a Second World War Royal Air Force station at Great Witcombe, Gloucestershire. used primarily by members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Post war the site provided temporary housing for homeless families, managed by Cheltenham Rural District. RAF Use The station opened on 12 February 1942 and was under the control of 26 Group, Its main role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"https:\/\/www.rafweb.org\/Stations\/Stations-G.htm<\/a>; https:\/\/www.airfieldresearchgroup.org.uk\/forum\/airfield-discussion\/8016-gloster-aircraft-company-production-sites<\/a> \",\"id\":\"c90c20fb-5b89-457a-b10f-d51791c84f47\"},{\"content\":\"81 Signals Group, Operations record book June 1941 - May 1945, National Archives AIR 26\/135 \",\"id\":\"e140e703-3cef-417f-81a5-9315025108c3\"},{\"content\":\"Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health Cheltenham Rural District 1946 to 1958 from Wellcome Collection https:\/\/wellcomecollection.org\/search\/works?query=Medical+Officer+of+health+cheltenham+rural&production.dates.from=1945&production.dates.to=1960<\/a> \",\"id\":\"91320632-c251-45ca-9a8e-926ba2798d88\"}]"},"categories":[23,6,22],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheltenham-rural-district-council","category-history","category-housing","tag-badgeworth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chastownley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}