Dates: 1930 -
RAF Rudloe Manor, formerly RAF Box, was a Royal Air Force station located south-east of Bath, United Kingdom between the towns of Box and Corsham. It was one of several military installations situated in the area and covered three main sites.
The station held various roles during its lifetime and the site has now been absorbed into the Basil Hill Barracks complex used by Defence Equipment & Support, Information Systems & Services.
The station was built on top of quarries from which Bath Stone had been extracted, in the 1930s some of the tunnels were converted for use as the Central Ammunition Depot for the United Kingdom. The vast caverns had some 2,250,000 square feet (209,000 m2) of space, divided into many smaller chambers.
An area was used for RAF Fighter Group 10 Headquarters, named RAF Box. A communications switching centre was also established.
Also within the tunnels the Ministry of Aircraft Production built an aircraft engine factory, to act as a fallback should the factories in Bristol be damaged through bombing. Despite being built the factory was not actually used.
Following the end of the Second World War the site continued as both a communications hub and home of various administrative units. No1 Signals Unit was established to manage all UK terrestrial communications infrastructure for the RAF. With the launch of the UK Satellite Communications System, Skynet in the late 1960s the site of Controller Defence Communications Network (CDCN) was established. A spacecraft operations centre was established by 1001Signals Unit, the spacecraft operations organisation, on a small enclave within the site, known as Hawthorn.
The headquarters of the RAF Provost and Security Service was established in the Northerly of the three sites although on the closure of the station moved to RAF Henlow.
RAF Rudloe Manor was the location of Headquarters Southern Area Royal Observer Corps from 1952 until 1980 when it was relocated to Lansdowne near Bath. Co-located with the ROC was Headquarters Southern Sector United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation responsible for the now defunct Four-minute warning in the event of nuclear attack during the Cold War.
Memories of RAF Box
making the raf boxing command team in 1958Written by tony [scouse] braid
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"winning the raf novice and open championships in one month meeting up with alad from portsmouth who beat me two years previously in a southern docks verses northern docks i stopped him on a tko 2nd round i then went on to box in the allied air forces of europe winning that as well the high light was beating an amarican who was the brother of joe brown the light weight champion of the world...... memories
all of the catering staff at raf wildenrath one good camp and one good crowd the german staff where very helpful to me i used to do my friend stefen manfred favours of which ithink was worth the while as he used to get my clothes dry cleaned what a man.Also the one legged life saver at the baths what a swimmer he was he was i believe an olimpic swimmer before the war...."
Forces Reunited Forum Posts involving RAF Box
"RAF Police Pershore 1949. No 49 Course
Posted to RAF Cranwell. WO in charge WO "puggy" Warner. (us’t to be an RAF boxing champion."
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" The name of that RAF. Camp was enough to bring us out in a cold sweat whenit was mentioned in the West Country during the 1950s. This was a camp in Wiltshire (Just down the road from Brisol) where you went for two weeks "Refresher Course", meaning getting up at 7 am, Bulling your kit and having ..."
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"sac alan hughes, fighter plotter/teller/fcu
RAF BOX/MIDDLE WALLOP/NORTH WIELD
1954-1956"
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