Monument record 0847800000 - Silverstone Airfield

Silverstone airfield is partly in Buckinghamshire and partly in Northamptonshire.
Silverstone was opened on 20 March 1943 and in April Upwood's 17 OTU moved here. They were mainly engaged with leaflet dropping sorties over France until August 1944. 17 OTU moved to North Luffenham in November 1946 and Silverstone was put into Care and Maintenance, and sold in 1947. In 1948 the first RAC Grand Prix was run here and in May 1949 the first British Grand Prix. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended the British Grand Prix in May 1950 and drove along the perimeter track/racing track. Names of some of the early drivers included Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Froilan Gonzales and Guiseppe Farina (B1).
Air Ministry site plan (B2).

The extent of a Second World War Royal Air Force (RAF) base and its satellite camps is set out by a 1945 dated Air Ministry scale drawing and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Ten RAF satellite camps are located across fields and through the woodlands known as The Straights between Henhood Farm and Hazelborough lodge, west of RAF Silverstone airfield and centred at SP 66016 42501. These provided segregated accommodation, mess and other recreational services for male RAF and female WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) personnel serving at adjacent RAF Silverstone, an operational wartime military airfield. The sites comprised the Admin Site, Site 2 (Instructional), Site 3 (Communal), Site 4 (Sick Quarters), Site 5 (Living Site 1), Site 6 (Living Site 2), Site 7 (Living Site 3), Site 8 (Living Site 4), Site 9 (WAAF Communal) and Site 10 (WAAF Site 2). An 11th site, Site 11 (the sewage disposal works for the airfield and camps) lies to the north of these, just outside the AIM project boundary and therefore its features have not been mapped (2).

A Second World War Royal Air Force airfield is visible on historic aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located about 2 kilometres SSE of Silverstone village and centred at SP 67485 41902, airfield construction began in 1942. The airfield became operational in 1943 and hosted No. 17 Operational Training Unit, operating Vickers Wellington bombers. The airfield had three runways, with a sinuous perimeter track that led to 30 dispersals scattered around the west, north and eastern periphery of the airfield. To the south was a large bomb store area served by a network of roads. The main technical working site was on the west side of the airfield, running north-south parallel with Dadford Road. The airfield was a Class A standard design, with three concrete crossed runways resembling a capital letter A at 60 degree angles to each other. The longest runway is the main strip, being about 1,800 metres in length and 46 metres wide, aligned roughly SSW-NNE for take-off and landings into the prevailing winds. The remaining two runways, at 1,250 metres long aligned SW-NE and 1,160 metres long aligned SE-NW, were used when the wind blew from other directions. The runways were connected by a 16 metres wide concrete perimeter track that ran around the outside of the airfield. From the ‘peri-track’ are 30 dispersal areas or ‘hardstanding areas’, 6 being of the ‘spectacle loop’ type and the remaining 24 being of the ‘frying-pan’ design. The airfield has five hangars, four being the T2 type and the fifth being a B1 type. The technical site comprises a hangars, workshops, stores of various types, armoury, motor transport, bulk fuel installations, firing range, fire section, watch office and squadron offices, along with air raid blast shelters scattered around the site. RAF Silverstone comprised 14 sites, Site 1 being the operational airfield and technical site. The Bombs Stores are isolated to the SW end of the airfield. The remaining satellite sites were located in fields and woodlands to the west of Dadford Road, comprising the Admin Site, Site 2 (Instructional), Site 3 (Communal), Site 4 (Sick Quarters), Site 5 (Living Site 1), Site 6 (Living Site 2), Site 7 (Living Site 3), Site 8 (Living Site 4), Site 9 (WAAF Communal), Site 10 (WAAF Site 2), Site 11 (the sewage disposal works for the airfield and camps) and Site 12 (the HF/DF station) located in fields to the SW of the bomb store. The airfield ceased military operations in 1946 and by 1947 some informal racing was taking places on the former airfield. The creation of a more formal circuit was instigated in 1948 and the first Grand Prix race was held at the airfield in May 1950. By 1963, the hangars and ancillary buildings on the east side of the airfield have been demolished. On the technical site to the west side of the airfield, a hangar, bulk fuel installations and buildings in the northwest corner are demolished. Many of the bomb store buildings have also been removed, though the earthworks remain. The airfield’s runways, perimeter track and many other buildings remain untouched, although and some new buildings constructed at the north end of the airfield on the former dispersal areas. By 1973, many more of the airfield’s technical buildings and two dispersal areas have been demolished, along with the remaining blast shelter structures and the bomb store’s earthwork banks. During the 1990s, more of the dispersal areas are demolished to be replaced by a new road system and a major redesign of the racing circuit layout takes place, though the runways remain relatively intact. However, by 2006 most of the remaining dispersals are removed and large car parking areas and new buildings constructed in their place. A central section of the main runway is demolished, along with small portions of the other runways at the east side, being replaced by racing circuit upgrades that remain extant on aerial photographs taken in 2019. Some of the course of the perimeter track remains intact, partly forming the Silverstone circuit, though the original concrete surface appears to have been demolished and replaced (7-32).