RAF Newton

Whilst walking along a footpath near the now decommissioned RAF Newton we passed these abandoned security buildings and munitions storage depots. The open gate was too tempting to pass so we ventured inside for a quick look around. Exploring spaces which have seen so much life, activity and secrecy make your mind wander. These buildings are fascinating enough but I wanted to inject some of the sense of nostalgia and contemplation I felt wandering around the site as well. I thought the best way to do this would be to contextualise this space with its surroundings by layering other images of the site from the same day onto the walls.

My friend, Matthew Hoyland, took an amazing series of photographs of other parts of the base which you can find here [link].

Here's some more information about RAF Newton from Wiki...

"RAF Newton was a Royal Air Force station, 7 miles east of Nottingham, England. It was used briefly as a bomber base and then as a flying training school during World War II.

Built on the site of a pre-war civil airfield, Newton was assigned to No 1 Group in June 1940, when Nos 103 and 150 squadrons returned from France. These squadrons were re-equipped with Vickers Wellingtons in October 1940 but moved on to more suitable bomber airfields in July 1941.

Newton then became a training base, and for the next five years No. 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School provided basic and advanced training for Polish airmen serving with the RAF, using RAF Tollerton as a satellite landing ground.

The station became the headquarters of No 12 Group, Fighter Command from 1946 until 1958, when Technical Training Command took over the station for electronic fitters courses.

Later the station became the home of the RAF School of Education, who moved from RAF Upwood in 1972, and the RAF Police Training School, who moved from RAF Debden in 1973 bringing their gate guardian - a Hawker Hunter F1, WT694 (now at Caernarfon Air World) - with them. Both of these units transferred to RAF Halton in the 1990s.

The abandoned houses on the base were used to film scenes from the film This is England.[1] It has also been used for the series Robot Wars after it transferred to the commercial UK channel Five TV."