Philip White, of Bicester Heritage, on RAF Bicester’s Defences

The last edition of ‘Musings from The Parachute Store’ at Bicester Heritage focused on the former RAF Bicester’s use as a whole, but now the timing could not be better to look to the once forgotten hedgerows, hangar aprons and overgrown outskirts of this unique site.

The RAF’s former technical site at Bicester Heritage comprises of 19 listed buildings on 348 acres and, whilst extensive restoration works continue across the tree lined location, it could be easy to mistake some of the smaller structures nestled between the larger buildings for insignificant stores or service points.

Appearances, as we know, can be deceiving.

Bicester Heritage is fortunate enough to be the custodian of 11 areas of Scheduled Ancient Monuments comprising 21 separate buildings in total.

They are all, in fact, of national historic importance and on the same rating as Stonehenge.

Defended air-raid shelters, ‘fall-in’ blast shelters, seagull trenches, mushroom pillboxes, octagonal and semi-octagonal pillboxes, anti-aircraft gun placements and bomb stores are all covered in the eleven areas, which make up the full defence network of RAF Bicester.

On the airfield, the strategically positioned anti-aircraft gun posts would have been the first point of resistance should an enemy aircraft try to land.

By their very nature, airfields such as ours were inviting to the enemy, and whether it was trying to land or offload troops, the 200 acre grass flying-field would certainly have been an obvious target in the event of invasion.

Should the airfield be overwhelmed, the next defensive points would have been the pillboxes.

Several remain and are clustered in front of the hangars and the airfield’s watch office – Building 109 (it is not known as the control tower as it pre-dated radio and is, incidentally, the last of its type to survive in the UK).

From there, a broad sweep of defended air-raid shelters and blast shelters cuts a strong line of defence across the technical site frontage, running from Skimmingdish Lane in the south to the Buckingham Road in the west.

Their names describe their multi-disciplinary nature, being primarily shelters that would allow those on the ground to seek some form of cover in the event of attack from above.

The defended air-raid shelters are semi-submerged in to the ground and built in two styles, two from brick and another from concrete.

In all examples, gun ports are built in to the walls facing the airfield so that a volley of shots could be sent in the direction any unwanted visitors.

The open topped ‘fall-in’ style shelters are there to give swift access to safety for anyone caught in the open during a raid.

Sat on the surface of the ground, with earth banks leading to the top of the low, brick built structures, one could, in an emergency, run straight up the sides, jump in and crouch down, or use it as an above ground trench from which to defend the base.

Not entirely ideal, but the open shelters would hopefully provide speedy protection from everything but a direct hit and certainly be better than no shelter at all.

The release of Historic England’s latest Heritage at Risk Register is of great importance to Bicester Heritage.

As mentioned in the previous column, in 2008 the entire conservation area of RAF Bicester was added to the Register and deemed to be the most at risk of all Defence Estates in the UK.

Four years on and it has been removed, with Bicester Heritage now held a national exemplar of constructive conservation by Historic England.

The defence and ancillary structures, or ‘SAMs’ as we refer to them (Scheduled Ancient Monuments) are the last to remain on the list.

Four were delicately restored last year.

During the delicate process 10,000 bricks were specially fired, well-trodden stairs hidden below the earth for decades were uncovered and bricked up doors were unblocked.

The second phase of this careful work is due to start again shortly as Bicester Heritage prepares, in partnership with Historic England once more, to begin conservation and restoration works to another nine SAMs, at a cost of £100,000.

Should you wish to visit, the restored and soon-to-be-restored shelters and pillboxes can be seen at the next Sunday Scramble open day at Bicester Heritage on January 7.