Recording the History - Recalling the Memories.
RAF Aberporth - The Sergeants Mess Demolition
A few weeks after these photo’s were taken on January 12th 2011 the Sergeants mess was gone, and the ground was back to soil.
Not a brick or panel in sight. Just a pile of hardcore and mud.
The only main buildings left now are the tower and one hanger.
West Wales Airport are due to build a new Hanger, a Hotel and a new reception building on this site.
The small bar Fruit Machine long gone.
Amazingly the bar in the dining room was still there.
The dining room where the dividing doors came across
The new buildings that replaced RAF Aberporth
This is where the main gate used to be. An extended runway means a new roundabout to take traffic further south around the end of the runway
The Mess entrance, in a sorry state
This is the RAF Aberporth site as it looks in the 21st Century. (Or was before the Sergeants Mess was demolished. )
Now planned to be a centre of excellence for UAV research and development, it’s new name is Parc Aberporth.
The Sergeants Mess buildings group can be seen top centre below the runway, left of the farm.
The row of houses at the bottom are what were the Officers Married Quarters, now private dwellings.
With the demise of the Sergeants Mess, apart from the control tower, the only other original building left standing seems to be the station “Gymnasium” . (The white building alongside the blue aircraft hanger.)
The photograph above was taken before the runway was extended, and the road diverted to meet the entrance roundabout.
A familiar sound during the day, and some nights, is the rise and fall of the sound overhead of a Watchkeeper UAV. Recent flight trials of a Watchkeeper after midnight have been somewhat controversial, as the rise and fall of the engine can be heard across the whole Cardigan district in the quiet of night, especially if one’s house does not have double glazing.
There is a lot of information on-line about Parc Aberporth and Watchkeeper, just Google, Images, Parc Aberporth or simply try these two links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ParcAberporth
http://www.wwuavc.com/index.html