RAF CHIVENOR - A RE-AWAKENING.

By Kevin Hutchinson.Armourer.


The closure of Chivenor in the early 1970s was triggered by the actions of the Labour MP for Pembroke during one of Harold Wilson's pruning of the defence spending: he declared that, whatever else might happen, RNAS Brawdy would not close! Nonetheless the Fleet Air Arm moved out, no doubt grateful to do so as Brawdy was generally beset by bad weather.

It would seem that the MP for North Devon had far less clout than his counterpart in Pembroke, because the RAF (in the guise of 229 OCU) was forced to move to Brawdy from the idyllic, sun-blest climes of Chivenor, incidentally becoming the Tactical Weapons Unit (TWU). Chivenor was closed, and the married quarters sold to the Barnstaple Council.

It soon became obvious, however, that much less tactical weapons training was being carried out at Brawdy than had been hoped; the Pembroke weather saw to that.

Very soon it became necessary to detach a large proportion of the aircraft and staff to Lossiemouth, where the climate was much more benign. This detachment became known as No. 2 TWU and the situation improved a little. But it was evident that this was still inadequate, and Strike Command was tasked to examine the case for re-awakening a closed station to take over the complete task. The officer charged with the practical part of this task was Wg Cdr Ian Thomson of Strike Command HQ.

Ian Thomson took on the task with determination, and it didn't take him long to decide that, of the stations available to him, by far the most promising was Chivenor! It would be unkind to suggest that his mind was somewhat skewed in that direction because he had undergone his weapons training there, and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Nonetheless, to perpetuate a brighter and more modern Chivenor in such a lovely part of the country must have tempted him as a legacy to the young pilots of later generations.

Due to my two bosses (Sqn Ldr Peter Fairhurst and Flt Lt John Reed) being extremely busy on other projects I, as FS in support, was directed to visit Chivenor and to survey whether the existing resources of the station were sufficient to support the weapons needs of the TWU. Obviously costs would have to be taken into consideration vis-à-vis the other stations. In the few years that the station had been out of commission a great deal of deterioration of the 1942-built structures had taken place, and virtually all explosives storage buildings would have to be newly built.

Ian Thomson and the rest of the survey team had come to the same conclusion regarding other parts of the station, and so quite a large restoration programme would have to take place. Moreover, Ian was determined that the station would be as good as he could make it. In this, he was supported by the Croydon-based representative of the Property Services Agency of the DoE, whose responsibility it was to provide these resources. He stated that flat-roofed buildings were a no-no. Apparently PSA had come to the decision that, even when the best designers, the best craftsmen and the best materials were employed, flat roofs would leak before too long.

This was a problem for me, as explosives regulations specified concrete flat roofs for most buildings used for the storage and processing of explosives. I was astounded when the PSA man suggested equipping the buildings with concrete flat roofs to fulfil my wishes, then erecting pitched, tiled roofs on top, in order to satisfy his. Ian was very pleased with this suggestion, and commented that pitched roofs looked so much better; so it was agreed. Some of my proposed buildings, particularly those for holding rocket-equipped ejection seats while the Hawk aircraft were being serviced in adjacent hangars, had to be moved from their ideal positions because Ian regarded those positions as also ideal for trees, of which he proposed to have many about the place. What a nice fellow! Incidentally, most of the new explosives-related buildings would be to the drawings of recently-constructed buildings at Brawdy!

One problem which had to be solved was to retrieve the married quarters from Barnstaple Council. The council themselves were OK about the situation but the greater problem was to get the existing tenants out. Many were reluctant and who would blame them? Concerned for the welfare of the tenants, the RAF knocked on their doors and explained that in a few days' time there would be a demonstration of aircraft movements around the base so as to give the residents some idea of the noise, etc. that they could expect when operations recommenced. The aircraft that were used for this exercise were not Hawks, as might be expected - there were none available on the day - but fortunately there were some Phantoms not otherwise engaged. The RAF got their houses!

While I was there for the siting board (once the decision to go was given) I noticed the existence of a wartime Pickett-Hamilton fort, and was invited by the local PSA guys to examine it. There were three on the station and they were hydraulically operated whereas others that I had seen elsewhere had been pneumatic (Usworth) and counterbalance (Machrihanish). In the latter case I was shocked to realise that, due to the conditions, the steel cables linking the turret to the counterbalance weights (which weighed a couple of tons) were rusted to almost a single strand, and I was in a very vulnerable proximity to them.

One of the PSA men told me a tale straight out of Quatermass. One evening, he was taking his dog out for a walk on the airfield when it was suddenly stricken with panic; there was a sudden roaring noise and the earth started shaking. In the gloom he saw a few yards away what seemed to him to be a huge machine erupting out of the earth; however it didn't attack him. During the previous week there had been a great deal of rain, and a couple of empty underground bulk fuel tanks had decided they were buoyant enough to come to the surface.

I would be interested to learn from anyone who was employed at Chivenor subsequent to this refurbishment whether they were happy with the new station. If they were then their thanks should go to Gp Capt Ian Thomson, who sadly passed away on 23rd August 2010.