Raf Buntingsdale Hall

A Memory of Market Drayton.

I was posted to Buntingsdale Hall after passing out as a WOP/TOP in February 1948.
We worked at the Teleprinter Switchboard Exchange but unfortunately, after a few weeks this closed down, presumably due to lack of demand.
We were then employed on a variety of duties, none of which needed any technical training - guardroom, emptying dustbins, etc. The job I enjoyed most was sweeping the long, winding drive! The first time I was doing this and saw an official car approaching, I toyed with the idea of 'presenting brush' but decided that the correct procedure was just to 'look busy'.
Our Flight Sergeant was hard pressed to find us things to do, so one hot sunny afternoon when he had not shown up after lunch we disappeared into a hay field near our Nissen hut and went to sleep in the sun. We were back in the hut about 4.30 nursing our sunburn when the Flight Sergeant appeared. He pretended to give us a telling off but we were not charged.
I remember the owls hooting in the park as we walked back from Market Drayton in the evenings. I have a rather unusual reason for remembering the undulating Shropshire countryside. I hitch-hiked when going on leave and, as petrol was still in short supply, some drivers practised the art of free wheeling. If you could keep up sufficient speed going downhill you would get up the next short hill and just keep going. This is not a driving method I would recommend today.
It was certainly the quietest and most peaceful RAF station I came across, but in October 1948 I was posted to No.1 Radio School at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
Happy memories.

Douglas Holt Email: pamanddoug.holt@btinternet.com