Old Hangar, Culham Airfield

Image: © Des Blenkinsopp Taken: 3 Mar 2012

One of the many old WW2 buildings on the former Culham Airfield. The old airfield site is now two sections. Firstly there is Culham Laboratory, a science facility, and secondly a business park now called Culham No.1 site which is largely made up of well preserved wartime sheds and hangars. The site is summed up in this extract from South Oxfordshire District Council's Local Plan :- "Number 1 Site, Culham was formerly owned by the Government and during the Second World War was also part of the Royal Naval Air Station. Most of the buildings were constructed as wartime works. From 1968 the buildings were used by the Natural Resources Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food for storage, distribution, workshops, offices and research. In 1996 the site was sold to a private company and a number of individual occupants began to use the site for a variety of uses. The buildings are lawful but the uses taking place on the site in 2001, including the areas of hardstanding used for outside storage, remain vulnerable to enforcement action. The Council recognises that these buildings and some of the uses have a harmful impact on the openness of the Green Belt and wishes to see the site sensitively redeveloped. The buildings are dispersed throughout the site. They are generally unattractive due to their bulk, height and form, and the materials used in their construction." A more or less mirror image of this building is about 200 metres east of here in the next square. Image

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