RAF Halton

RAF Halton, on the Chiltern escarpment near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, has been one of the Royal Air Force’s great training establishments since the service was founded. The land came into military use in 1913 and was bought outright by the government after the First World War, becoming home to the No. 1 School of Technical Training. For more than seventy years Halton turned out the RAF’s ground tradesmen through the famous apprenticeship scheme — the “Halton Brats” — who maintained the aircraft that everyone else flew. The station also housed Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital, which served the service for most of the twentieth century.

Halton’s war was a supporting rather than an operational one. It was briefly a base for fighter units, including No. 112 Squadron and the Royal Canadian Air Force’s No. 402 Squadron, and in 1943 No. 529 Squadron formed there flying Cierva C.30 autogyros on radar-calibration duties. The technical school remained the heart of the place throughout. Unlike the wartime-built bomber stations of the eastern counties, Halton never closed: it continues today as an RAF training base, latterly the home of recruit training, though the Ministry of Defence has earmarked the site for eventual closure.