RAF Carlisle
Encyclopedia
RAF Carlisle was a Royal Air Force
establishment, now closed after being used for a variety of roles over a period of fifty eight years and formerly located 2 mi (3.2 km) north of Carlisle city centre in Cumbria
, England
.
The station was latterly the home of No. 14 Maintenance Unit and occupied the various sites originally used by RAF Kingstown's Elementary Flying Training School during World War II
. The site was usually known both locally and within the RAF by its shortened form of 14 MU. The site had also served for a short period in the 1930s as a civilian municipal airport for the City of Carlisle
, but proved to be underused and uneconomic.
The maintenance unit was located on the northern edge of Carlisle, just past the present Asda
supermarket, and spread across several different sites. The smallest storage site of Harker was 0.7 km
north east of RAF Kingstown and, together with Heathlands which was 0.5 km north, was on the opposite side on the A74. The largest site of Rockcliffe was 1.2 km north west and Cargo site was 1.5 km south west. The maintenance unit was used by the RAF to store and maintain various pieces of equipment ranging from aircraft engine parts to firearms, ammunition to office furniture, aircrew clothing and small hardware items.
Routine requests for items were dealt with by civilian warehousemen during normal working hours. At night a uniformed RAF Duty Officer dealt with urgent and essential "flash" requests from operational flying stations.
opened Kingstown municipal airport, at the time outside the city boundaries on the land that is today the Kingstown and Kingmoor Park industrial estates. This early airport was a typical 1930s grass field airstrip with no metalled runways
. Although used by the Border Flying Club as its base the new airport proved to be underused and uneconomic so the airfield was eventually sold to the Air Ministry
in 1936.
The RAF installed concrete runways, hangars, a full range of administrative buildings and several estates of married quarter housing for officers and other ranks. The new station opened for operations on 26 September 1938 as RAF Kingstown and became home to two operational bomber squadrons flying Fairey Battle
bombers with three man crews.
. The new facility came into operation in February 1941, the station designated as RAF Crosby on Eden which, following its wartime service, today serves as Carlisle Lake District Airport. RAF Kingstown was retained by the RAF and converted to No 24 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS).
As the war developed and the need for pilots increased the EFTS expanded its operations onto several local grass fields at nearby Harker, Heathlands, Rockcliffe and Cargo, there was even a satellite grass field at RAF Kirkpatrick just across the Scottish border, near Gretna Green
. The main trainers used at the school were Tiger Moth
s and Miles Magister
s. On 3 June 1940 a Fairey Battle
was taken for an unauthorised flight by an unqualified pilot and crashed after several failed landing attempts; the aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed.
In 1941 RAF Kingstown was redesignated as No 15 Flying Grading School where pilots who had already undergone basic flying training elsewhere were assessed for their suitability for conversion to either fighter or bomber operations. The station retained this function until the end of hostilities in 1945 when the base was closed and placed on a care and maintenance status.
in a former hotel and now again the Shap Wells Hotel, escaped with flying jackets over their Luftwaffe
uniforms and carrying forged identity documents that purported them to be Dutch airman attached to the RAF.
They were fighter pilot Leutnant Heinz Schnabel from 1/JG3 Jagdstaffell and Heinkel bomber pilot Oberleutnant Harry Wappler from KG27. Without any apparent difficulty they entered RAF Kingstown and, with the help of an RAF ground mechanic, started up a Miles Magister
trainer aircraft and took off. Short of fuel they landed at another RAF airfield and refueled. Setting off for the Netherlands
they suddenly realised the aircraft’s range was insufficient and they turned back. Landing in a field near Great Yarmouth
they were recaptured and taken to RAF Horsham St Faith
. Returned to the Shap POW camp to spend 28 days in solitary, both airmen were then shipped to more secure confinement in Canada.
By the 1980s the headquarters site consisted of the original guard room manned by civilian MOD police, a helipad
mainly used by the Royal Navy
during aerial marine surveys of the Solway Firth
, the small non-standard officers' mess with living accommodation for eight officers, the station HQ, the rifle range, a water tower, an MOD Fire Station with a single fire engine appliance
and various other minor admin buildings. The station was unusual within the RAF as there were no other ranks
or NCOs stationed at RAF Carlisle, only a small cadre of 12 - 15 RAF Supply Branch officers who controlled a civilian workforce of storekeepers and warehousemen.
In 1957, RAF Carlisle became the parent administrative station to the new missile testing establishment at the nearby satellite station of RAF Spadeadam
on the remote Cumberland moorland. Spadeadam no longer tests ballistic missiles and remains today as the RAF's electronic warfare
training and testing range.
RAF Carlisle was just one in a chain of several Maintenance Units forming RAF Support Command
, later to become RAF Logistics Command
in 1994. Logistics Command was faced with a contracting airforce that had less airfields, less aircraft and less personnel. The logical answer was a reduction in the number of maintenance units and 14 MU was the farthest flung location in the UK, now isolated with most northern RAF stations already closed. RAF Carlisle would prove to be an early target for closure in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) which marked the beginning of a modernisation that moved towards a unified tri-service logistics support.
and extended negotiations with Carlisle Council, the RAF Carlisle base was finally closed in September 1996, and stood unused for several years. The site was eventually bought by a local entrepreneur and businessman, Brian Scowcroft, who made a sizeable investment developing the site into the extensive regional business park known as Kingmoor Park, the role that continues today.
The main site is as much the hub of operations today as it was when it was in RAF service. It houses the site admin blocks, many local businesses have converted hangars into workshops, several national and international businesses have depots there. The helipad area disappeared under The Capita Group's new building, where Capita Business Services now operates various services for Cumbria
County Council under tender for the next fifteen years. Capita Symonds also works out of the same building, where they develop computer software and act as consultants on highways, amongst other functions. The Cargo
site has been cleared and a new residential housing estate is now under construction.
The stock of RAF Carlisle officers' and other ranks' married-quarter housing was sold originally to Carlisle City Council and is now almost completely owner-occupied. The last "gate guardian" aircraft at RAF Carlisle was the Phantom FGR2 No XV406, ex 64 Sqn/228OCU at Leuchars
. After RAF Carlisle was closed, this aircraft was transferred to the Solway Aviation Museum
at Carlisle Lake District Airport where it still stands. Other "gate guardians" at RAF Carlisle have included a Gloster Meteor NF14
, a Vampire T11 and Hawker Hunter F1
.
was discovered at the RAF Carlisle site by accident when a member of the Royal Observer Corps walked across a patch of ground testing a recently recalibrated PDRM82 geiger counter
. After further investigations it was realised that the RAF had incinerated thousands of luminous dials from the old wartime trainer aircraft in accordance with the disposal policy of the 1940s and 1950s known as "bash, bury or burn". The resulting radioactive ash had been scattered and used during later landscaping of the site.
The radioactive ash had also been used as packing around fence posts on the airfield boundary. Hotspots of up to 250,000 becquerels of radioactivity
were identified where unburnt dials had been abandoned in piles on the ground. Such levels would be harmful inside the body and could burn the skin in hours.
Since 1992, scientists have analysed up to 10,000 soil samples from the closed RAF Carlisle site and so far have published thirty separate reports. Over three hundred cubic metres of soil contaminated with radium-226 at levels of at least 4 becquerels per gram were condemned as radioactive waste and transported to the low-level waste dump
run by Low Level Waste Repositorory near Drigg
. Up to twice that volume of less radioactive soils have been tipped onto nearby industrial waste sites.
operated from a building in the city centre although it was controlled administratively from RAF Kingstown. The association with Kingstown developed further in 1962 when the ROC ceased its aircraft spotting role for the RAF and took on a new role of plotting nuclear explosions and warning the public of approaching radioactive fallout for the UKWMO
. A new administration building and a protected, hardened Nuclear Reporting bunker was built at RAF Carlisle. The nuclear bunker was a standard above-ground structure and both the bunker and Headquarters hutting stood on a separate site at Crindledyke just outside the main gates of RAF Carlisle and roughly opposite the station's officers mess. The Carlisle group was redesignated no 22 Group ROC.
The ROC also constructed a smaller nuclear reporting post called Kingstown post (OS ref:NY 3837 5920), on the main RAF Carlisle site. The post was also an underground protected bunker but designed for a crew of three observers. The headquarters bunker accommodated an operational crew of around 100 with dormitory and canteen facilities included with the operations room and life support plant.
The Royal Observer Corps and its parent organisation the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
were disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War
and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change
review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
, the only electronic warfare
range still in the UK
and one of two in Europe
, which holds an annual thanksgiving service in Carlisle Cathedral
on Battle of Britain
Sunday.
Other links with the area are No. 1862 (City of Carlisle) Squadron, Air Training Corps
, based near the redundant station, the Carlisle and District Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association
and the Royal Observer Corps Association (22 Group Chapter).
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
establishment, now closed after being used for a variety of roles over a period of fifty eight years and formerly located 2 mi (3.2 km) north of Carlisle city centre in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The station was latterly the home of No. 14 Maintenance Unit and occupied the various sites originally used by RAF Kingstown's Elementary Flying Training School during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The site was usually known both locally and within the RAF by its shortened form of 14 MU. The site had also served for a short period in the 1930s as a civilian municipal airport for the City of Carlisle
City of Carlisle
The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...
, but proved to be underused and uneconomic.
The maintenance unit was located on the northern edge of Carlisle, just past the present Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
supermarket, and spread across several different sites. The smallest storage site of Harker was 0.7 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
north east of RAF Kingstown and, together with Heathlands which was 0.5 km north, was on the opposite side on the A74. The largest site of Rockcliffe was 1.2 km north west and Cargo site was 1.5 km south west. The maintenance unit was used by the RAF to store and maintain various pieces of equipment ranging from aircraft engine parts to firearms, ammunition to office furniture, aircrew clothing and small hardware items.
Routine requests for items were dealt with by civilian warehousemen during normal working hours. At night a uniformed RAF Duty Officer dealt with urgent and essential "flash" requests from operational flying stations.
Origins
In the early 1930s, the Carlisle County Borough CouncilCity of Carlisle
The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...
opened Kingstown municipal airport, at the time outside the city boundaries on the land that is today the Kingstown and Kingmoor Park industrial estates. This early airport was a typical 1930s grass field airstrip with no metalled runways
Pavement (material)
Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete. Such...
. Although used by the Border Flying Club as its base the new airport proved to be underused and uneconomic so the airfield was eventually sold to the Air Ministry
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...
in 1936.
The RAF installed concrete runways, hangars, a full range of administrative buildings and several estates of married quarter housing for officers and other ranks. The new station opened for operations on 26 September 1938 as RAF Kingstown and became home to two operational bomber squadrons flying Fairey Battle
Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company in the late 1930s for the Royal Air Force. The Battle was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighters high performance; however, the Battle was weighed...
bombers with three man crews.
The War years
With the outbreak of war in 1939, Kingstown's runways proved too short for the latest generation of larger multi-engined bombers and there was no room for runway expansions, so the RAF built and developed a new airfield at Crosby-on-EdenCrosby-on-Eden
Crosby-on-Eden is the combined name for two villages within the civil parish of Stanwix Rural near Carlisle, Cumbria, England.The two small villages are by the River Eden north-east of Carlisle, joined by a road that previously was the line of the Stanegate Roman road . and are called High Crosby...
. The new facility came into operation in February 1941, the station designated as RAF Crosby on Eden which, following its wartime service, today serves as Carlisle Lake District Airport. RAF Kingstown was retained by the RAF and converted to No 24 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS).
As the war developed and the need for pilots increased the EFTS expanded its operations onto several local grass fields at nearby Harker, Heathlands, Rockcliffe and Cargo, there was even a satellite grass field at RAF Kirkpatrick just across the Scottish border, near Gretna Green
Gretna Green
Gretna Green is a village in the south of Scotland famous for runaway weddings. It is in Dumfries and Galloway, near the mouth of the River Esk and was historically the first village in Scotland, following the old coaching route from London to Edinburgh. Gretna Green has a railway station serving...
. The main trainers used at the school were Tiger Moth
De Havilland Tiger Moth
The de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in 1952, when many of the surplus aircraft...
s and Miles Magister
Miles Magister
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Amos, Peter. Miles Aircraft = The early years. Tonbridge: Air-Britain, 2009. ISBN 978 0 85130 410 6...
s. On 3 June 1940 a Fairey Battle
Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company in the late 1930s for the Royal Air Force. The Battle was powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that gave contemporary British fighters high performance; however, the Battle was weighed...
was taken for an unauthorised flight by an unqualified pilot and crashed after several failed landing attempts; the aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed.
In 1941 RAF Kingstown was redesignated as No 15 Flying Grading School where pilots who had already undergone basic flying training elsewhere were assessed for their suitability for conversion to either fighter or bomber operations. The station retained this function until the end of hostilities in 1945 when the base was closed and placed on a care and maintenance status.
Involved in a POW escape attempt
RAF Kingstown featured in one of the most audacious escape attempts by any German prisoners of war during World War Two. On 24 November 1941, two German pilots, held at POW Camp No 15 at ShapShap
Shap is a linear village and civil parish located amongst fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway...
in a former hotel and now again the Shap Wells Hotel, escaped with flying jackets over their Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
uniforms and carrying forged identity documents that purported them to be Dutch airman attached to the RAF.
They were fighter pilot Leutnant Heinz Schnabel from 1/JG3 Jagdstaffell and Heinkel bomber pilot Oberleutnant Harry Wappler from KG27. Without any apparent difficulty they entered RAF Kingstown and, with the help of an RAF ground mechanic, started up a Miles Magister
Miles Magister
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Amos, Peter. Miles Aircraft = The early years. Tonbridge: Air-Britain, 2009. ISBN 978 0 85130 410 6...
trainer aircraft and took off. Short of fuel they landed at another RAF airfield and refueled. Setting off for the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
they suddenly realised the aircraft’s range was insufficient and they turned back. Landing in a field near Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
they were recaptured and taken to RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Horsham St Faith
RAF Horsham St Faith was a Royal Air Force station near Norwich, Norfolk, England from 1939 to 1963. It was then developed as Norwich International Airport.-RAF Bomber Command use:...
. Returned to the Shap POW camp to spend 28 days in solitary, both airmen were then shipped to more secure confinement in Canada.
A change of use
During the 1950s the station was reactivated, redesignated as RAF Carlisle and retasked as No 14 Maintenance Unit, the RAF's most northerly storage facility in England. The original RAF Kingstown site was established as the station headquarters and the runways were removed with the ballast used as foundations for a major building programme on the satellite sites of Harker, Heathlands, Rockcliffe and Cargo where hangars, storage buildings and administration offices were built.By the 1980s the headquarters site consisted of the original guard room manned by civilian MOD police, a helipad
Helipad
Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...
mainly used by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
during aerial marine surveys of the Solway Firth
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very...
, the small non-standard officers' mess with living accommodation for eight officers, the station HQ, the rifle range, a water tower, an MOD Fire Station with a single fire engine appliance
Fire apparatus
A fire apparatus, fire engine, fire truck, or fire appliance is a vehicle designed to assist in fighting fires by transporting firefighters to the scene and providing them with access to the fire, along with water or other equipment...
and various other minor admin buildings. The station was unusual within the RAF as there were no other ranks
Other Ranks
Other Ranks in the British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are those personnel who are not commissioned officers. In the Royal Navy, these personnel are called ratings...
or NCOs stationed at RAF Carlisle, only a small cadre of 12 - 15 RAF Supply Branch officers who controlled a civilian workforce of storekeepers and warehousemen.
In 1957, RAF Carlisle became the parent administrative station to the new missile testing establishment at the nearby satellite station of RAF Spadeadam
RAF Spadeadam
RAF Spadeadam is a Royal Air Force station in Cumbria, England close to the border with Northumberland. It is the home of the 9000 acre Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, making it the largest RAF base in the United Kingdom.-History:...
on the remote Cumberland moorland. Spadeadam no longer tests ballistic missiles and remains today as the RAF's electronic warfare
Electronic warfare
Electronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly...
training and testing range.
RAF Carlisle was just one in a chain of several Maintenance Units forming RAF Support Command
RAF Support Command
-History:It was formed on 31 August 1973 by the renaming of Maintenance Command, with No. 90 Group being added to it. Its responsibilities included all logistical and maintenance support requirements of the RAF...
, later to become RAF Logistics Command
RAF Logistics Command
The Royal Air Force's Logistics Command was a command formed to provide logistics support for the RAF.-History:The Command was formed on 1 April 1994 and its role was to provide logistics support to the RAF...
in 1994. Logistics Command was faced with a contracting airforce that had less airfields, less aircraft and less personnel. The logical answer was a reduction in the number of maintenance units and 14 MU was the farthest flung location in the UK, now isolated with most northern RAF stations already closed. RAF Carlisle would prove to be an early target for closure in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) which marked the beginning of a modernisation that moved towards a unified tri-service logistics support.
Final closure
After three years of closure threats by the Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
and extended negotiations with Carlisle Council, the RAF Carlisle base was finally closed in September 1996, and stood unused for several years. The site was eventually bought by a local entrepreneur and businessman, Brian Scowcroft, who made a sizeable investment developing the site into the extensive regional business park known as Kingmoor Park, the role that continues today.
The main site is as much the hub of operations today as it was when it was in RAF service. It houses the site admin blocks, many local businesses have converted hangars into workshops, several national and international businesses have depots there. The helipad area disappeared under The Capita Group's new building, where Capita Business Services now operates various services for Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
County Council under tender for the next fifteen years. Capita Symonds also works out of the same building, where they develop computer software and act as consultants on highways, amongst other functions. The Cargo
Cargo, Cumbria
Cargo is a small village near the river Eden on the Solway Plain. Cargo is about 3½ miles northwest of Carlisle in Cumbria in the North West of England. The name Cargo reflects a combination of two languages; from the Celtic word carreg meaning "rock" and from the Old Norse word haugr meaning ...
site has been cleared and a new residential housing estate is now under construction.
The stock of RAF Carlisle officers' and other ranks' married-quarter housing was sold originally to Carlisle City Council and is now almost completely owner-occupied. The last "gate guardian" aircraft at RAF Carlisle was the Phantom FGR2 No XV406, ex 64 Sqn/228OCU at Leuchars
F-4 Phantom II
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
. After RAF Carlisle was closed, this aircraft was transferred to the Solway Aviation Museum
Solway Aviation Museum
The Solway Aviation Museum is an independently run aircraft museum located at Carlisle Lake District Airport in Cumbria.-About the Museum:The Museum is run by The Solway Aviation Society and staffed by unpaid volunteers. It is a registered charity supported by entrance charges to the Museum, and...
at Carlisle Lake District Airport where it still stands. Other "gate guardians" at RAF Carlisle have included a Gloster Meteor NF14
Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. It first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...
, a Vampire T11 and Hawker Hunter F1
Hawker Hunter
The Hawker Hunter is a subsonic British jet aircraft developed in the 1950s. The single-seat Hunter entered service as a manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, and later operated in fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles in numerous conflicts. Two-seat variants remained in use for training and secondary...
.
Radioactive contamination
During 1992 radioactive radiumIsotopes of radium
Radium has no stable or nearly stable isotopes, and thus a standard atomic mass cannot be given. The longest lived, and most common, isotope of radium is 226Ra with a half-life of 1600 years...
was discovered at the RAF Carlisle site by accident when a member of the Royal Observer Corps walked across a patch of ground testing a recently recalibrated PDRM82 geiger counter
Geiger counter
A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger–Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a...
. After further investigations it was realised that the RAF had incinerated thousands of luminous dials from the old wartime trainer aircraft in accordance with the disposal policy of the 1940s and 1950s known as "bash, bury or burn". The resulting radioactive ash had been scattered and used during later landscaping of the site.
The radioactive ash had also been used as packing around fence posts on the airfield boundary. Hotspots of up to 250,000 becquerels of radioactivity
Becquerel
The becquerel is the SI-derived unit of radioactivity. One Bq is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. The Bq unit is therefore equivalent to an inverse second, s−1...
were identified where unburnt dials had been abandoned in piles on the ground. Such levels would be harmful inside the body and could burn the skin in hours.
Since 1992, scientists have analysed up to 10,000 soil samples from the closed RAF Carlisle site and so far have published thirty separate reports. Over three hundred cubic metres of soil contaminated with radium-226 at levels of at least 4 becquerels per gram were condemned as radioactive waste and transported to the low-level waste dump
Low Level Waste Repository
Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's low-level radioactive waste repository located on the West Cumbrian coast approximately six kilometres south east of the Sellafield nuclear site at Drigg village. The site stores waste from Sellafield, MoD sites, nuclear power stations, hospitals,...
run by Low Level Waste Repositorory near Drigg
Drigg
Drigg is a village situated in the civil parish of Drigg and Carleton on the West Cumbria coast of the Irish Sea and on the boundary of the Lake District National Park in the county of Cumbria, England....
. Up to twice that volume of less radioactive soils have been tipped onto nearby industrial waste sites.
Royal Observer Corps, Carlisle Group
During the Second World War the air raid warning organisation No 32 Group Carlisle Royal Observer CorpsRoyal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....
operated from a building in the city centre although it was controlled administratively from RAF Kingstown. The association with Kingstown developed further in 1962 when the ROC ceased its aircraft spotting role for the RAF and took on a new role of plotting nuclear explosions and warning the public of approaching radioactive fallout for the UKWMO
United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
. A new administration building and a protected, hardened Nuclear Reporting bunker was built at RAF Carlisle. The nuclear bunker was a standard above-ground structure and both the bunker and Headquarters hutting stood on a separate site at Crindledyke just outside the main gates of RAF Carlisle and roughly opposite the station's officers mess. The Carlisle group was redesignated no 22 Group ROC.
The ROC also constructed a smaller nuclear reporting post called Kingstown post (OS ref:NY 3837 5920), on the main RAF Carlisle site. The post was also an underground protected bunker but designed for a crew of three observers. The headquarters bunker accommodated an operational crew of around 100 with dormitory and canteen facilities included with the operations room and life support plant.
The Royal Observer Corps and its parent organisation the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
were disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change
Options for Change
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in 1990, aimed at cutting defence spending following the end of the Cold War....
review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
Continuing RAF links
The Royal Air Force still retains close links with the local area, through RAF SpadeadamRAF Spadeadam
RAF Spadeadam is a Royal Air Force station in Cumbria, England close to the border with Northumberland. It is the home of the 9000 acre Electronic Warfare Tactics Range, making it the largest RAF base in the United Kingdom.-History:...
, the only electronic warfare
Electronic warfare
Electronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly...
range still in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and one of two in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, which holds an annual thanksgiving service in Carlisle Cathedral
Carlisle Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, otherwise called Carlisle Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle. It is located in Carlisle, in Cumbria, North West England...
on Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
Sunday.
Other links with the area are No. 1862 (City of Carlisle) Squadron, Air Training Corps
Air Training Corps
The Air Training Corps , commonly known as the Air Cadets, is a cadet organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary youth group which is part of the Air Cadet Organisation and the Royal Air Force . It is supported by the Ministry of Defence, with a regular RAF Officer, currently Air...
, based near the redundant station, the Carlisle and District Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association
Royal Air Forces Association
The Royal Air Forces Association, more often known as RAF Association, or simply RAFA, is a UK based charitable organization which provides care and support to serving and retired members of the "Royal Air Forces" and their dependents.The organisation, which was formed in 1943, receives no funding...
and the Royal Observer Corps Association (22 Group Chapter).