| Summary : A prison on the site of a former Military airfield and radar station. The radar station was built in 1960 and equipped with A.M.E.S.Type 82 tactical control radar. It provided tactical control of Bloodhound MK1 surface-to-air guided weapons (SAGW). One of only 3 such sites in England (Watton, North Luffenham, Lindholme). HMP Lindholme currently occupies the site of the former RAF base, originally built in 1940 for the use of Bomber Command. Wartime construction methods often involved the use of "temporary materials" for many buildings and structures. The first inmates arrived in November 1985 and the limited alterations to the RAF buildings were completed by March 1986. The prison occupies an almost complete range of wartime buildings around a large parade ground. The buildings have only been altered in limited ways to make them secure and fit for holding inmates. The messes and administration survive, and some camouflage paintwork marks have survived on several buildings. The Officers' Mess is now a Category D unit. A number of hangars remain in use as stores and for vegetable preparation. One of the hangars was used to house 300000 architectural drawings produced by the Prison Service.The Military airfield and radar station are visible as structures on air photographs. Features associated with the airfield include: ordnance stores visible as earthworks and structures, aircraft hangars visible as structures, some practice trenches visible as earthworks, an earthwork bank, a cropmark ditch, and there are also ditches of uncertain date visible as cropmarks. |
More information : Radar station. Built 1960. Located on former aircraft dispersals on the western perimeter of RAF Lindholme, adjacent to the A614 Bawtry Road, approximately 2 km south of Hatfield Woodhouse. The site was equipped with one of three production A.M.E.S. Type 82 Tactical Control Radars (TCR). The other radars were installed at Watton and North Luffenham. The Type 82 was a "pulsed" radar, which produced plan position and height data on an aircraft to an accuracy of +/- 1500 feet, with a range performance of about 150 nautical miles. It consisted of a radar head and a data handling system. The Data Handling System stored the three dimensional position data as a DC voltage analogue (150 volts representing 150 miles), and ancillary information as binary data using sets of relays. The Type 82 was initially used for tactical control of the Bloodhound MK1 Surface-to-Air Guided Weapon (SAGW), which was used to defend Great Britain's nuclear "V Force" and "Thor" Intermediate Range Balistic Missile bases. This use was short lived, by late 1963 the A.M.E.S. Type 82 had been adapted for use as an Air Traffic Control radar. RAF Lindholme remains operational, however the Type 82 array has been removed, and the site is due to be closed by 31st March 1996. The site occupies a rectangle of land enclosed by a chain-link security fence, which was guarded by seven pillboxes and five sandbag sangars until 1995. The site contains a large two storey rectangular plan operations block, a three-storey radar tower, a sub-station and a guardroom.
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During World War Two the airfield was an operational bomber base for 7 group, RAF Bomber Command. There were five aircraft hangars (Type C). By December 1944 there were 2192 male and 365 female personnel at the airfield in permanent accomodation. The Willis and Holliss gazeteer NGR is in correct-(SK 685 065: the 100KM letter prefix should be "SE"). (2)
A 20th Century Military airfield and radar station are visible as structures on air photographs. Features associated with the airfield include: ordnance stores visible as earthworks and structures, aircraft hangars visible as structures, some practice trenches visible as earthworks, an earthwork bank, a cropmark ditch, and there are also ditches of uncertain date visible as cropmarks. They are centred at SE 6840 0660.
The airfield covers an area of c.295ha and comprises hard standing for planes, runways and taxiways, associated buildings (visible on AP's but not plotted for this project), communication routes and ordnance stores. Five aircraft hangars and the associated buildings are situated at the southern end of the site.
At SE 6771 0634 and SE 6857 0770 there are a number of stores, presumably for ordnance as they are surrounded by blast walls. To the south of the former group there are also some practice trenches.
The radar station described by authority 1 is located at SE 6770 0683 and overlies some earlier hardstanding.
At SE 6749 0628 there is a regular arrangement of cropmark ditches, these are possibly associated with the airfield, however they may also be agricultural marks.
Amongst these 20th Century features there are the remains of an Iron Age/Roman field system that has been recorded in SE 60 NE 37.
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