RAF Akeman Street

RAF Akeman Street doesn’t announce itself with flashy concrete runways, a derelict control tower or even a disused guard house.

16 All that remains of RAF Akeman Street's buildings 16

17 RAF Akeman Street This is an airfield one needs to go looking for. But it’s worth it, even if only for the seclusion and sense of peace that’s there today. Originally a relief landing ground (RLG) for advanced pilot training, there’s little to see now - unless you’re one of the initiated. If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll spot the telltale red bricks of the decayed blast shelter on the southern approach, the peri track and a couple of other buildings, now given over to equestrian bits and bobs. Seventy years ago, you’d have seen t w i n - e n g i n e d Airspeed Oxfords, Harvards and the odd Tiger Moth parked around the perimeter. Today, you’re far more likely to see a VW Golf belonging to one of the allotment keepers who grow vegetables on the airfield’s south area. I visited here first in 2008. By now I’d become addicted to peering at Ordnance Survey maps, looking for the tell-tale signs of perimeter tracks, the cross-marks of disused runways and groupings of large buildings. Looking at my map, just outside Witney, on the north-east of the town, I spotted what looked like a huge, circular path. Good job, too. Unless you were looking, there is no way you’d spot RAF Akeman Street until you were standing in the middle of it. The runways at Akeman street were grass, so there’s nothing of them left, although the SW-NE 950 yard runway would have run broadly where the footpath to Chasewood Farm is today. Walk up the gated, gravel path from the Crawley-Leafield road and you’ll pass the remains of the blast shelter on your right, buried in undergrowth and elder. When I first visited Akeman Street in ’08, a few of the buildings still stood, with one or two foundation plinths too. Now, there are just two buildings. One seems to be a disused motor transport building. The other is perhaps a generator hut. They’re fenced off now and used for horse feed, rubbish and a few farm bits and bobs. But Akeman Street is worth visiting for the view across Oxfordshire, the sense of peace and just to spend a few moments thinking and remembering. 17 17 RAF Akeman Street perimeter track