Royal Air Force Bradwell Bay or more simply RAF Bradwell Bay is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station located east of

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and south west of

West Mersea West Mersea is a town and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in Essex, England. It is the larger (in terms of population) of two settlements on Mersea Island, south of Colchester. History Roman buildings and Ro ...

, Essex.

History

The central area of the current airfield was first laid down before WW2 as a grass-surfaced landing ground for the nearby Dengie firing ranges off the coast before being rebuilt from 1940 onwards as an enlarged RAF station with concrete runways, hangars and ancillary buildings. The station is unique as it was the only fighter station where the

Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) (which was sometimes referred to as "Fog Intense Dispersal Operation" or "Fog, Intense Dispersal Of") was a system used for dispersing fog and pea soup fog (dense smog) from an airfield so that ai ...

(FIDO) was used.

Based units

;Units:

Current use

An area of the northern part of the site is occupied by the remains of the

Bradwell nuclear power station Bradwell nuclear power station is a decommissioned Magnox-design nuclear power station located on the Dengie peninsula at the mouth of the River Blackwater, Essex. In 2019, it was the first nuclear power station in the UK to be placed into long- ...

, the Magnox element of which is currently being decommissioned. Several of the hangars are still used as storage by the local farmers and the control tower is now a private house. Agricultural buildings, built in the '70s and '80s on runways one and two, are now home to several local businesses.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Bradwell Bay Preservation Group

RAF Bradwell Bay Facebook group

Broody's War

Bradwell Bay United (Local football club)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradwell Bay Defunct airports in England Royal Air Force stations in Essex Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom