RAF Eastcote, also known over time as RAF Lime Grove, HMS ''Pembroke V'' and Outstation Eastcote, was a UK

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

site in

Eastcote Eastcote is a suburban area in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in northwest London. In the Middle Ages, Eastcote was one of the three areas that made up the parish of Ruislip, under the name of Ascot. The name came from its position to the e ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. The

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first used the site during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, constructing a military hospital in preparation for casualties from the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

landings. They were not required for the purpose and later became an outstation of the

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

codebreaking operations. During this time,

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) an ...

technicians and Navy Wrens supported the operations. The outstation closed soon after the end of the war, though became the first headquarters of

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...

(GCHQ), when the Bletchley Park codebreaking operations, including two

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computers, were moved there and renamed in 1946. These remained at Eastcote until 1954 when the new agency moved to its purpose-built headquarters in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

. Other buildings on the site were used by the

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and to support the

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's (USAFE)

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and

7th Air Division The 7th Air Division (7 AD) served the United States Air Force with distinction from early 1944 through early 1992, earning an outstanding unit decoration and a service streamer along the way. History Hawaii As the 7th Fighter Wing, the divis ...

( SAC) activities at RAF South Ruislip. As part of the Ministry of Defence's

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, the site became surplus to military requirements and was sold in 2007 to be redeveloped for new housing. The site was cleared in 2008 and a total of 385 new homes were approved for construction. The name for the development, Pembroke Park, was chosen to reflect the heritage of the site.

History

Before coming under the ownership of the British Government, the land the site was built on was mainly open fields. A public footpath dating from around 1565 crossed the area from Eastcote High Road to Field End Road. In 1911, cricket matches were played on the field by the Eastcote Institute. During the Second World War, the land was requisitioned by the government from the owners, Telling Brothers. The first buildings on the site were constructed for use as a military hospital in preparation for military casualties from the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. Subsequently, it became clear they would not be required for that purpose and became barracks for

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

Wrens.

established an outpost at the Eastcote site, known during the Second World War as HMS ''Pembroke V'', to house some of the

Bombe The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functi ...

codebreaker machines used to decode German

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messages. A total of 100 machines were operated at Eastcote, controlled by 800 Wrens and 100 RAF technicians. A detachment of American personnel were stationed in a separate area, operating their own Bombe machines.Toms 2005, p. 27 The site was split into two blocks: A and B. Block A was sited near Lime Grove and housed personnel accommodation and administrative services, while Block B was protected by brick walls and military police since it contained the codebreaking computers. The public footpath passed between the two blocks. The level of security meant that support staff in the administrative block did not know of the activities in Block B, nor did local residents. At the end of the war in 1945, the Bombes were dismantled by the Wrens to be recycled, maintaining the secrecy of the operations.Toms 2005, p. 28 The operations at Bletchley Park under the name "Government Code and Cypher School" (GC&CS) moved to Eastcote on 1 April 1946. The Crown purchased the estate in 1947. Eastcote's proximity to London meant staff were not far from

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

, and the site became known as the "London Signals Intelligence Centre". Six years later, in July 1952, GC&CS became "

" (GCHQ) and began to move from Eastcote to new purpose-built buildings in Cheltenham. The move was completed in February 1954. Between 1954 and 1977 the

London Communications-Electronic Security Agency Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...

security agency was based at Eastcote. In 1949 the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

established a non-flying base at RAF South Ruislip to coordinate the USAFE's

and

( SAC) activities in Great Britain with the British Government. A school for the children of American service personnel was established on the Eastcote site in the 1950s. In the 1960s, this was joined by veterinary, dental, and mental health clinics, and also by a

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

. The United States military continued to use buildings on the site until the closure in 2007.

Redevelopment

The site was the first to be sold as part of the Ministry of Defence's

(Ministry of Defence Estates London), a programme to reduce the number of military sites in the

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

area.

George Wimpey George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...

purchased the site in 2007, planning to build 385 new homes. The entire site was cleared in 2008 and building commenced. George Wimpey became

Taylor Wimpey Taylor Wimpey plc (formerly Taylor Woodrow plc) is one of the largest home construction companies in the United Kingdom. The company was created from the merger of rivals Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey on 3 July 2007. It is listed on the Lo ...

through a corporate merger and submitted an application in 2010 to build a further 15 homes on the site. A report by the London Borough of Hillingdon's planning department rejected the proposal in December that year on the grounds that the site was already overdeveloped. Local residents had raised this concern in November that year, which the leader of the council explained was out of the council's control due to planning laws. As of May 2011 the new development has not been completed entirely, although residents began to move into the first of the newly built houses in December 2009. The development has been named "Pembroke Park" in recognition of the heritage of the site; roads and the play area also received names related to the wartime codebreaking that went on there.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * Bowlt, Eileen. M. (1996) ''Ickenham And Harefield Past''. London: Historical Publications * Copeland, B. Jack. (2006) ''Colossus: the secrets of Bletchley Park's codebreaking computers''. Oxford University Press * Toms, Susan. (2005) ''Enigma and the Eastcote connection'', in Eastwood, Jessica; Spink, Karen; Toms, Susan. (2007) ''The Home Front: Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote in wartime''. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society {{ISBN, 978-0-9507154-5-2

External links

A GCHQ memoir

Memories of a war-time PV Wren

RAF Eastcote during demolition – Flickr

Pembroke Park Residents Association
Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hillingdon History of the London Borough of Hillingdon

Eastcote