RAF SopleyMilitary base in England

RAF Sopley Located near Sopley in Hampshire RAF SopleyCoordinates50°46′44″N

1°46′16″W / 50.779°N 1.771°W / 50.779; -1.771Coordinates: 50°46′44″N 1°46′16″W /
50.779°N 1.771°W / 50.779; -1.771TypeRadar CentreSite informationOwnerMinistry of
DefenceControlled byRoyal Air ForceSite historyBuilt1942 (1942)In use1943-1974
RAF Sopley was a World War II station, codenamed Starlight, near the village of
Sopley in Hampshire. The Radar Station was opened in December 1940. In 1959 it
became an air traffic control radar station, and finally closed on 27 September
1974. Nearby Sopley Camp was built in the early 1950s as a domestic site for the
radar station and is probably best known as the initial home of the Vietnamese Boat
People, in 1979. The camp was sold in 1993 to a local partnership under the name
Merryfield Park. Most of the old barracks site had been redeveloped as housing, but
the 2-storey building at the Sopley end has been converted into a museum/education
centre by Friends Of New Forest Airfields (FONFA). The museum opened in May 2016.

History[edit]
The barracks at RAF Sopley, in 2007
The site started out as an experimental Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) radar
station. Using systems developed in nearby Christchurch, a variety of lash-up
systems were installed during 1940 and 1941. These were eventually put into
production as the AMES Type 7, which took over most aircraft direction and
interception duties from about 1942 on. Sopley received its own Type 7 in 1943. It
was a permanent fixture with rotating arial array, transmitter equipment stored in
an underground bunker, operations block, emergency back up power supply and guard
hut.
In 1943 an Advanced Landing Ground called RAF Winkton was constructed to the
southeast of the radar station.[1] RAF Winkton operated for less than a year and
was officially closed in January 1945.[2]
In 1946 RAF Sopley was reclassified as a master GCI station and reserve Sector
Operations Centre. As part of the UK's programme to update its air defences, Sopley
underwent much modernisation during the 1950s including a new guardhouse providing
access to a two-storey underground operations centre. It was also in the early
1950s that the domestic camp was built near Bransgore. In 1958 the School of
Fighter Control moved in and from 1959 an Air Traffic Control Research Unit was
established.
The Fighter Control School disbanded in 1960 and the station was taken over by Air
Traffic Control. RAF Sopley fulfilled a number of other roles before closing in
September 1974. The two-level operations bunker was modernised in the 1970s when it
was occupied by a Royal Signals unit from Signals Research and Development
Establishment at Christchurch. The entire site transferred to the army soon after
and for the duration of the Cold War was used by 2 Signals Brigade from the UK Land
Forces at Wilton. The only surviving surface features of the site are the
guardhouse, which has been refurbished, the generator building and a small
blockhouse that doubles as an emergency exit for the bunker. The bunker too remains
intact and is used by a private company for data storage.[3]

References[edit]

^ Starlight, Southern Radar and RAF Sopley

^ Winkton Advanced Landing Ground

^ "RAF Sopley". PastScapes. English Heritage. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to RAF Sopley.

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1: Still in RAF use as a bombing range