RAF Eastcote

File:RAF Eastcote entrance.jpg

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. Subsequently, it became clear they would not be required for that purpose and became barracks for Navy Wrens.{{cite web |url=http://www.ruislip.co.uk/eastcotemod/index.htm |title=Eastcote MOD |year=1985 |publisher=Ruislip Online |access-date=14 September 2010}} Bletchley Park established an outpost at the Eastcote site, known during the Second World War as HMS Pembroke V, to house some of the Bombe codebreaker machines used to decode German Enigma messages.

A total of 100 machines were operated at Eastcote, controlled by 800 Wrens and 100 RAF technicians.{{cite web|url=http://www.eastcotera.co.uk/index.php/local-history |title=Local History |year=2010 |publisher=Eastcote Residents' Association |access-date=27 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201172623/http://www.eastcotera.co.uk/index.php/local-history |archive-date=1 December 2011 }} 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.Toms 2005, p. 26 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/osp28.pdf |title=Operational Selection Policy OSP28 |date=January 2006 |publisher=National Archives |access-date=26 August 2011}} The Crown purchased the estate in 1947. Eastcote's proximity to London meant staff were not far from Whitehall, and the site became known as the "London Signals Intelligence Centre".{{cite web |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/aldrich/vigilant/lectures/gchq/eastcote |title=Eastcote |year=2011 |publisher=University of Warwick |access-date=26 March 2011}} Six years later, in July 1952, GC&CS became "Government Communications Headquarters" (GCHQ) and began to move from Eastcote to new purpose-built buildings in Cheltenham. The move was completed in February 1954.{{cite web |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/aldrich/vigilant/lectures/gchq |title=GCHQ: Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency |year=2011 |publisher=University of Warwick |access-date=26 March 2011}}

Between 1954 and 1977 the London Communications-Electronic Security Agency security agency was based at Eastcote.

In 1949 the United States Air Force established a non-flying base at RAF South Ruislip to coordinate the USAFE's Third Air Force and 7th Air Division (SAC) activities in Great Britain with the British Government.Bowlt 1996, pp.1371–38 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.

The United States military continued to use buildings on the site until the closure in 2007.{{cite web |url=http://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/media/pdf/2/k/site_alloc7_2.pdf |title=RAF West Ruislip |publisher=London Borough of Hillingdon |access-date=27 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110927185141/http%3A//www.hillingdon.gov.uk/media/pdf/2/k/site_alloc7_2.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}

File:Housing on former RAF Eastcote.jpg

The {{convert|19|acre|m2|adj=on}} site was the first to be sold as part of the Ministry of Defence's Project MoDEL (Ministry of Defence Estates London), a programme to reduce the number of military sites in the Greater London area.{{cite web |url=http://www.propertyweek.com/chocks-away/3079545.article |title=Chocks away |last=Morrison |first=Doug |date=12 January 2007 |publisher=Property Week |access-date=14 September 2010}} George Wimpey purchased the site in 2007, planning to build 385 new homes.{{cite web |url=http://www.vsmestates.co.uk/schemes_eastcote.htm |title=RAF Eastcote |publisher=VSM Estates |access-date=14 September 2010}} The entire site was cleared in 2008 and building commenced.{{cite web |url=http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/hyperlocals/2010/03/15/eastcote-113046-26037595/ |title=Eastcote |date=15 March 2010 |work=Uxbridge Gazette|access-date=10 March 2011}}

George Wimpey became Taylor Wimpey 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.{{cite web |url=http://ruislip.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/2010/12/report-slams-developers-bid-to.html |title=Report slams developer's bid to expand RAF Eastcote housing scheme |date=2 December 2010 |last=Cracknell |first=James |work=Uxbridge Gazette|access-date=16 June 2011}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://ruislip.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/2010/11/fears-over-future-of-eastcote.html |title=Fears over future of Eastcote community site allayed |date=11 November 2010 |last=Cracknell |first=James |work=Uxbridge Gazette|access-date=16 June 2011}}

The development was 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.{{cite web |url=http://pembrokepark.info |title=Pembroke Park |year=2011 |publisher=Pembroke Park Residents Association |access-date=26 March 2011}}

;Citations

{{reflist}}

;Bibliography

• Bowlt, Eileen. M. (1996) Ickenham And Harefield Past. London: Historical Publications {{ISBN|0-948667-36-2}}
• Copeland, B. Jack. (2006) Colossus: the secrets of Bletchley Park's codebreaking computers. Oxford University Press {{ISBN|978-0-19-284055-4}}
• 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}}

• [http://18thcenturydiary.org.uk/a-gchq-memoir/ A GCHQ memoir]
• [http://www.ruisliponline.com/eastcotemod/index.htm Photographs of RAF Eastcote]
• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/26/a7440626.shtml Memories of a war-time PV Wren]
• [http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/bpt/Women/Eastcote.html The Women of Bletchley Park – Eastcote]
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/version-3-point-1/sets/72157603749354136/ RAF Eastcote during demolition – Flickr]
• [http://pembrokepark.info/ Pembroke Park Residents Association]

Category:Eastcote

Category:Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hillingdon

Eastcote

Category:History of the London Borough of Hillingdon

Eastcote

Eastcote

Eastcote