RAF Halton

RAF Halton stands on a former Rothschild estate near Wendover in Buckinghamshire. The land hosted early military aviation in 1913 when No 3 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps carried out manoeuvres. During the First World War the British Army used the estate, and in 1917 German prisoners built workshops for an air mechanics school. After the war the government bought the estate for £112,000 to create the Royal Air Force’s first technical training site. Halton House, a French-style mansion built for Alfred de Rothschild, became the Officers’ Mess in 1919 and remains a grade II listed building. The station has trained thousands of RAF apprentices since Lord Trenchard founded the No. 1 School of Technical Training. RAF Halton played a significant role in both world wars. In the Second World War No 112 Squadron and No 402 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force were based here. A radar calibration flight became No. 529 Squadron, flying autogyros during the conflict. In 1952 the then Princess Elizabeth presented a Queen’s Colour to the apprentice school, the first awarded to an apprentice unit. The station later became the only RAF site to receive two Queen’s Colours. The Trenchard Museum preserves this history, including re-excavated First World War training trenches. Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital opened in 1927 and pioneered large-scale penicillin use in 1940. Visitors find a grass airfield used mainly for gliding and light aircraft. The Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association and the Chilterns Gliding Centre operate from the site. Halton House, once the Officers’ Mess, remains closed after structural defects were found in 2025. The Trenchard Museum displays artefacts from the station’s long apprenticeship tradition. The airfield also served as a film location for the German airfield in Wonder Woman. Wooded grounds and former service buildings frame the open flying area, offering a quiet contrast to the station’s busy past.