HEMSWELL
One of many airfields close by the A15 the Roman Ermine Street that runs north through Lincolnshire to the Humber - this site was first used for flying in the First World War. Late in 1916, a broad pasture, on the northeast side of the junction of what were to become the B1398 and A631 at the village of Harpswell, was requisitioned for the Royal Flying Corps for a night landing ground. In 1918, Nos.199 and 200 Training Squadrons were established at Hemswell and by the end of hostilities several buildings, including four hangars, had been erected on the eastern side. However, these units and the aerodrome had but a brief existence and within a year cattle were again in residence.
In the early 1930s, the site became a candidate for an expansion scheme airfield for the RAF, the land being compulsorily purchased with construction beginning in 1935. To the standard requirements of the time, half the 400 acres acquired were for the flying field and the remainder, on the south-eastern side close to the hamlet Spital-in-the-Street. Four Type C hangars fronted the bombing circle with the administrative, technical and barrack sites in close proximity to the rear. Officially named Hemswell after the large village on the western boundary beyond the B1398, the station was opened in January 1937 with Nos.61 and 144 Squadrons being installed as the resident units the following month. During the next two years, the squadrons shed the Hawker Audax biplanes with which they had arrived, and moved through Ansons and Blenheims to Hampdens, the type on which No. 5 Group was standardising. Both squadrons remained at Hemswell until the station was transferred to No. 1 Group in July 1941 when they moved to North Luffenham.
No. 61 Squadron's Hampdens are credited with being the first Bomber Command aircraft to drop bombs on German soil. This occurred on the night of March 19, 1940 when the seaplane base at Hornum was attacked. During Hampden operations from Hemswell, some 300 raids were undertaken and 45 aircraft failed to return with another 38 lost in operational crashes. A Manchester was also lost on the night of June 26/27, 1941, one of the few that the squadron had on strength at that time.
With its acquisition of Hemswell, No. 1 Group moved in No. 300 Squadron - the Polish unit based at Ingham where the turf needed refurbishment. No. 301, another Polish-manned squadron, came in from Swinderby so that the language communication difficulties were concentrated at one location. A third, No. 305, joined the other Polish squadrons in July 1942. By 1943, the numbers of Polish crews available had dropped to a point where a decision had to be taken to reduce the active bomber units. The axe fell on No. 301 and it was disbanded in April that year, some personnel remaining on the station to join No. 300. In June, No.300 had to switch back to its old base at Ingham, again taking No.305 with it, so that work could begin on laying concrete runways at Hemswell to bring the airfield up to Class A standard. The main runway 17-35 was to be 2,000 yards long, 06-24 1,550 yards and 1028 1,500 yards. The ends of 24 and 28 were both extended to 1,700 yards, apparently before the station was re-opened. Some 36 asphalt pan hardstandings had been put down in the 1940-1941 period but during runway and perimeter track construction at least four were destroyed. Another six on the south side were compromised by being directly in front of runway 35. Sixteen of the surviving pans were on the other side of the A631 accessed by long taxiways. Evidently several of the original hardstandings were no longer held as suitable for aircraft parking for 17 loop-type standings were added along the perimeter track. Also it is evident that some extra work was done to the bomb store situated northeast of the camp. Additional domestic accommodation resulted in a total of 2,807 male and 298 female places at the station. The runway construction was carried out by J. McGeoch and Son Ltd and the other work by B. Pumfrey and Sons Ltd.
When the airfield was re-opened in January 1944 it was used by No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School, which remained until November. Hemswell then became a satellite or sub-base of Scampton receiving two recently re-formed squadrons, Nos. 150 and 170. No.150 flew its first operational sorties from Hemswell but No.170 had already started raids from Kirmington. Both these Lancaster squadrons remained at Hemswell until disbanded in November 1945. During the war a total of 122 bombers were lost while on operations from Hemswell, 38 Hampdens, 62 Wellingtons and 22 Lancaster's.
In the immediate post-war years, Hemswell played host to a number of RAF units. Mosquitoes of Nos.109 and 139 Squadrons stayed briefly in 1946 and in November that year Nos.83, 97 and 100 Squadrons brought in Lincolns, a type present for nine years as squadrons came and went. Nos. 09 and 139 returned with their Mosquitoes in 1950, converting to Canberra's in 1952-53. They left in January 1956 - the last flying units based at the station. No.97 Squadron returned in another guise when three Thor medium range missiles were located on part of the base but the squadron was gone in 1963, the weapon being already obsolete. For three years, the camp area then housed No. 7 School of Recruit Training, the barrack area being retained thereafter for overflow married quarters for Scampton and later as a staging area for displaced Ugandan refugees. The hangars were used for intervention grain storage, a T2 being erected to provide further capacity.
Hemswell was put up for sale in the early 1980s, the buildings now serving many purposes: markets, antique restorations and, most notably, the old Officers Mess being converted into a hotel. The runways were removed for hard core in the 1980s but fortunately Hemswell's substantial buildings of the pre-war camp site have endured into the next century.
