Our Vision

The Opportunity for Investment

 Development potential on the airfield (apart from the ‘technical site’, where all the airbase buildings stand) is low. However, sustainable and environmentally friendly projects could be financially viable and of community benefit. 

The base includes several buildings within the technical area which have little merit as heritage buildings and there would be some scope for conversion to create opportunities for small scale local businesses or institutional uses for which there is local demand. As we have said, these need to be considered in the context of a Master Plan or Neighbourhood Plan, which includes the whole MoD site as described above. 

The 300-acre Grays Farm adjoining the airfield recently sold for approximately £6,700 per acre for rewilding and there is no reason to assume a value much higher than agricultural land for the airfield. Separately, a number of landowners in the area are involved with particular focus on the River Pant and a goal of linking to a farm cluster downstream on the River Blackwater to further support the ecology of the area.

Examples of Good Uses of Other Military Bases

Other military bases around the United Kingdom and world have become solar farms, vehicle testing sites, movie studios, culture centres, and community recreation and memorial parks. 

The 954-acre open space of Tempelhofer Freiheit, a former military airfield in Berlin, has a four-mile-long cycling, skating and jogging trail, a six-acre BBQ area, a dog-walking field covering around 10 acres, and an enormous picnic area for all visitors. Kite flying, skateboarding, in-line skating are all popular on the site, which also provides school groups with guided tours. 

In 1994, art collector and patron Karl-Heinrich Müller bought Raketenstation Hombroich, a former NATO missile base in Neuss, Germany, and converted the halls, hangars and observation tower into spaces open to the public for exhibitions and events. Today, Museum Insel Hombroich is a museum and a place where artists live and work, where they can explore the diverse relationships with their natural environment. 

In Washington state, the 350-acre Magnuson Park, a former military base, has miles of walking trails, a sports field, community garden, meadows and forests, a wetland habitat, and a community centre. An art installation of 22 submarine diving fins placed at angles along a path is one of the first memorials in the United States to honour those who served their country during the Cold War. 

Wroughton Airfield in Wiltshire has been used by the Science Museum since 1979 as a storage facility for the Science Museum Group’s largest objects, including the world’s first hovercraft, MRI scanners, computers, and de-activated nuclear missiles. As with Wethersfield Airfield, the runway has been used for filming movies and tv shows and testing of vehicles and equipment for new technology. Recently, Dignus Films bought a hangar to use as a studio to shoot feature-length productions.