MSc Historic Conservation: field trip to ex-RAF Bicester

Oxford Brookes Historic Conservation MSc students visit ex-RAF Bicester, England’s best-preserved WWII-era airfield. Originally established in 1916, the site was laid out in its present form from 1925 onwards as part of Sir Hugh Trenchard’s Home Defence Expansion Scheme. The Domestic Site, a campus-like cluster of accommodation, training and workshop blocks arranged in trident formation amid lawns and trees, gives access to the Technical Site with its vast hangars - built to accommodate heavy bombers of up to 100ft wingspan - and the Flying Field beyond. The site is now a Conservation Area containing numerous Listed Buildings and Scheduled Monuments; for the last decade it has been home to automotive and aviation business centre Bicester Motion, which has sensitively converted the existing buildings while exploring options for further development.

Our guide for the afternoon was Oxford-based heritage consultant Nicholas Worlledge of Worlledge Associates, who has provided specialist conservation and planning advice throughout the process.

Thanks to David Garrard for the report. And for more information on the MSc Historic Conservation at Oxford Brookes click here.