Name: Control Tower, RAF Museum (Former RAF East Kirkby)
Locality: East Kirkby, Lincolnshire PE23 4DA
Built: 1942
Owner: Air ministry
Grade: II
Website: Lincolnshire aviation centre
History:
RAF East Kirkby opened on the 20th August 1943 as a Bomber command Station. The station closed in 1958 and is now home to an air museum whose prize exhibit is the Lancaster Bomber "Just Jane". The aircraft was purchased by the Panton brothers from a museum in Blackpool where it had been a static exhibit. Now fully restored, in memory of their brother who was killed on a Bomber Command mission, the Lancaster has been given a taxi license and frequently makes runs for visitors. After the end of hostilities, East Kirby was home to 460 sqd. RAAF, until October, 1945. The number of servicemen and women stationed at East Kirkby was 2000. In April 1945, a Lancaster caught fire while being bombed up, resulting in a huge explosion which set off further bombs. Four people were killed, six Lancaster's totally destroyed, and a further fourteen damaged.
I was really looking forward to going back to RAF East Kirkby near Spilsby in Lincolnshire. We have been there before whilst on holiday a few years ago.
We began with looking around the hanger where the AVRO Just Jane Lancaster bomber is housed. We looked and the old spitfire wreckage and the plethora of old photos that would have taken hours to look at carefully. I then came across the photo of Norman Watt, the pilot who plunged to his death in a spitfire accident , all his things were laid out in glass covered cabinets along with bits of wreckage.
We then continued towards the famous control tower where a green light has been seen in the middle of the night. The windows had been blocked out, and the room was very dim and depressing. We listened to the simulations of 1940s RAF crews mapping flight paths, it was a creepy place during the day, let alone at night!
Many people believe the airfield to be haunted.
Alleged ghostly manifestations: Apparitions of WW2 airmen.
Ghostly anomalies: Spectral green lights in and around the air base.
