NEWS ARCHIVE 2010 - RAF HOLMPTON

Updated 31st December 2010

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2010 NEWS

NEWS ARCHIVE 2010

December 31st - Dont forget to go to our latest newspage just clck on the NEWS 2011 tab.

December 21st - COMING UP IN 2011 - We are undertaking major work on our Public Tour for the 2011 Season and when we open on Sat 19th February 2011 (Just in time for the half term holiday) Visitors will benefit from - New Interpretive Panels on all exhibits, explaining the history and function of every room in the Bunker - New lighting & effects - A revised and much improved public tour with New Features & some new exhibits - Two new Cinemas - New films & Presentations and a Major New History Show to finish each tour - We have also introduced Extra Opening Times with two tours a day at all peak times (All Half Terms / Easter & the Summer) with a extended Summer Openings) So we look forward to welcoming our visitor in 2001 - See our Opening Times Page for details or Pick up a 2011 Leaflet at your local Tourist Information centre or from many other venues throughout the area - RAF Holmpton has a reputation for a War Welcome for ALL OUR VISITORS so come along and sample our Hospitality in 2011.

December 9th -

Major works start at RAF HOLMPTON over the next two weeks to replace the Water Main to the site. The old water main was installed in 1951/2 and over the last 7 years has suffered from a large number of bursts - In 2008 the supply was transferred from the local 4 inch main supplying Holmpton Village to the 9 inch high pressure main supplying water to the British Gas & BP Facilities at Easington - The resultant increase in pressure has caused numerous bursts on our old supply pipe. Now Yorkshire Water in conjunction with Morrison Utilities are undertaking a complete replacement of our main along Rysome Lane - This will involve excavating holes every 100 mtrs along the road and forcing a high pressure Pipe Breaker through the old main, literally splitting the old pipe and pulling a new plastic pipe through the duct. Outside our site a new main valve will be installed along with a new high pressure hydrant, and we are also taking the opportunity to install new land drains at our entrance to clear the famous 'puddle' that always forms during heavy rain - - Works are scheduled to be completed in about 14 days and we should then benefit from a major improvement in our water pressure and most importantly a major inprovement in the quality of our water supply.

December 2nd - - Snow at RAF Holmpton showing The Guardroom (Left) and the Security Lodge WSM Office (Right) - Just like everyone else now waiting for the thaw !

December 1st - Further Refurbishments - We are currently working on a complete refurbishment of our two cinemas along with a brand new show and presentation in our main operations auditorium - We are also building a new Registry & Security Office in the Bunker and our Computer Room is moving from it's present location to house our new Main Frame which will have an amazing capacity of 1million terabytes !

December 1st - - Nightime at RAF Holmpton as the snow continues to fall.

December 1st - - COMPLETED - Our newly refurbished main entrance Tunnel - Ready to greet our visitors in 2011 - We re open just in time for the Half Term Break on Saturday 19th February 2011.

November 28th - SNOW !

November 17th - Work on the TUNNEL PROJECT is on schedule and due for completion by 26th November - All starting to look very good now and heading towards a total transformation.

November 5th - COMING IN 2011 & Taking us to a New Level 'Some Fabulous Special Events' Paranormal Investigations - Symphony Concert - Opera Performance - Car Rallies - Organ Concert - Comedy Show - Film Night - VISIT OUR SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE FOR DETAILS & HOW TO BOOK -Our Auditorium 'State of the Art Lighting & Sound Systems' Rising to the challenge in 2011.

November 1st - - ACCESS TUNNEL PROJECT -Every visitor to the Bunker at RAF Holmpton enters through the main access tunnel and over the years this has taken it's toll on the surfaces. The tunnels on these buildings are also subject to land settlement over the years, as with the huge weight of the bunker and it's 10ft outer shell, this exerts additional pressure on the tunnels at each end of the building causing a levelling effect and some cracking of the 2ft tunnel walls. Our tunnel has not escaped this and during the 1980's refit for RAF Support Command the settlement cracks in the tunnel walls were opened up and repaired with a new channel cut into each crack and a quick drying sealant then pumped in under pressure. This has worked with total success and our tunnel has been completely dry ever since. But due to budget constraints on redecoration at the time, and the 25 years since the walls and ceiling are now in desperate need of attention - So on Monday November 9th our contractors 'Holwells' ( a local firm) will move on site to start a complete restoration of the tunnel. This will involve removing all damaged decorations, removing any rust or flaking from supply conduits and then a complete prime, (damp proofing where required) undercoat and repainting of the whole tunnel. In addition we will also be resurfacing the floor with a 'grip concret' mix and finally relighting the tunnel and replacing it's PA system - So in short when we re-open for the 2011 season, visitors should experience a Totally Refurbished Access Tunnel, bringing this area up to the high standard of the rest of the Bunker.

October 31st - The last tour of the 2010 season this afternoon - With many thanks to all our Visitors during 2010 who have made this another 'Record Breaking Visitor Season' - We will now be working hard on all the improvements and changes for our next season which opens on Saturday 19th February 2011 - Just in time for the Half Term Holiday Week.

October 30th - - Visit by members of 252 Squadron ATC (Bridlington) who joined members of the public on the afternoon tour of the Bunker.

October 24th - - Visit by members (with their cars) of the SAAB Car Club - We are always delighted to host car rallies so just contact us if you would like to hld an event here.

October 25th -  - Holmpton - CUTBACKS - COST SAVINGS & FORWARD PLAN - A meeting was held today to discuss the forward plan for RAF Holmpton through 2011/2012 in light of the current requirement for cutbacks and cost savings - 1/ As an initial cost saving measure we have reduced our opening times for the remainder of the 2010 season which will now end on 31st October 2010 - 2/ Dates for the 2011 visitor season have now been agreed and this will start on 19th February 2011 running until the 30th October 2011 - Full details will be published on our Public Opening Times Page in early November - 3/ A number of major improvements will be carried out to the public tour and exhibition during the winter months, including new presentations, new films and enhanced viewing areas, but our Area 7 project will sadly be scrapped as a major cost saving, with surplus items from the project incorporated into improving the existing displays. 4/ On 1st November the Defence Archive Unit at Holmpton will close and any historic documents will be passed to the National Archives at Kew, with surplus equipment from the Archive Unit sold off to assist financing of the 2011 visitor improvements. 5/ On this basis we are now looking forward to a successful 2011 season.
NEWSFLASH - LOCAL ROADWORKS - Due to major roadworks closing the cost road from Withernsea to Holmpton just Follow the Yellow Diversion Signs from either Withernsea or Patrington to Holmpton - On arrival at Holmpton turn right, go straight through the village past the pub and take to 1st turn right. RAF Holmpton is then 500 yds on your left - Go to our HOW TO FIND US Page for full details - Maps & Map Links.
October 17th - - Visit by members of the MG CAR CLUB along with their splendid vehicles. The display of cars was enjoyed by both the members and visiting public. For full details: www.mgccyorkshire.co.uk
October 16th - - Visit by staff & personnel from RAF Menwith Hill - Possibly one of the most secret installations in the UK - Menwith Hill operates as a part of the US Air Force USAF and the National Security Agency NSA - Full details about Menwith can be found on the MOD official website and both American and British personnel are stationed there.
September 28th - - Visit by the Officer Commanding and Personnel from RAF Staxton Wold, which started life long ago as a Chain Home Radar Station. Although due to close in the 1950's it was revived during the 1960's as part of the ROTOR programme and became an 'outstation' of RAF Holmpton, RAF Patrington with massive new Type 84/85 & HSA Radars located at the site. This involved some extensive building work and when RAF Patrington closed in 1974, all it's functions were taken over by Staxton Wold. Since then the station has been in continuous use and in late 2009 it received new radars assuring it's life as a Remore Radar Head. In 2010 the huge concrete R12 building that had dominated the Staxton skyline for so many years was finally demolished and further work during 2010 will remove other long disused buildings on ths site. RAF Staxton Wold has the honour of being the 'Longest Serviing Radar Station' in the Royal Air Force
September 27th - - LUPIN our Official Mascot is 3 years old today - Happy Birthday Lupin - Seen here just chilling out in her kennel after a larger than usual Birthday meal ! Many visitors arriving early to find out our opening times or read the notices outside, have often encountered Lupin running up and down the security fence and barking at them - She is just doing her job folks !
September 21st - Vist by The Scarborough Historical Aircraft Society - Members joined the afternoon bunker tour for an insight into the Cold War History of RAF Holmpton.
September 19th - RECORD BREAKING WEEKEND - Must have been the rain and the TV news item, but both the Saturday & Sunday tours were full to capacity - Many thanks to all those who visited and for the huge amount of positive feedback after the tours, we always appreciate hearing what our visitors have to say, and many past suggestions have been incorporated into the tours.
September 12th - A tremendous 'Thank You' to the team at ITV Calendar News (Sheffield/Leeds) for their RAF HOLMPTON news item broadcast on Friday 10th - This brought us a record number of visitors over the weekend, Just proving the power of TV - A fabulous time was enjoyed by our visitors with the tours on Saturday & Sunday running to capacity numbers.
August 31st - RECORD BREAKING SUMMER SEASON - A BIG 'Thank You' to all our visitors during July/August making this a record breaking Summer Season at RAF Holmpton with many tours running to capacity with standing room only !
August 27th - Fantastic visit by members of the ROC Association made extra special as this included past ROC staff that served at RAF Holmpton until the NBC cell closed here in 1995 - A great time was had by all and we are always delighted to host these visits, especially as the ROC played such a vital part in our own history.
August 9th - Coming Soon - RADIO AT RAF HOLMPTON - We will soon be hosting our very own Radio Station Broadcasting on GB2VQJ and also incorporating other transmission equipment and Satellite Systems - The former YEDL Sub Station is being transformed into our New Radio Station - So watch this space for details and our new Transmission Tower shortly to appear on the skyline at RAF Holmpton.
August 8th - LUPIN is now making a very speedy recovery and has her final 'post op' check on Tuesday 10th August - We will keep you posted.
July 20th - Vist by staff and personnel from the CRC (Radar Reporting & Control Centre' based at RAF Scampton - The CRC at Scampton is today's state of the art equivalent of what used to be located at RAF Holmpton between 1953 to 1974 - Many amazing changes since the early days and a fascinating 'step into the past' for the visiting personnel.
July 30th - LUPIN undergoes surgery - See Lupin our Mascot Page.
July 11th - - - HERO DOG IN OWL RESCUE - Lupin our station mascot for the last 2 days has been constantly worrying at the massive blast door on our power station. Unopened for some time the tracks for the door were cleaned out and the 3 ton door was eventually rolled back yesterday to reveal something inside the framework of the door - After further investigation and removal of the safety seals around the frame we were able to extract (with great difficulty) two baby Owls - These are 'Little Owls' introduced to the UK during Queen Victoria's reign and now numbering some 30,000 in the country - They do not nest in buildings preferring hollow trees and clusters of branches. There was no sign of any parents so thanks to a 40 minute response by RAPTOR RESCUE in HULL both these tiny owls have gone to a safe new future and will be back in the wild ASAP - And had it not been for LUPIN's constant investigation we might never have known.
July 10th - - What a great start to our Summer Season - At just 12 weeks the bunkers youngest ever visitor - Now possibly not taking it all in and although it's our policy not to usually admit under 5's who could possibly have refused this 'sweetie' And throughout the whole tour he didn't even make a squeak ! Oh and by the way Congratulations to Mum & Dad.
July 10th - NEW POSTCODE - As people using SAT NAV have been directed in the past to the central point of our old general area postcode the ROYAL MAIL have very kindly issued RAF HOLMPTON with it's own individual postcode. This will take a while to embed into all the SAT NAV mapping systems but will soon become fully active, and then using it will direct you right to our gates - The new postcode for RAF HOLMPTON is - HU19 2RG
July 6th & July 9th - - Visits by The Orchard (Senior) School Retford and Easington (Primary) School - We are always delighted to host these visits and we offer a special subsidised school admission price for these tours - Just contact us on info@rafholmpton.com for details. In 2011 we will be introducing a new version of the school visits with different content for primary and senior levels.
June 29th  THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS ARE ON THE WAY - So don't miss out this year and come along to the UK's Best Bunker Tour with a host of improvements for this Summer - We have added extra opening times so here are the Summer Times as a reminder - JULY 10th to July 30th - Open Every Day - Gates 2pm - Tour 2.30pm - JULY 31st to AUGUST 30th - Open Every Day - Gates 11am & 2pm - Tours 11.30am & 2.30pm.
June 25th -       Two unique pictures never seen before - Top Left the Main Cable Tunnel at RAF Holmpton running right through the middle of the bunker between the top and lower floors and extending to over 100 yards - Top right the access panels in the entrance tunnel, raised to allow cable fitting today of our new CCTV/ANPR systems. Just out of interest to the 'tecchies' the cable run from the control room to the outside cameras is over 250 yards - RAF Holmpton has literally miles of cable installed throughout the massive 35,000sq ft complex. The R3(M)2 structure is the only one of it's kind in the UK and was the prototype for several identical bunkers built in Europe.
June 24th - Work is now completed on all the current improvements to the Public Tour with the Dormitory Viewing Area - The restoration of RAF Support Command Ops 3 and The new Computer Hall Viewing Area all up and running. So our Summer Season Visitors will now benefit from these major improvements.
June 8th - Occasionally we do something 'quite mad' and this Sunday after the public visit our Curators and a team of 15 staff moved into the OPS 3 (Support Command) area and stripped out the entire exhibition - Although this area has been on display since 2004 we have never been totally happy with it due to difficult public access and the exhibition not being quite right. But NOW the entire area has been totally refurbished in a 24hour blitz ! The allocation centre is now fully restored to it's former glory, just as it was in the days of SUPPORT COMMAND here at RAF Holmpton (1984 - 1991) and a completely new viewing gallery has been installed right into the heart of the 'Support Command Operations Pit' where the Executive Commanders would have operated from - It's an awesome thought that had there ever been a WWIII the 'Entire Supply System of the Whole of the RAF throughout the whole of the British Isles' would have been run from this centre at RAF Holmpton.
June 5th - IMPROVEMENTS - We can't complain as we have been getting loads more visitors and they are all very welcome - This has caused a few 'log jams' in the tour - So we have now carried out some alterations to improve the visitor flows - New Dormitory viewing walk through - New Computer Hall viewing walk through, and on Monday we are starting a complete refit of 'Ops 2 Support Command' to make this a much easier area to view. All this work is scheduled for completion by Tuesday 8th June so hopefully all ready for our visitors.
May 21st - Work is now completed on the new viewing area to the former Computer Hall, now providing a totally new way of seeing this vast area at first hand. Yet another inmprovement to our Award Winning Public Tour.
May 14th - Work underway on our new entrance roadway which was long overdue for refurbishment.
April 29th - Visit today by this lovely Vintage Wolsley 6/110 Car - A very happy couple arrived today for the bunker tour, treated by their daughter to this fabulous 'Chauffeur Driven Treat' - For days out in style using Vintage Cars contact www.swishcars.co.uk A real treat & surprisingly reasonable too !
April 18th - Visit by the Micromaniacs club with a fine selection of 'Bubble Cars' all linbed up outside the Guardroom on a gloriously sunny day - We welcome car rally events, so just give us a call anytime and your club will be made very welcome at RAF HOLMPTON.
April 7th - STANDBY for the Big Announcement - After two false starts it's got the go ahead and it's finally going to happen for 2011 - So watch the AREA 7 PAGE for Full Details and Regular Updates - Very Soon !
April 7th - We are delighted to announce that the 'BIG UFO NIGHT' is back on with a new promoter - Satiurday 24th July 2010 - Visit our SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE for full details.
April 3rd 4th 5th -  RAF 'Airfields On The Air' A Fantastic event here with the Finningley Radio Team as they made contact with hundreds of current and past Airfields in the UK and International Contacts - The team will be back later in the season for more Radio Events - a regular feature at RAF HOLMPTON.
April 3rd - A Fantastic Paranormal Investigation with TV Celebrity Medium & Psychic BARRIE JOHN - Why not join one of our investigations at RAF HOLMPTON rapidly becoming one of the most popular Paranormal Venues in the UK - Just click on our Paranromal Events Page for a full oisting of all events here and links to the organisers so that you can book your tickets - Barrie will be back again in August with COMPASS PARANORMAL EVENTS.
March 25th- RAF HOLMPTON is delighted to be one of the '70 TOP ATTRACTIONS' listed in the new Yorkshire Pass Guide - Just buy your pass from designated shops or TIC's and then gain free admission to over 70 attractions - The new PASS launches on April 1st and RAF HOLMPTON is ready to accept the pass from day one !
March 17th - Visit by SNAPETHORPE PRIMARY (Wakefield) - We are always delighted to arrange visits for Primary Schools and these Kids had a fantastic time visiting the Bunker - Exploring and taking part in our Bunker Quiz - Just contact us on info@rafholmpton.com for details about how to book your School Visit. (We also offer a subsidised special admission rate for schools)
March 15th - RAF HOLMPTON is now set to host the 'GREAT UK UFO EVENT' for 2010 with Celebrity Guests for this amazing night (Sat July 4th) See our SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE for FULL DETAILS.
February 28th - Visit by Selby Leisureability Group - We are always delighted to welcome Community - Special Needs - Learning Difficulties Groups - Just contact us on info@rafholmpton.com and we will be pleased to help.
February 22nd - Early Season Openings - The Bunker re opens for the early season from Saturday 27th February - We are then open every Tue/Wed/Thur/Sat & Sun (Gates 2pm / Tour 2.30pm) until the Easter Holidays when we open 7 days a week with two tours every day.
February 21st -   Visit by 2222 Sqdn Brig ATC and their Mascot 'Bertie' - We are always delighted to welcome ATC groups to RAF Holmpton just contact us for details.
February 20th - An Outstanding Event with UK PARANORMAL NETWORK at RAF Holmpton - A Ghost Hunt starting at 9pm and ending in the small hours at 4am - Enjoyed by everyone Investigators - Guests & 'Visitors' alike - Full details of their next events at www.ukparanormalnetwork.co.uk
February 20th - MIDS Urban Explorers on their annual visit to RAF Holmpton - We welcome Urban Explorer Groups and can easily arrange visits with plenty of time for photography - Just contact us for details - info@rafholmpton.com
February 14th - Celebrity Psychic IAN LAWMAN (As seen on TV) was the guset medium for an amazing paranormal night organised jointly by Most Haunted and Fright Nights. These events are held throughout the year and are very popular, so have a look at our Paranormal Nights Page, where you can find details of all the upcoming investigations and book your tickets.
February 13th - NOW OPEN - Our 2010 Season Starts Today - Full details on our PUBLIC OPENING TIMES PAGE - With a very warm welcome to all our visitors.
February 10th - On May 14th Mark Whittaker of EDPS Paranormal will be spending a whole night 'alone' in the bunker and doing this as a sponsored challenge for charity. For full details and how to support Mark in his adventure just click on the donate logo above which will take you to his Virgin Money Carity support website
January 29th - What a start to our 2010 season Public tours open in time for half term OPEN EVERY DAY from Sat 13th February - Gates 2pm - Tour 2.30pm daily - & For the evening of Saturday 13th February your chance to join CELEBRITY PSYCHIC - IAN LAWMAN as he Investigates the Well Documented Paranormal Activity In The Bunker - See our SPECIAL EVENTS PAGE for FULL DETAILS.
January 14th - For our 2010 Season there are a number of improvements for our visitors - New Films - A New Show - Enlarged viewing areas in most rooms - New Shop Area - Refurbished WC's Improved DORMITORY - ROC & SITUATION ROOM displays.
January 1st - A very warm welcome to 2010 - Our Visitor Season opens on Saturday 13th February for the Half term Holiday - Just click on our Public Opening Times Page for Full details.
2010 NEWS AT RAF HOLMPTONM