Group members are involved in work being undertaken by the Parish Council to update their local walks leaflets and two Group members recently took the opportunity to explore what remains of the former RAF flight training base at Shinfield Park. This part of the Parish is now cut off by the M4 motorway and the roundabout-road complex associated with the new University Bridge but in the past it was at the heart of the parish. Until the end of the eighteenth century it was the site
Shinfield Lodge, now The Lodge, where officers were billetted during the War and subsequently the Officers Mess, now a private house again
of the old manor house – when Alexander Cobham purchased the manor, he had it pulled down. Even after this, some of the most exclusive properties in the parish were located on the ridge along the road from Reading and the neighbouring farm, later known as Ducketts Farm, was still known as Manor Farm.
During the Second World War, the Headquarters of RAF Flying Training Command was relocated to Shinfield Park and two of these properties were taken over by the RAF: Shinfield Lodge, a Grade II listed, Georgian building which still survives in the middle of the modern “Met Office” housing estate, and the Grove, which used to stand near the roundabout. After the War, the RAF housing off Whitley Wood Lane was built as accommodation for officers and the Lodge became the Officers’ Mess. A series of pathways leading up the steep, wooded slope linked the RAF housing to the Lodge and other facilities at the top of the rise and the main, partly-gravelled pathway with the remains of two lamp posts marking the route still survive.
RAF Flying Training Command was reabsorbed into Training Command in 1968 and subsequently disbanded in May 1975. After Flying Training Command left Shinfield Park, the Meteorological Office College relocated to the site from Stanmore in Middlesex in October 1971. When the Met. Office HQ relocated from Bracknell to Exeter in 2004, the College relocated at the same time however the European Centre for Medium Range Weather
The wording round the outside reads “To commemorate the site of HQ Flying Training Command RAF Shinfield Park 1940-1968”
Forecasting remained in Shinfield Park. Since then the remainder of the site has been redeveloped for housing. The RAF occupancy was commemorated by the construction of a replica RAF roundel in the verge on AphelionWay. A dedication ceremony was held beside the roundel on 16th January 2013, attended by officers from the RAF, representatives from Shinfield Parish Council and local residents.
In common with other recently-built estates, streets have been named to commemorate the previous history of the area – in the case of the RAF housing, former Commanding Officers of Flight Training Command: Air Marshal Sir Lawrence Pattinson, 1940-1, Air Marshal Sir Philip Babington, 1942-45, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, 1945-47 and Air Marshal Sir Lawrence Pendred, 1952-55. The other officer commemorated is Sir John Maitland Salmond, who commanded the Training Division during the Great War, going on to become the RFC Commander in the Field on the Western Front and subsequently Chief of Air Staff in 1930. In the case of the Met Office estate, the roads are named after cloud formations, e.g. Cirrus Drive, and meterological situations, eg. Zenith Avenue (the point directly above one’s head) and Aphelion Way (a planet’s furthest point from the sun).
If you are interested it is still possible to follow the footpath from the RAF houses up to Shinfield Lodge. On foot from Three Mile Cross or Ryeish Green you can cross the M4 using the footbridge near the Six Bells pub and then return on the footpath beside the University Roundabout. From the RAF housing you climb through Nores Wood, originally part of the parkland surrounding the Grove which still contains a number of ancient oak trees.
The track from the RAF housing off Whitley Wood Lane to the Lodge still survives passing through Nores Hill Wood.
Alternatively the area is part of the Shinfield Parish footpath walk no. 6. This and other walks leaflets are available from a number of local outlets, including the Parish Office, Spencers Wood Pavillion and Spencers Wood Library.