RAF Barnham

RAF Barnham
Part of RAF Honington
Near Thetford, Suffolk in England
Watch tower
RAF Barnham Shown within Suffolk
Coordinates	52°23′24″N 000°44′08″E / 52.39000°N 0.73556°E / 52.39000; 0.73556Coordinates: 52°23′24″N 000°44′08″E / 52.39000°N 0.73556°E / 52.39000; 0.73556
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Site history
Built	1939 (1939)
In use	1939-present

RAF Barnham (also called Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force station situated in the English county of Suffolk 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Norfolk town of Thetford. It is located to the north of the village of Barnham on Thetford Heaths. The camp is a satellite station of RAF Honington.

During the 1950s and 60s a part of RAF Barnham was set aside as high-security storage facility for nuclear weapons. This area of the site is now a scheduled monument. Earlier than that, Barnham had been used as a chemical weapons store and filling station from 22 August 1939.

In the early 1960s, the nuclear weapons storage facility was put up for sale, and now forms the privately-owned Gorse Industrial Estate. The chemical weapon store and former chemical weapon filling station are situated down the dead-end Station Road.

In early 2016, it was announced that the site was one of 12 that will be sold as part of the strategy for the MOD estate, although no date for the sale was given.

Military facilities had existed at Barnham since the First World War. During the Second World War, Barnham had been a chemical weapons storage and filling station for mustard gas. During 1953 or 1954, construction began on a high-security RAF bomb store on Thetford Heath. The site was to become known as RAF Barnham and construction was completed in 1955 with the site operational from September 1956.

Barnham was constructed as a sister-site to a similar facility constructed a few years before at RAF Faldingworth. Both sites were built to store and maintain free-fall nuclear bombs and Barnham was able to supply the bomber squadrons at Honington, Marham, Watton, Wyton, Upwood and Bassingbourn. Barnham came under the control of the RAF's No. 94 Maintenance Unit.