THORPE CAMP VISITOR CENTRE
PART OF No. 1 COMMUNUAL SITE, RAF WOODHALL SPA
The Centre was formerly part of No. 1 communal site, RAF Woodhall Spa and was built in 1940 with a planned life span of only 10 years! The site included the Officers and Sergeants Mess, Airmen's Dining halls and the NAAFI building, together with Ration Store, Latrines and Ablution blocks. Only the Airmen's Dining Halls the NAAFI and Ration Store are within the Centre's boundary.
At the end of the war – when the RAF vacated the site, it became a target for squatters and was taken over by the Horncastle Rural District Council, who converted it into temporary housing for which it was used until the early 1960's.
By 1987 the site was completely derelict and overgrown. Part of it came with the area acquired by the Woodland trust when they purchased the adjacent Carr Woods. It was the Trust's plan to demolish the buildings that resulted in the formation of the Thorpe Camp Preservation Group to restore the site and create a Visitor Centre depicting the story of RAF Woodall Spa and its squadrons, together with Civilian Life in Lincolnshire, during WWII
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In 1994 the Visitor Centre opened to the public with a donation entry fee and a very limited area to view.
Today the full site is a memorial to the past