Plans approved to demolish RAF Shipdham control tower

Plans have been approved which will see the former United States Army Air Force (USAAF) control tower at Shipdham replaced with a replica at the Shipdham Airfield Industrial Estate.

The plans were submitted to Breckland Council by Falcon Tower Crane Services.

Falcon Tower Crane Services are based at the Shipdham Airfield Industrial Estate (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2015)

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The plans will see the demolishing of the remainder of the former control tower and replace with a new building designed to replicate the original, complete with windows, external walkways and balustrading.

In documents supporting the application, it states: “This would act very much as a monument to the history of the site as well as providing modern accommodation for the Falcon Tower Crane business."

The 44th Bomb Group and its B-24 Liberators at Shipdham Airfield during the Second World War (1944)

Back in 2019, Falcon Tower Crane Services submitted an application to restore the old facility.

Constructed in 1941 to 1942, the RAF Air Base in Shipdham was initially home to the US Air Force's 319th Bombardment Group during the Second World War.

When they were replaced by the 44th Bomb Group in 1942, RAF Shipdham became the US' first heavy bomber base in Norfolk using B-24 Liberator bombers - instrumental throughout the conflict.

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The old RAF control tower at Shipdham Airfield Industrial Estate (Image: Evelyn Simak)

From 1946 to 1947, the airfield was used as a transit centre for German prisoners of war and, by 1963, the land no longer served a military purpose and was sold off.

But six years later planning permission to re-open the airfield was granted and, the following summer, it began private flights.

With much of the site now used as an industrial estate, the airfield buildings have fallen into disrepair and are predominantly derelict.

Falcon Tower Crane Services submitted the application earlier this year (Image: James Bass)

The village’s flying club was formed in 2000, and its clubhouse, which is also the home of the 44th Bomb Group Museum, is in a building near the runway.