Lincolnshire Landscape Mailbag

This page contains occasional extracts from our Email which we think will be of interest to other Lincolnshire Landscape visitors.

April 2001
Sandra Wilson emailed us about RAF Stenigot: "I remember RAF Stenigot because around about 1956-58 my late father, Fl.Lt.Tom Machin, was CO there. We lived in Legbourne Road, Louth, and I went to the local grammar school. Happy days indeed!"

March 2001
Nic from the POWIC Project asks if any of our visitors.... "know the locations of any internment camps in Lincolnshire in the First World War, whether it be connected to an airfield or not. Also, should anyone like to contact me directly, I could perhaps direct them to a camp near them if they would like to do some investigative work."

If you can help, then please contact us here at Lincolnshire Landscape and we'll pass your email on to Nic.

February 2001
Mike remembers RAF Stenigot...
"I was stationed at Stenigot from 1954 to 1958 and worked AMES. Type 1 ( Chain Home) as 178 SU. and latterly GEE slave as 4 SU. There were some strangely late nights working with very nice people who spoke with an Atlantic drawl and continually, like Captain Kirk, demanded "more power Scotty". I believe we once managed at least 1 Megawatt better than the specification, which created havoc with the local TV.
There was more to Stenigot than met the eye which we discovered when we were salvaging equipment after 178 SU closed. This suggested that there was also a Chain Home Low Unit on site at some time during the war. There was also a wonderful standby power system which employed a highly polished Mega Heavy Oil Engine. I wonder who salvaged that? Talking of salvage there must be a treasure trove of old electronics buried on the site near where the old stores were.
One final item that may interest. When Stenigot was built someone didn't read the plans properly. All the transmitter masts were built in echelon instead of inline this meant that we had the potential for 8 arrays where everybody else had only 4. I have been back several times since 1958 and remember fondly what was for nearly 4 years, home from home. If anyone is interested Stenigot's Pub was the Pack Horse in Louth.
Happy Days."