RAF Sopley

RAF Sopley was a World War II station, codenamed Starlight, near the village of Sopley in Hampshire. The Radar Station was opened in December 1940. In 1959 it became an air traffic control radar station, and finally closed on 27 September 1974. Nearby Sopley Camp was built in the early 1950's as a domestic site for the radar station and is probably best known as the initial home of the Vietnamese Boat People, in 1979. The camp was sold in 1993 to a local partnership under the name Merryfield Park. Most of the old barracks site had been redeveloped as housing, but the 2-storey building at the Sopley end has been converted into a museum/education centre by Friends Of New Forest Airfields (FONFA). The museum opened in May 2016.HistoryThe site started out as an experimental Ground Controlled Interception (GCI) radar station. Using systems developed in nearby Christchurch, a variety of lash-up systems were installed during 1940 and 1941. These were eventually put into production as the AMES Type 7, which took over most aircraft direction and interception duties from about 1942 on. Sopley received its own Type 7 in 1943. It was a permanent fixture with rotating ariel array, transmitter equipment stored in an underground bunker, operations block, emergency back up power supply and guard hut.In 1943 an Advanced Landing Ground called RAF Winkton was constructed to the southeast of the radar station. RAF Winkton operated for less than a year and was officially closed in January 1945.

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