RAF South Cerney
RAF South Cerney is a former Royal Air Force station located in Gloucestershire, England, a short distance from the village of South Cerney and the market town of Cirencester. The site today operates primarily as Cotswold Airport (also known as Kemble Airport), though the military heritage of the location remains deeply embedded in its infrastructure and layout. The airfield is notable not only for its long association with the RAF but also for its post-military transformation into a thriving general aviation hub and aircraft storage and maintenance facility, making it one of the more historically layered former military airfields in the English Midlands.
The station's origins date to the Second World War, when it was established as a training airfield to meet the enormous demand for aircrew. During the war years, RAF South Cerney was used extensively for pilot and aircrew training, forming part of the sprawling network of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire training stations that fed the frontline squadrons of Bomber and Fighter Commands. The flat, open terrain of the upper Thames Valley made it well suited to aviation, and the concrete runways and wartime-era buildings that were constructed during this period gave the site its essential physical shape. After the war, the station continued in RAF service for several decades, used for a variety of training and support roles including parachuting and officer training, which brought it into contact with the Army as well as the RAF. The site was associated with the RAF's Central Flying School organisation and with airborne forces training, reflecting the broader military importance of the Cotswold corridor.
Physically, the airfield retains much of its utilitarian wartime and Cold War character. The main runway stretches across the open plateau in a manner typical of RAF wartime construction, and the perimeter track and dispersal areas still define much of the spatial layout of the place. Buildings from multiple eras of military use sit alongside more modern aviation facilities, creating an atmosphere that combines institutional solemnity with practical busyness. Hangars of considerable size dominate the skyline when approaching from the surrounding lanes, and the whole complex feels purposeful rather than decorative — a working landscape shaped entirely by the demands of aviation over eight decades.
The surrounding landscape is quintessentially Cotswold in character, with gently rolling limestone country, dry stone walls, and broad open skies that give the area its particular quality of light. The Cotswold Water Park, one of the largest collections of lakes in the United Kingdom formed from gravel extraction, lies very close to the south and east of the airfield, and the villages of South Cerney, Cerney Wick, and Ashton Keynes are all within easy reach. Cirencester itself, the ancient Roman town of Corinium and the self-styled capital of the Cotswolds, is only a few miles to the north, offering significant historical and cultural interest for any visitor to the wider area.
For those interested in aviation history and the tangible remnants of Britain's wartime infrastructure, a visit to the area around the former RAF South Cerney site offers considerable interest. Cotswold Airport operates as a public airfield and hosts a number of aviation businesses, and there are regular light aircraft movements that give the site an active, living quality rather than the melancholy stillness of a purely abandoned military installation. The Fire Aviation tanker fleet was historically based here, and aircraft storage and breaking is a notable activity, meaning that unusual or rare aircraft types can sometimes be observed on the field. Access to the airfield itself is managed by the airport operators, and visitors should expect to remain within public areas unless they have specific business with one of the resident companies.
One of the more unusual aspects of the site's legacy is its association with parachute training. The airfield served as a base for military freefall and static line parachuting activities during its later RAF years, and this tradition has carried forward into civilian life, with sport parachuting operations having been conducted from the aerodrome. The combination of open skies, excellent visibility across the limestone plateau, and well-maintained runways made it a natural fit for such activities. The station also has connections with the wider history of gliding in the RAF, a tradition that was particularly strong in the Cotswolds and which has left a lasting imprint on the culture of aviation in this part of England.