RAF Cottesmore
RAF Cottesmore is a former Royal Air Force station located near the village of Cottesmore in Rutland, England, the smallest ceremonial county in the United Kingdom. During its active years, the base was one of the most strategically significant military airfields in Britain, serving as a home to fast jet operations and playing a central role in NATO's air defence posture throughout the Cold War and beyond. The site sits on elevated ground above the Vale of Catmose, giving it commanding views across the undulating Rutland countryside. Today it is known as Kendrew Barracks, repurposed as an Army base following the withdrawal of the RAF in 2011, and it is home to the 1st Battalion The Rifles among other units. While not open to the general public as a tourist destination, the base remains a living piece of British military heritage and a defining presence in this quiet corner of the East Midlands.
The history of the airfield stretches back to 1934, when the Air Ministry acquired the land and established an RAF station during the period of British rearmament in the lead-up to the Second World War. It opened officially in 1938 and was initially used for training purposes, before transitioning to operational flying. During the Second World War, Cottesmore was home to several bomber squadrons and contributed to the strategic air campaign over occupied Europe. After the war, the base remained active through the jet age, and in the 1950s and 1960s it hosted V-bomber units as part of Britain's nuclear deterrent, including aircraft of the Victor and Vulcan fleets — a chapter that gave the station an elevated status in the Cold War order of battle. This association with Britain's nuclear posture gives Cottesmore a particular gravity in the history of twentieth-century defence.
In its later decades, RAF Cottesmore became most closely associated with the Harrier jump jet, the extraordinary vertical and short take-off and landing aircraft that became a symbol of British aviation ingenuity. The station was home to the Joint Force Harrier, a combined RAF and Royal Navy operation, and the distinctive roar of Harrier engines doing vertical landings became part of the sonic identity of the base and the surrounding area. The decision in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review to retire the Harrier fleet — a decision widely criticised by military professionals — led directly to the closure of RAF Cottesmore as a flying station. The last Harrier operations ceased in 2010, and the RAF formally handed the site over to the Army the following year. The loss of the Harriers remains a point of considerable controversy among defence analysts and aviation enthusiasts.
Physically, the base retains the characteristic layout of a mid-twentieth century RAF station: long concrete runways, dispersal pans, blast shelters, and substantial brick and prefabricated buildings spread across a broad, flat plateau. The main runway is still visible and largely intact, though no longer used for flying. The surrounding terrain is open and agricultural, with wide skies that made the location attractive for aviation from the outset. The landscape of Rutland here is one of hedgerow-lined fields, stone-built farmhouses, and rolling pasture, with the man-made bulk of Rutland Water visible to the south — the largest reservoir by area in England, created in the 1970s and now a major nature reserve and leisure destination.
The village of Cottesmore itself is a small settlement of stone-built houses typical of the East Midlands limestone belt, lying just to the north of the base. It has a parish church, a pub, and the quiet character of a Rutland village, though it has long been shaped by the proximity of the military. The nearby town of Oakham, the county town of Rutland, lies only a few miles to the south and offers shops, restaurants, a medieval castle and stocks, and good rail connections. The market town of Stamford, one of the most architecturally complete Georgian towns in England, is within easy reach to the east, making the broader area one of considerable charm and interest for visitors.
For those with a specific interest in military aviation history, the area has additional significance. The broader Lincolnshire and Rutland region is sometimes called "Bomber County" for its density of wartime airfields, and several excellent aviation museums are within driving distance, including the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby and the RAF Museum at Cosford, though not immediately local. Kendrew Barracks, as Cottesmore is now designated, is an active military installation, and public access is not permitted without prior arrangement. Occasional open days and military events have offered limited access in the past, and enthusiasts sometimes observe the site from public footpaths that skirt the perimeter.
The renaming of the base to Kendrew Barracks honours Sir John Kendrew, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and native of the county who also had a distinguished military career — an unusual and touching nod to Rutland's broader intellectual heritage alongside its military one. The transformation from front-line fast jet base to Army garrison represents a significant shift in the character of the place, and veterans and aviation historians who knew the site in its heyday describe a certain melancholy in seeing the dispersal areas quiet and the skies no longer split by the unmistakable sound of a Harrier in transition. For those drawn to military history, Cold War heritage, or the story of British aviation, Cottesmore remains a place of considerable resonance even in its quieter present incarnation.