Thorpe Camp

Thorpe Camp, officially known as the Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre, is the former Royal Air Force barracks for RAF Woodhall Spa. It is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of the site of RAF Woodhall Spa, in the civil parish of Tattershall Thorpe. Built in 1940 during the Second World War, the site included Officer, Sergeant and Airman messes, a NAAFI building, ration store, latrines and ablution blocks. The site closed in the 1960s. By 1987 the site was completely derelict and overgrown. Part of it came with the area acquired by the Woodland trust when they purchased the adjacent Carr Woods. It was the Trust's plan to demolish the buildings that resulted in the formation of the Thorpe Camp Preservation Group to restore the site and create a Visitor Centre. In 1994 the Visitor Centre opened to the public with a donation entry fee and a very limited area to view. Today the full site is a memorial to the past. The remaining buildings - the Airman's mess, NAAFI, ablution block, and ration store - are now preserved within the boundaries of the visitor centre, by the Thorpe Camp Preservation Group Limited. The visitor centre commemorates both the Royal Air Force, and RAF Woodhall Spa history, as well as civilian life in Lincolnshire in the 1940s.