Control Tower Museum - Carew, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
N 51° 41.515 W 004° 49.098
30U E 374322 N 5728338
RAF Carew Cheriton is a former Royal Air Force airfield of Coastal and Training Command. First opened in August 1915, closed 1945. Now known as 'Carew Cheriton Control Tower Museum' Located at Carew, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
Waymark Code: WMW5Q8
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/13/2017
Views: 2
Take a trip back in time and experience the Control Tower as it would have been during the war years. Also a reconstructed Stanton Air Raid Shelter for the use of Control Tower personnel. The Tower is fitted out with wartime exhibits exactly as they would have been found in the Control Tower.
This excellent slice of history found in this tiny museum is located at the, Former RAF Carew Cheriton airfield, Carew, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
"The Carew Cheriton Control Tower Group was formed in the spring of 2000 after the landowner approached the Carew Historical Society with the offer of the building on a long-term lease. If this offer had not been taken up this unique wartime structure would have been demolished and lost to future generations.
Built to a ‘local’ design, Carew Cheriton Control Tower uniquely features a bay window. Now restored to its 1940’s condition by our team of dedicated volunteers, based on first hand experiences from personnel based on the site during the war.
Carew Cheriton airfield was an airship station (RNAS PEMBROKE;MILTON AIR STATION - NPRN 407783) in the first world war, and was developed in the 1930s to accept airplanes to complement nearby Pembroke Dock's flying boat base.
In August 1939, Carew Cheriton became the base for part of 217 Squadron flying Avro Ansons for coastal patrol and convoy work. A detachment of Wellingtons arrived in November 1939 but soon returned to East Anglia. The Coastal Command Development Unit was formed at the airfield on 22 November 1940. The unit undertook a variety of trails using Lockheed Hudson, Bristol Beaufort and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley aircraft, and flying boats from Pembroke Dock. The tests included ASV radar development, bomb and depth charge attacks on submarines and surface vessels by night with the aid of parachute lights and later with Leigh Lights. The Coastal Command Development Unit moved to Ballykelly in December 1941.
On 22 October 1941, three Bristol Beaufighters and seven Bristol Blenheims formed a combat unit for patrols over the Irish Sea and to prevent German battleships leaving the port of Brest. The unit also provided escort for BOAC DC-3 service from Lisbon to Chivenor or Whitchurch, and an escort for the Irish mail steamer. The airfield was transferred to the control of Training Command in the spring of 1942. Two units were accommodated to tow targets for the School of Anti-Aircraft Defence at Manorbier and for No4 Armament Practice Group which gave weapons instruction to the crews of the Whitleys, Short Sunderlands and Beaufighters of Coastal Command. A further transfer to Technical Training Command followed with No 4 Radio Direction Finding School arriving on 11 December 1942 to became known as 10 Radio School. The Radio School disbanded on 13 November 1945. The RAF air station finally closed on 24 November 1945.
Text Source: (
visit link) & (
visit link)