Museum of Army Flying

[24225978]

I'm not sure if this in the correct Topic but a few weeks ago I paid a long overdue visit to the above museum at Middle Wallop (I've passed the signs on the A303 near Andover so often but never had the chance to call in before).

What a brilliant place!

Obviously there is a fair bit that is post-RFC days but the amount of exhibits about the Great War flying exceeds anything I've seen in any other museum.

If you have an interest in the RFC or even the Great War in general, it's a must do.

[Moonraker]

Continue south west from the museum along the A343. About two miles beyond Middle Wallop village, turn left down an unclassified lane. In just under a mile you'll come to a group of buildings, some of which are former WWI huts of RFC Lopcombe Corner, a training depot station, just inside Hampshire but so close to Wiltshire that I stretch the county boundary to include it in my studies.

Moonraker

[SiegeGunner]

Continue south west from the museum along the A343. About two miles beyond Middle Wallop village, turn left down an unclassified lane. In just under a mile you'll come to a group of buildings, some of which are former WWI huts of RFC Lopcombe Corner, a training depot station, just inside Hampshire but so close to Wiltshire that I stretch the county boundary to include it in my studies.

Moonraker

Thanks for this tip. I go this way when visiting friends near Salisbury. Could you pl post directions from Lopcombe Corner, travelling towards Middle Wallop. Is the lane signposted to anywhere?

Mick

[Moonraker]

Thanks for this tip. I go this way when visiting friends near Salisbury. Could you pl post directions from Lopcombe Corner, travelling towards Middle Wallop. Is the lane signposted to anywhere?

Mick

Dunno about the signpost, as it's only a lane connecting the A343 and A30. From the Lopcombe Corner fork drive for one and three-eighth miles along the Wallop/Andover road, then turn right. The turn-off is actually at Jack's Bush, which was an early name for the airfield.

Glad you didn't want very precise instructions from the other direction. There's a small gap between the areas covered by my 1-inch map of Salisbury and my 1:50,000 map of Winchester; luckily I've just won on eBay a pre-WWI Bartholomew's War Office map of the "Salisbury Plain District" which covered the gap. Not a very exciting map; unlike the contemporary 1-inch OS maps it shows very little WO detail, but there's an owner's name to research and some markings that may relate to the 1910 manoeuvres (which covered vast area of Wessex). And at 99p (plus £2 p & p!) I'm not complaining.

It's eight or nine years since I visited the huts, so I don't know if they're still there. They were being used for light industry.

Moonraker

[SiegeGunner]

Dunno about the signpost, as it's only a lane connecting the A343 and A30. From the Lopcombe Corner fork drive for one and three-eighth miles along the Wallop/Andover road, then turn right. The turn-off is actually at Jack's Bush, which was an early name for the airfield.

Thanks again - with directions as good as those, I won't be needing a map. Useful too to know that the lane runs between the A343 and the A30 - so I can take a look at the huts and then carry on to Stockbridge to buy some more delicacies from the wonderful butcher there!

Mick