November 21, 2013 12.54 pm This story is over 124 months old

Lincoln school bid to build RAF heritage museum

Heritage project: A school in Welton wants to build an aviation museum, detailing the site’s RAF history.
William Farr students watch the Spitfire flypast.

A Lincoln secondary school is hoping to create an RAF museum in order to host an archive of memorabilia.

William Farr School has strong connections to the force due to being built on the former RAF Dunholme Lodge, so it has a number of precious items.

The school is now preparing to make a bid for £100,000 Lottery funding to help construct a museum to house the artefacts and celebrate the school’s unique history.

It is hoped they can find a World War Two Nissen Hut for the museum, which can be reconditioned for use.

The school’s site hosts a rich history of Lincolnshire aviation, dating back to 1941.

It was then the site first became the RAF Dunholme Lodge airfield, used by Handley Page Hampden aircraft from nearby RAF Scampton.

It officially opened as a RAF station in September 1942 as part of RAF Bomber Command with three hard runways.

The main occupier of the station was 44 Squadron, with the Avro Lancaster four-engined heavy bomber, which stayed until moving to RAF Spilsby in September 1944.

Flying operations stopped at the site in 1944 due to the proximity of other stations which did not allow night flying. By the end of the war, 120 Lancasters had been lost on operations from Dunholme Lodge.

Reverend William Farr then bought the land for £600 and opened the school in 1952, which gained his name upon his death in 1955.

Headteacher Andy Stones said: “We are immensely proud of our RAF heritage and have managed to put together quite a collection of items over the years but these items deserve to be honoured properly.

“We have had initial discussions with the Lottery Heritage office and the feedback has been very positive but we need the help of people from the county to bring our dream to life.”