By 1938, war considered inevitable.
The Aerodromes Board began searching Britain for suitable sites to be used as
military airfields. One of the 400 sites chosen was in Preston on Stour and
Atherstone on Stour, and was eventually known as RAF Stratford. It was intended
as a training base for the crews of Wellington bombers, and became operational
in 1941.
Around 1600 from the RAF, RCAF (Royal Canadian Airforce)
and WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Airforce) were stationed on the site.
Accommodation, medical facilities and amenities had to be installed as well as
the hangars, runways and defence systems.
Water was supplied to the site by
means of a lattice steel Braithwaite tower, 18 metres high. This fed water by
gravity to the entire airfield. The tower is still present although the water
tank on top has long since been removed.
The airfield was operational as a
military base until November 1945. The buildings and runways were gradually
demolished and the land returned to agriculture. A few buildings remain; other
features are betrayed by crop marks. But the water tower, visible for several
miles around, remains a distinctive feature of the landscape.
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