RAF Upavon

Trenchard Lines is a major British Army headquarters. As the former Royal Air Force Station Upavon, more commonly known as RAF Upavon, it was a grass airfield, military flight training school, and administrative headquarters of the Royal Air Force.

The station motto was In Principio Et Semper, and translated from Latin means "In the Beginning and Always". The station crest had a pterodactyl rising from rocks, which symbolised the station's connection with the early days of flying, and was also a reference to the location of the station near to the ancient monument Stonehenge.

History

Origins and construction

Construction began on 19 June 1912, on some training gallops, on an elevated site about 1.5 mi (2.4 km) east of Upavon village, near the edge of the Salisbury Plain, in the English county of Wiltshire. The RAF site is unusual, in that it is bisected by a public highway, the A342 – with the airfield and hangars on the south side of the road, and all the administrative (and some technical) buildings and accommodation on the north side.

Upavon

Coordinates: 51°17′38″N 1°48′29″W / 51.294°N 1.808°W / 51.294; -1.808

Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the English County of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the north edge of Salisbury Plain about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Pewsey, 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the market town of Devizes, and 20 miles (32 km) north of the cathedral city of Salisbury. The A345 and A342 roads run through the village. Most of Upavon is between 90 and 100 metres above sea level.

History

The occupation of Upavon dates back to the Iron Age settlement at Casterley Camp which lies approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the current village. The first mention of Upavon itself is in the Domesday Book as 'Oppavrene'; though there are no details it can be estimated that the village supported some 200 to 250 people The Iron Age settlement of Chisenbury Camp also lies close by to the southeast.