Ridgewell Airfield Commemorative Museum

Built during 1942 and opened in January 1943, RAF Ridgewell was initially allocated to RAF No. 3 Group as a heavy bomber airfield. For five months the new airfield was home to RAF No. 90 Squadron—a Short Stirling unit that had originally been the first outfit anywhere in the world to fly the famous B-17 Flying Fortress into combat. After carrying out 51 missions, No. 90 Squadron departed and RAF Ridgewell was transferred to the US Army Air Forces’ Eighth Air Force. Its 381st Bombardment Group subsequently carried out 297 B-17 Flying Fortress missions over a two-year period. In 1957 RAF Ridgewell was deactivated as a bomber airfield and its infrastructure torn up and returned to farmland. Only parts of the perimeter track and a handful of buildings remain. But the Ridgewell Airfield Commemorative Association Museum now exists to remember those who flew from here and the many who never returned.