Jules travels - R.A.F East Kirkby - military museum, airfield

RAF EAST KIRKBY

Location: East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, England.

Built: 1943

Ghostly manifestations: Apparitions of WW2 airmen.

Ghostly anomalies: Spectral green lights in and around the air base.

History:

RAF East Kirkby opened on the 20th August 1943 as a Bomber command Station. The station closed in 1958 and is now home to an air museum whose prize exhbit is the Lancaster Bomber "Just Jane". The aircraft was purchased by the Panton brothers from a museum in Blackpool where it had been a static exhibit. Now fully restored, in memory of their brother who was killed on a Bomber Command mission, the Lancaster has been given a taxi licence and frequently makes runs for visitors. After the end of hostilities, East Kirby was home to 460 sqd. RAAF, until October, 1945. The number of servicemen and women stationed at East Kirkby was 2000. In April 1945, a Lancaster caught fire while being bombed up, resulting in a huge explosion which set off further bombs. Four people were killed, six Lancasters totally destroyed, and a further fourteen damaged.

Jules Report:

I couldn't wait to get back to RAF East Kirkby near Spilsby in Lincolnshire after watching it on Most Haunted. We have been there before whilst on holiday a few years ago. We weren't out looking for ghosts or spirits that day, it was just a nice day out.

We began with looking around the hanger where the AVRO Just Jane Lancaster bomber is housed (this is where all the activity was centred on the Most Haunted show.) We looked and the old spitfire wreckage and the plethora of old photos that would have taken hours to look at carefully. I then came across the photo of Norman Watt, the pilot who plunged to his death in a spitfire accident , all his things were laid out in glass covered cabinets along with bits of wreckage. As I walked round the corner to the next section, I had this overwhelming desire to burst into tears, it came from nowhere, I really had to fight back the tears and a lump was starting in my throat, I immediately walked towards Richard my husband I couldn't even speak to him for holding back the tears, I managed to compose myself and said to him, I felt really sad in that area just there, I am fighting the tears back. Richard then said, its funny that, because just as you was telling me that, I felt like I was getting tearful, I have been alright, Ive been looking at all those sad photos I know, but this has really hit me. I said, yes its really effecting me just there, I need to get out of here. I then walked to the very back of the hanger sniffling, hoping no one would notice. We walked down the other side, we both felt fine.

We then continued towards the famous control tower where a green light has been seen in the middle of the night. The windows had been blocked out, and the room was very dim and depressing. We listened to the simulations of 1940s RAF crews mapping flight paths, it was a creepy place during the day, let alone at night!