USAF Croughton, late 1980s/early 1990s

CroughtonWatch:

USAF Croughton

‘CroughtonWatch’ is a monitoring campaign devoted to USAF Croughton (and its outstation, Barford St. John) on the border of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire. USAF Croughton part of a global electronic communications, control and surveillance network that projects American military power across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East – a role that is about to expand with the arrival of the JIAC.


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Last updated:
2019-07-03 

Visiting the USAF Croughton Site

The USAF Croughton site sits alongside the busy A43 trunk road. In recent years the MoD have gone to great efforts with landscaping schemes to hide its presence. This page gives information about visiting the site, and the best places to view it from.

Parking

If you would like to park a vehicle and view the site, the best place to head for is Portway Lane on the western side of the site. This also gives access to the bridleway (marked 'green lane' on the byelaws map) allowing you to walk around the southern edge of the site – although trying to cross the busy A43 on the other side of the site for a longer country walk is fraught with danger!

The view from the B4031 along the north side of the site is not very good, and it is a very narrow/busy road to walk along.

It is not permitted to stop on the A43 to the east, except at the very small lay-by where the bridleway meets the road. Note that it is very difficult to leave the lay-by when the traffic is busy due to the speed at which it moves.

Public transport

The bus service which once served the village and the site was cut in 2018

If you wish to visit the site on foot then you can get a train to Banbury, and the 500 bus service to Brackley – then go the last five miles by taxi.

In the Autumn we will be posting a walking route from Brackley to the USAF Croughton site, as well as a (car-borne) circular walk of the site itself.

Walks around the USAF Croughton site

This section is currently ‘empty’, but we will be posting new information by the Autumn.