I did some reasearch into Bomber Command airfields in Lincs. Folkingham was never an operational airfield for bombers, it was a 'Q' site or dummy/decoy airfield. Then transferred to Transport Command - the Paras flew out of Folkingham en route to Arnhem. Last time I was there, about 8 years ago, the runways were in poor shape. Seemed to be used then as some sort of vehicle compound, IIRC. It was used as a test facility by the BRM F1 team after WW2 and they had the press launch of the then revolutionary 16 cylinder 1.5 litre car there.
They got chucked off when Folkingham became a Thor (nuclear) missile site and threee ICBMs were based there, nominally under RAF control but effectively run by the Yanks. In 1960, a Thor missile was accidentally armed when an RAF man leaned on the keyway. These things were not just a comic invention by Peter Sellers. A former RAF officer said that when the American officer in the launch team failed to show up, "adroit use of a screwdriver enabled the simulated launch to take place". Could have completely ruined everyone's day, that
C'est la vie. You could easily walk on, but I fancied exploring it on the bike. Thanks for all the replies.
