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RAF Sopley

History of air traffic controlRoyal Air Force stations in HampshireUse British English from February 2018

RAF Sopley was a World War II station, codenamed Starlight, near the village of Sopley in Hampshire. The Radar Station was opened in December 1940. In 1959 it became an air traffic control radar station, and finally closed on 27 September 1974. Nearby Sopley Camp was built in the early 1950s as a domestic site for the radar station and is probably best known as the initial home of the Vietnamese Boat People, in 1979. The camp was sold in 1993 to a local partnership under the name Merryfield Park. Most of the old barracks site had been redeveloped as housing, but the 2-storey building at the Sopley end has been converted into a museum/education centre by Friends Of New Forest Airfields (FONFA). The museum opened in May 2016.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article RAF Sopley (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

RAF Sopley
Harpway Lane, New Forest Sopley

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.779 ° E -1.771 °
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Harpway Lane

Harpway Lane
BH23 8ET New Forest, Sopley
England, United Kingdom
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Burton, Dorset
Burton, Dorset

Burton is a village in the civil parish of Burton and Winkton, administered (since April 2019) as part of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority, in the historic county of Hampshire and the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. The parish is elevated above the Avon Valley on a gravel plateau and includes the village of Burton, plus the hamlets of Winkton, Holfleet, North Bockhampton, Middle Bockhampton and South Bockhampton. The toponymy of Burton suggests an Anglo-Saxon settlement but the first record of the name appears in twelfth-century records. It is thought that this is because it has always been viewed as an extension of Christchurch. Certainly, there is evidence of human habitation there as far back as the mesolithic. The oldest existing parts date back to at least the early 18th century. Greatly expanded in the 1970s, today the population is around 4,000, residing in more than 1,700 dwellings which extend to within 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) of the Christchurch urban area. Burton has a much younger age demographic than the rest of Christchurch and the vast majority of the inhabitants identify as White British. More than 30% of villagers are non-religious but those who are, are mainly Christian. The village holds a number of annual events including a veteran's day and an Easter egg hunt. Church services are also held on the green at Easter and Christmas including carols around the tree. There are a number of listed buildings in the village including the parish church of St Luke, built in 1874-75 and designed by Benjamin Ferrey, and Burton Hall, a large 18th-century residence with grade II* status. Arguably Burton's most famous resident was the poet and writer Robert Southey who lived there between 1799 and 1805 and where he wrote his well known fairytale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.