Village of the Week: The rural hamlet in South Yorkshire which ended up being home to Cold War bombers

It is easy to forget that amidst all the news about RAF Finningley, later Doncaster Sheffield Airport which is still making the headlines - there is village life ticking on every day in the background.

Historically, Finningley was classed as Nottinghamshire but now comes under the ward of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, which itself covers 16.8 square miles.

It is thought that the population of Finningley is around 1500 people.

Finningley, as was back then, is recorded in the Doomsday Book as Finig lei which means “a clearing in the fens” with the manor being held by Gilbert Tison. Parts of Finningley Church also date back to this period. Finningley Grange, which until the Reformation had belonged to the Priory of Mattersey, was granted to Sir Martin Frobisher, one of Queen Elizabeth’s most noted admirals, in 1576.

The detailed accounts of Finningley Village Community Group say that it remained in the Frobisher family until the late 17th century when the Harvey family of Ickwell, Bedfordshire took it over and resided there until the late 19th century.

During a significant part of this time they became patrons of the church in Finningley, with generations of their sons becoming vicars of the parish. Their name lives on through the naming of the village’s public house and one of the housing developments, Harvey Close.

Finningley Parish Council plays a big part in village life and in some respects the day to day business of Finningley is quaint.

Again the community group share when revealing more about village life, that the duck pond is an important part of it.

They say: “The duck pond is held in high regard by the village, it serves as a habitat for all kinds of birds and fish and the occasional fox. The maintenance of the pond is undertaken by the Parish Council. The trees are regularly maintained and general planting around the pond ensures that it looks great in the summer months. The village is also known for the resident Peacocks, which have been a part of life here for decades.”

Also part of Finningley for decades, is of course, the airport.

The 3,000-yard (2,700 m) long runway, is currently the second longest in Northern England, and was large enough to take even Concorde.

It came about during the refurbishment of the Royal Flying Corps station at Doncaster in 1915 when a decision was taken to move operations temporarily to an air strip at Bancroft Farm at Finningley.

This flight of aircraft is thought to have consisted of Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c fighters – used to intercept Zeppelin bombers approaching Yorkshire cities from the East Coast, such as Sheffield.

Finningley became a Royal Flying Corps Military Airfield in 1915 and prior to the Second World War, RAF Finningley was expanded and buildings added.

Throughout the war years, various squadrons were housed and trained here and from 1946 to 1954 a number of different training units were stationed at Finningley with a variety of aircraft types.

A number of units withdrew in 1954, leaving only a part-time squadron, but their days at Finningley were numbered as they squadron moved to RAF Worksop the following year.

This wasn’t the end of RAF Finningley, it was about to take part is something major. Finningley was about to be given a new lease of life as a V bomber station – otherwise known as a nuclear strike force.

Finningley maintained its nuclear weapon storage facility for many years.

In 1970 there was an arson attack by a serving RAF member, who after one of the hangars was locked, lit a fire under an aircraft, obviously with catastrophic results. The hangar was badly damaged, and the perpetrator charged and imprisoned.

For two decades RAF Finningley was home to the Battle of Britain Air Display which was the largest one-day airshow event in the country. The aerobatic airshow and the display of military hardware became so well known nationally that the show attracted huge crowds and eventually became televised on national TV.

However, in 1994 the Ministry of Defence announced the imminent closure of RAF Finningley as part of the Front Line First defence cuts and it closed in 1996.

Three years later Peel Holdings, a property and transport company in the UK bought the land and transformed it into Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield which would later become Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

That again made recent headlines when the airport, which employed around 800 people, closed in November, with The Peel Group claiming it had never made a profit due to a lack of passengers.

Since Council and local officials have been pursuing possible routes to buy the site from Peel to allow it to reopen.

However, last Vulcan to fly in military service ‘howled’ once again for a group of enthusiasts earlier this month at an engine ground-run experiebce day, before it gets dismantled as it is the only feasible way to transport the aircraft to wherever it will be kept next.

The Avro Vulcan XH558 first flew in 1960 but was the last remaining airworthy example of the nuclear bomber aircraft operated by the RAF during the Cold War. It was the last Vulcan in military service, and the last to fly at all after 1986. It last flew on October 28 2015.

The Vulcan To The Sky Trust now maintains the aircraft which is seeking a new home while the future of the former RAF Finningley is decided.