St Vincents Hall is a Gothic Revival mansion in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. [1]
St Vincents Hall is a Gothic Revival mansion in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. [1]
The house was designed in the Gothic Revival style and built for the industrialist Richard Hornsby, who founded Richard Hornsby & Sons, an engine and machinery manufacturer, in 1868. [1] The Hornsby family sold the property to the Paravicini family [2] before the building was sold to the Air Ministry. The 1920s witnessed many visitors including Tsar Nicholas of Russia's brother fleeing the Bolsheviks. [3]
St Vincents Hall is best known for being the Second World War HQ of 5 Group Bomber Command between October 1937 and November 1943 [4] and was where Operation Chastise of May 1943 - immortalized in The Dambusters film - was planned. [5] On the night of 16/17 May 1943 Air Marshall Arthur Harris, Barnes Wallis and other RAF high command were in St Vincents Hall when coded radio messages were received confirming that the raid had breached the Möhne and Eder dams. Air Marshall Harris is reputed to have said to Barnes Wallis: "Wallis, I didn't believe a word you said about this damn bomb, but you could sell me a pink elephant now". [3]
In December 1943 the building became headquarters for the USAAF's Ninth Air Force's IX Troop Carrier Command. After the war the house was retained by the Air Ministry and in 1960 became the headquarters of the Air Ministry Works Directorate No 1 Area, housing civil, mechanical and electrical engineers and surveyors. In 1962, the property agencies of the Air Ministry, Admiralty and War Office were amalgamated into the Ministry of Public Building and Works. Two years later, the Ministry was reorganised and St Vincents became surplus to requirements. It was eventually purchased by South Kesteven District Council and became home to the local planning authority. St Vincents is now privately owned. [6]
The house is made of rock-faced limestone with ashlar dressings and steeply pitched Welsh slate roofs, with decorative ridge tiles. Ashlar coped gables with moulded kneelers and finials. North front entrance has central projecting gabled wing, with single storey, lean to, porch to the left. The doorway has a pointed arched moulded ashlar surround, with marble shafts, and hood mould. Above is a moulded ashlar parapet pierced with quatrefoils. To the right a 2-light chamfered window, with tracery, above a single plain sash, in a flat headed chamfered surround, with a pointed inner arch. Above again a 3-light, chamfered mullion window, with a taller central light with cusped heads. At the north-west corner a circular or 'candle wick' tower, of 3 storeys, the lower 2 storeys have 3 single light chamfered lancets, with quatrefoil tracery. [1]
The house has two memorials to 5 Group Bomber Command and 617 Squadron [7] and houses a collection of RAF Bomber Command items. [8]
Grantham is a market town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of Lincoln and 22 miles (35 km) east of Nottingham. The population in 2016 was put at 44,580. The town is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of South Kesteven District.
The Dam Busters is a 1955 British epic docudrama war film starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave, that was directed by Michael Anderson. Adapted by R. C. Sherriff from the books The Dam Busters (1951) by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead (1946) by Guy Gibson, the film depicts the true story of Operation Chastise when in 1943 the RAF's 617 Squadron attacked the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams in Nazi Germany with Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb.
Operation Chastise, commonly known as the Dambusters Raid, was an attack on German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters, using special "bouncing bombs" developed by Barnes Wallis. The Möhne and Edersee dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley; the Sorpe Dam sustained only minor damage. Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more damaged. Factories and mines were also damaged and destroyed. An estimated 1,600 civilians – about 600 Germans and 1,000 enslaved labourers, mainly Soviet – were killed by the flooding. Despite rapid repairs by the Germans, production did not return to normal until September. The RAF lost 56 aircrew, with 53 dead and 3 captured, amid losses of 8 aircraft.
Royal Air Force Scampton or RAF Scampton is a former Royal Air Force station located adjacent to the A15 road near to the village of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of the city of Lincoln, England.
A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be predetermined, in a similar fashion to a regular naval depth charge. The inventor of the first such bomb was the British engineer Barnes Wallis, whose "Upkeep" bouncing bomb was used in the RAF's Operation Chastise of May 1943 to bounce into German dams and explode underwater, with an effect similar to the underground detonation of the later Grand Slam and Tallboy earthquake bombs, both of which he also invented.
Number 617 Squadron is a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron, originally based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and currently based at RAF Marham in Norfolk. It is commonly known as "The Dambusters", for its actions during Operation Chastise against German dams during the Second World War. In the early 21st century it operated the Panavia Tornado GR4 in the ground attack and reconnaissance role until being disbanded on 28 March 2014. The Dambusters reformed on 18 April 2018, and was equipped at RAF Marham in June 2018 with the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning, becoming the first squadron to be based in the UK with this advanced V/STOL type. The unit is composed of both RAF and Royal Navy personnel, and operates from the Royal Navy's Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
No. 5 Group RAF was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane.
Royal Air Force Spitalgate or more simply RAF Spitalgate formerly known as RFC Grantham and RAF Grantham was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station, located 2 mi (3.2 km) south east of the centre of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England fronting onto the main A52 road.
No. 619 Squadron RAF was a heavy bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, flying Lancaster bombers from bases in Lincolnshire.
Royal Air Force Woodhall Spa, or more simply RAF Woodhall Spa, is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Coningsby, Lincolnshire and 16 miles (26 km) southeast of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.
Royal Air Force Hemswell or more simply RAF Hemswell is a former Royal Air Force (RAF) station located 7.8 miles (12.6 km) east of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England.
Squadron Leader John Leslie Munro, was a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot during World War II and the last surviving pilot of the Dambusters Raid of May 1943.
The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to John the Evangelist, in Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Grantham, and in the South Kesteven Lincolnshire Vales. It is noted in particular for its 14th- and 15th-century medieval wall paintings.
St Vincent's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England. It is at the southern edge of the Lincoln Cliff in South Kesteven, and 10 miles (16 km) north from Grantham.
St Mary and St Peter's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 2 miles (3 km) south-east from Grantham, and at the eastern edge of the Vale of Belvoir in South Kesteven.
St James the Great Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to James, son of Zebedee in Aslackby, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 7 miles (11 km) north from Bourne, and in the Aslackby and Laughton parish on the eastern edge the South Kesteven Lincolnshire Vales.
St Andrew and St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to Saint Andrew and Saint Mary, in the parish of Easton and the village of Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 5 miles (8 km) south from Grantham, and at the western side of the Lincolnshire Vales in South Kesteven.
Edward Browning was an English architect working in Stamford.
No. 21 Group RAF is a former Royal Air Force group that existed from April-July 1918; 1926-1934, a redesignation of No. 1 Group RAF; after which it was merged into Inland Area; and from 1938 to 1955.
Lawrence Seymour Goodman was a British airman and bomber pilot, who served in World War II. He was the last surviving wartime pilot of the No. 617 Squadron RAF which carried out Operation Chastise, although he did not join the squadron until after the operation.