Twelve miles southwest of Norwich, in the flat farmland of south Norfolk, an airfield that once launched Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers toward occupied Europe now hosts an annual airshow, an electric aircraft charging station, two museums, and a garden path cut in the shape of a figure eight — the symbol of the Eighth Air Force. Three hundred and sixty-six American servicemen died while serving here during World War II. Their memorial stone, carved in the form of a bomber's tailplane, sits at the end of that path. Old Buckenham Airfield has not forgotten where it came from.
The airfield was built during World War II for the United States Army Air Forces and operated as RAF Old Buckenham, home to the 453rd Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force. The 453rd flew B-24 Liberators — heavy, four-engine bombers with the range and payload for the strategic bombing campaign over Germany and occupied Europe. The airfield closed under Air Ministry control on 20 June 1960, after a period as a satellite for maintenance units. For years afterward it sat in uncertain status, a piece of former military infrastructure that nobody quite knew what to do with. The land and the buildings remained. The purpose did not.
The war memorial at Old Buckenham was installed on 29 July 1990. It is a large stone of black granite, carved into the form of a tailplane from the B-24 Liberators that flew from the airfield. In October 2012, work began to relocate and redesign the memorial into a garden, officially opened on 11 November 2012 by Pat Ramm at a Remembrance Sunday service attended by over 400 people. The garden path is cut in a figure eight, made from blue slate chippings, to symbolize the Eighth Air Force. Two flagpoles normally carry American flags; on Remembrance Sunday and major events, they fly the Stars and Stripes alongside the Union Jack. The shield that became the airfield's logo in 2013 was originally carved by a serving USAAF officer during the war. The airfield's management has described it as the main focal point of the site — and has been building connections with memorial groups in the United States to ensure the story of the 366 who died here continues to be told.
After years of financial difficulty and management changes, the airfield was sold in 2013 to local aviation enthusiast Geoffrey Lynch for an undisclosed price, following a period of Morgan Stanley ownership. New hangars, offices, and Nissen hut museums followed. The Old Buckenham Airshow, which had lapsed during the difficult years, returned in 2012 and became an annual event. Headline attractions have included Spitfires and P-51 Mustangs from the Old Flying Machine Company, Honor Blackman reunited with the Hiller helicopter she flew in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, the wartime B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, and an attempt by a daredevil pilot named Brendan O'Brien to set a world record for the shortest truck-top aircraft landing. A celebration of the life of Wing Commander Ken Wallis — the autogyro designer who flew Little Nellie in You Only Live Twice — drew an estimated three to four thousand people to the airfield's blister hangar in 2013.
In July 2021, Old Buckenham became the first airfield in the United Kingdom to install and commission a publicly available electric aircraft charging point. The site is also home to the NUNCATS project, testing a prototype electric CH750 light aircraft intended for use in the developing world, powered by a network of solar chargers at small unmade landing strips. The factory for the production version is planned to be based in one of the original World War II buildings at the airfield. The project attracted an official visit from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. The 453rd Bombardment Group Museum, which opened on Remembrance Sunday 2015, and the 8th Air Force Heritage Gallery, opened in 2017, between them preserve the largest collection of 453rd Bomb Group memorabilia in existence. The airfield contains a past and a future on the same piece of Norfolk ground — wartime memory and clean-energy aviation sharing the same grass strip, twelve miles southwest of Norwich.
Old Buckenham Airfield (ICAO: EGSV) is located at 52.50°N, 1.05°E, approximately 12 nautical miles southwest of Norwich. ICAO code EGSV; the airfield holds an ordinary licence from the Civil Aviation Authority. The single grass runway runs approximately northeast-southwest. Norwich Airport (EGSH) lies 12 nautical miles to the north-northeast and is the primary commercial airport for the region. At low altitude, the airfield's wartime layout and surviving buildings are clearly visible. Circuit height and traffic procedures should be confirmed on local charts before approach.