RAF Padgate | Education Video by World of Military

During the Second World War, Padgate had a small RAF Station. It was used as a training camp for National Servicemen after the war. The camp was built on the site of a former Quaker Farm, the entrance to which was situated on Station Road.

The site of the former RAF station was demolished in the mid-to-late 1970s, and has since been largely covered by a housing estate, bordered by Bennett's Rec and the railway line to the south, Fearnhead to the north-east, and Blackbrook and Cinnamon Brow to the north. Padgate Academy is also sited on this land.

The main entrance to the RAF camp was on what is now Station Road North. Although the RAF site is now largely invisible its legacy lives on in local place names – Insall Road running east–west in parallel to the A574 is named after the one-time commanding officer of the site, and the local high school was known from 2009 to 2013 as Lysander Community High, the Westland Lysander being one of the aircraft linked to the former RAF base.

Remnants of the camp's presence can still be seen in some parts of the land, for example the brickwork from the rifle range can still be seen close to the railway footbridge in the south-w